Crying Blood by Donis Casey

Author:Donis Casey [Casey, Donis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Detective
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2011-10-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-two

Alafair was so troubled with dreams that she hardly slept at all. It was still a long time before dawn when she finally gave it up as a bad job and rolled out of bed, careful not to wake Grace, who had taken advantage of her father’s absence to jump into her parents’ big bed. Alafair hadn’t had the will to eject her. Even if Shaw reclaimed his spot during the night, Grace didn’t take up enough room to be a bother.

She pulled on a wool skirt and a heavy shirt and tiptoed though the parlor with her shoes in her hand. Charlie slept dead to the world on his bed in the corner. She went into the kitchen and sat down on a chair to pull on her shoes, removed her hat and coat from the coat tree by the back door. She slipped onto the back porch to light a lantern and speak to the invalid Crook.

Charlie had made a hospital bed for Crook out of an old crate, some straw, and a blanket that had seen better days. Charlie Dog was stretched out next to his friend’s pallet, and when Alafair opened the back door both dogs raised their heads and wagged their tails at her.

She gave both of them a head scratch and a friendly word before kneeling down to check Crook’s broken foreleg. It looked better. She had set it the night before—a traumatic procedure for all concerned. Grace had hidden under her bed rather than be present for the operation.

The leg was splinted on two sides and tightly bound. When they first brought him home Crook kept trying to stand on it. Alafair was glad to see that he had given up that idea and was lying on his side, resigned to a period of inactivity. He was happy to see her, for the distraction from boredom if nothing else, and allowed her to gently unwrap the comfrey poultice she had bound directly over the wound.

“There now, Crook, that’s a good boy. Have you been gnawing at your bandages, you rascal? Didn’t I tell you quite particular not to do that? Well, looks like you haven’t done any damage. Looks good!” Satisfied, Alafair wiped her hands on a towel and stood. She was informing the dogs of her intention to make a trip out to the barn to see if Shaw and his captive had fallen asleep when she heard something on the night. Both dogs snapped to attention. Alafair swallowed her comment and listened, but the sound didn’t recur. Yet she knew she wasn’t imagining things. It had sounded like a human voice. A man’s voice. She opened the screen and was just about to walk out into the yard when Shaw’s cry of “Stop!” froze her in her tracks.

She hadn’t seen him running toward the house through the dark, rifle in hand.

“Don’t come out!” By this time he was on her. He seized her upper arm with such force that she would sport finger-shaped bruises for days afterwards, and hustled her back inside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.