Dead Game by Kirk Russell

Author:Kirk Russell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 0811850781
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2011-12-11T01:05:00+00:00

29

Amy Stevens invited him in, then seemed uncomfortable having him in her house. He got the feeling she lived quietly, unseen and unnoticed on this stretch of road. The house was too neat. The kitchen window stared out at rows of leafless vines. The kitchen table and surrounding counters were clean and empty. There were no magazines or newspapers, no fruit in a bowl or anything at all. After she suggested it, Marquez sat down at the kitchen table.

“I made tea. It’s almost ready. I don’t know when Chris will get home.”

The mechanical way she moved, movements that started jerkily, then smoothed, the privacy invaded suggested grief and unanswered sadness. It said something about how alone she was.

“I work part-time as a librarian.”

“You do?”

“Yes, but I haven’t worked in a while. I was working full-time three years ago, but there have been cutbacks at the county.”

“Cutbacks everywhere, I guess.”

“At your department too?”

“Some cuts, yes.”

She dropped the lid of the teapot and picked it up. Then she stood quietly at the stove.

“I don’t know why it’s taking him so long to get home.”

Marquez nodded. He laid his badge on the table.

“I’m with Fish and Game, and we’re looking at a sturgeon poaching problem. One of the people I’ve been talking to is Abe Raburn. Abe showed me the posters you and he put up.”

“He didn’t help me.” She turned toward him, and there was another long pause. “If Chris had never gone fishing with him I don’t think this would have happened.”

“Can you tell me about that?”

“I already gave a statement. Haven’t you seen it?”

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t.”

“They met in a bar, of course. Where else would you find Abe Raburn? Chris came home late one night, and I knew something bad had happened. We always eat dinner exactly at 8:00, and he wasn’t here. I sat down to dinner without him, and when he called he was on a slough road with Abe. Then he brought Abe here. They didn’t get here until after midnight and sat outside drinking beer, if you can imagine.”

“What time of year was this?”

“In the spring. They had both been drinking, and that wasn’t like Chris at all. Abe is a very bad influence on him. I’m sure that’s why he’s not home now. Chris is very organized and very careful. But Abe is just the opposite. They were probably sturgeon fishing and had engine problems with Abe’s boat.”

She placed tea cups and poured from the teapot, and he realized she’d boiled water but hadn’t added tea. The hot water steamed in the cup. She sat down across from him, her eyes intently on him.

“You will find him, won’t you?”

“I don’t know if I’ll find him. I’m trying to find out what happened to him.”

“I was afraid the police had forgotten about him. I told them he went fishing with Abe, and I wish Chris would stop that friendship. He’s gotten home very late a couple of times. The night he didn’t come home at all I thought it was another one of those situations.

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