Death in Lovers' Lane by Carolyn Hart

Author:Carolyn Hart [Hart, Carolyn]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Detective, Fiction - Mystery, Mystery fiction, Suspense, Mystery, Mystery & Detective - Series, American Mystery & Suspense Fiction, Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths, Women journalists, Henrie O (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780380974139
Publisher: New York, NY : Avon Books, 1997.
Published: 2010-01-29T04:00:00+00:00

eleven

pulled into the graveled parking area in front of Acme Garage, Transmissions a Specialty. I found Emmett Wolf in the second bay, leaning beneath the open hood of a white Oldsmobile. A small space heater glowed brilliantly red. It did little to warm the cavernous, poorly lighted garage.

"The kid who fell out of the tower? Sure, I remember." Wolf wiped his hands on a rough red cloth. "When they rolled his body onto the gurney, it wobbled. Made me sick. The driver told me it meant the kid was all smashed up inside. And his head'd knocked into the wall and it was mashed and oozing blood. That's when I decided I didn't want to be a cop, and I went to work in a garage. Now I've got my own place." He thumped his fist against the fender of the sedan. "Damn sure better than fooling with people's broken-up bodies."

Wolf was mid-fortyish, with a skinny, wrinkled face, thinning brown hair, and oversize ears that sat square to his skull. His eyebrows drew down toward his nose, giving him a faintly worried look. A ragged orange muffler curled around his throat and disappeared into the neck of his stained green coveralls. He blinked at me owlishly. "You're the

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second one in a week wanting to talk about that kid.

What's going on?"

"Do you read The Clarion?"

"Nah. Who cares?" He lifted his shoulders in disdain.

I'm always amazed when I find someone who neither reads newspapers nor watches newscasts. But these people exist.

I had to make a quick decision. If he was telling the truth, he didn't know what had happened to Maggie.

I didn't want to scare him.

"I work for the newspaper. The girl who came to talk to you--"

"Pretty." His grin was admiring.

"Yes. I'm working on that article, too. So, if you don't mind going over it again..."

Emmett Wolf glanced at the car.

It was a struggle between promised work and the pleasure of a break in routine.

"Well, I've got a few minutes..."

"So you saw Leonard Cartwright's body at the base of the bell tower?" Pernicious cold eddied up from the old, oil-stained concrete floor. I kept my hands in my coat pockets.

"Leonard Cartwright." Wolf drew out every syllable, as if his tongue were making acquaintance with the name. "Yeah. I'd forgotten his name. Like I told the girl. Forgot his name. Never forget his body." The mechanic sniffed, rubbed his nose with the back of a grubby hand, leaving a smudge of oil on his cheek. "Not at the base of the tower. Out some. Maybe ten feet. The guy who took them pictures said the kid must have flipped over as he fell. When his head whacked into the wall, that shoved

him way out. He slammed into the ground so hard it

left a print. Damnedest thing I'd ever seen."

"What time did you get there?"

He leaned against the fender, crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd just gone on duty. Maybe five minutes after six. I'd been a campus cop for about two months.

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