Married to a Stranger by MacDonald Patricia

Author:MacDonald, Patricia [MacDonald, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: USA
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2005-04-22T14:00:00+00:00

AUDIE OSMUND pulled into the clearing where the old Fiore house stood. It was a run-down farmhouse with asbestos shingles and a roof that desperately needed replacing. Two hundred yards from the house was a tin-roof lean-to, which was probably used now as the barn. Audie got out of his patrol car, climbed up the front step beside a pile of empty terra-cotta flowerpots, and knocked at the door. There were a couple of ears of Indian corn decorating the front door, although some woodpeckers had pecked off most of the corn. There was no car around. He wasn’t optimistic.

As he waited, he thought about that female lieutenant from the state police. “That was a waste of time,” she had said in a real tight voice after David Webster and his wife drove away together today. “Why didn’t you get a positive I.D. from that witness?” she demanded, treating Audie as if he were a rookie cop. Audie knew from experience that the state police always acted superior, strolling in with their nice suits and fancy haircuts. He was ready for that. But it was harder to swallow when the state cop was a woman like Joan Atkins. She seemed to make a point of keeping her part of the investigation to herself, making sure to keep Audie out of the loop. She was a type of woman he did not care for.

Still, there was no way Audie could argue on his own behalf. It had backfired. So now Audie was out at the Fiore place, trying to make up for his oversight. No one answered his knock, and when he tried to peep through the windows, he saw that the panes were too grimy to be transparent.

They haven’t done much for this place, Audie thought. It would probably be different if the husband was still alive. Audie looked around the clearing impatiently. She could be out with the horse, he thought. It was worth a try. He began to walk out toward the broken-down old lean-to, which was overgrown with a blazing red vine and up to the windowsills in dry, brushy grass. He heard a whinny as he approached.

“Mrs. Tuttle?” he called out. He could discern the horse’s rear end under the lean-to. All of a sudden, the bottom half of a white face appeared out of the shed’s gloom.

“Who is it?” a deep voice asked.

“Police,” Audie announced. “Who are you?”

A teenaged kid wearing a gray sweatshirt and a Philadelphia Eagles cap pulled down to his eyebrows emerged from the lean-to, holding a curry comb. He looked warily at Audie.

“I live here,” said the kid.

“You’re Mrs. Tuttle’s son?”

The boy nodded.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Sam,” said the boy.

“Well, Sam, I’m looking for your mother.”

“She ain’t here. She had to go up to Trenton. Some insurance thing about my dad. He was a firefighter. He died in a fire.”

“So I understand,” said Audie. “Sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks,” the boy muttered. “Why do you want my mom?”

“She’s helping me with a case. She came forward as a witness,” Audie said.

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.