Dead White by M.K. Coker

Author:M.K. Coker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, police procedural, women sleuths, south dakota, detective fiction, crime novel, meat packing
Publisher: M.K. Coker

CHAPTER 22

In the office the next morning, Karen turned on the FM radio just before 8AM.

“Where’s Marek?” Walrus asked over a local barbershop quartet’s rendition of Mr. Sandman.

“Listen,” she told him.

After the last refrain, Nails Nelson came on. “We’ve got a big news flash this morning, folks. I want every single one of you to pick up and run with this one since I can’t. The sheriff called me up earlier this morning.”

Kurt and Walrus shared an uh-oh look while Bork just said, “Mmm.”

Nails said, “Seems that our new county detective—that’d be Marek Okerlund if you haven’t been paying attention—is getting too close to whoever killed Dale Hansen.”

That raised eyebrows all around. She hadn’t said so, or thought so, but she supposed Nails might have reason to jump to that conclusion.

“Didn’t seem that way to me,” Nails went on, “but somebody called up the sheriff last night and threatened the detective’s little girl if he didn’t lay off.”

Walrus’s feet came down to the floor with a thud, Kurt shot to his feet, and Bork laid his hand on the butt of his gun.

“Now, before you go off half-cocked, or full for that matter, gunning down what more than a few of you’ve called fricking foreigners, and I’m being polite here, you gotta know a few things. This man, and that’s what it sounded like to the sheriff, spoke without any kind of accent. Phoned from the Casey’s gas station at 11:18 PM last night. If anyone saw anything, let the sheriff know.”

Now all eyes had gone to her but she let Nails do the talking for her.

“Whoever you are, you are a yellow-bellied coward to threaten an innocent child. If anyone lays so much as a hand on that girl’s head, I can assure you, the whole county will get themselves deputized to come after you. I can’t run after you—heck, I can’t even walk—but I can shoot. And let me tell you, they won’t be blanks.”

Karen snapped the radio off.

Now it was Kurt who asked, “Where’s Marek?”

“At the school with Becca,” she told him.

Which meant that Karen would have time to see Harold Dahl before Marek got back.

***

Once again, Marek stood in front of the principal, head bowed.

“Do you like causing trouble, Detective?” the principal asked him, her nose peeling and her voice still nasal. “How serious do you believe this threat to be?”

He raised his head. “I don’t know. It could be nothing.”

Still, he’d had a hard time letting go of Becca, handing her off to Mrs. Winke at the classroom door.

“We aren’t a prison, a fort, or a security detail, Mr. Okerlund. I simply cannot guarantee Becca’s safety. However, if you wish her to stay in school, I will alert the staff to watch out for her.”

Doubtfully, the principal eyed the kindergarten teacher standing in fig-leaf position by the door. The young woman hadn’t said a word since she’d been called in over the PA system. But she bobble-headed her agreement.

Principal Hagaman tapped fingers on her desk and looked back at Marek.

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