Detour to Death (Prologue Crime) by Helen Nielsen

Author:Helen Nielsen [Nielsen, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440542480
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2012-03-31T12:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

TRACE WAS UP EARLY in the morning. The day was going to be difficult enough without the added worry of Danny’s safety, a worry not a little agitated by the uncertainty of what Ada Keep might have told her husband. There was only one way to set his mind at ease on that score, and only one way to seek out an answer to a new question that had been bothering him since that midnight ride. Both ways led straight to Virgil’s office.

As could be expected, Virgil was not in good humor.

“I knew I should have stayed in bed,” he muttered, at the sight of Trace coming through the doorway. “Didn’t you cause me enough trouble yesterday without coming back for more?”

“Trouble?” Trace echoed innocently. “What did I do?”

“What did you do? In the first place, you got me to take that kid out to Mountain View. That wasn’t so bad because there was me and a couple of my men to keep an eye on him, but then you had to insist on that wild-goose chase up to Raney’s mine!”

“It wasn’t a wild-goose chase. We learned there was a man in a raincoat.”

“Was is right! Was is just right!”

Ada came in with a pot of coffee just then, but Virgil didn’t so much as acknowledge her presence. The pressure must be getting pretty rough, Trace reckoned, because the big man’s blustering manner had a graveness in it and lacked its usual steam even when he pushed back from the desk and began pacing the floor like an angry bull.

“Do you know what your precious Danny Ross has done now?” he stormed. “That man in the raincoat, Steve Malone, was found in Junction City last night with a bullet in his head. And who do you think was seen in Junction City last night? Who do you think held a gun—my gun—on a man parked at a drive-in, and then slugged him so he could follow Malone?”

“Was Malone shot with your gun?” Trace asked.

He shouldn’t have been so casual about it. He should have shown some surprise, because Virgil calmed down right away.

“We don’t know yet,” he said.

“Then you don’t know that Danny shot him.”

“Well, what does it look like?”

“It looks,” Trace murmured, helping himself to the coffee Virgil still ignored, “like three murders in a row. First Francy, then Doctor Gaynor, and now Malone. It looks like somebody trying desperately to silence anyone who might know the truth. That’s the trouble with murder. It multiplies.”

“Was Francy really murdered?” Ada asked.

It was easy to forget about Ada. She blended with the walls and the woodwork. Trace watched her over the rim of the coffee cup, trying to decide if she’d said anything about meeting him last night. He guessed not since Virgil had made no mention of it.

“Are you still here?” Virgil howled, giving her a push toward the hall. “I’ve told you a thousand times to keep your nose out of this office!” He returned to his desk and gave back the frown Trace had sent him.

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