Murder on the Mesa by Brett Halliday

Author:Brett Halliday
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504025379
Publisher: Open Road Media

CHAPTER VIII

Chuckaluck batted his lids several times in quick succession, then left them half-closed to keep his eyes from popping out of their sockets. He let his face muscles go lax in an effort not to show the astonishment, perplexity and pleasure that were all mixed up inside him. He watched the sheriff’s face through slitted lids, but his heavy features did not change expression and his voice was a mild drawl when he said:

“That’s right interestin’. Set down an’ take the weight off yore feet an’ tell us all about it, Jerry.”

This calm reception of his crucial announcement deflated and flustered Kirk. He remained standing in the centre of the room with his thin torso bent forward and his concave stomach flattened against the curve of his spine. His black eyes darted from Morgan to Chuckaluck and he muttered, “Yeh. I know who done it. And why.”

“Had supper yet?” asked the sheriff genially.

“I don’t want to eat,” he flung out. “I just had a few drinks. You act like you don’t care what I’ve got to say.”

“Set down an’ ca’m yo’self,” Morgan insisted. “We’re listenin’.”

He dropped into a chair and fumbled in the pocket of his sateen shirt for papers and tobacco. His hands trembled when he attempted to trench the paper and sift tobacco into it. There were two torn papers on the floor and a generous amount of the brown flakes on his clothes when he finally fashioned a bulging cylinder and put it between his thin lips to light it.

“It’s that uncle of hers … Oscar Bascom … from Ohio.” He pulled hard on the loosely-packed cigarette and again looked from Morgan to Chuckaluck with the expression of a man who had lighted the fuse of a powder keg and waited expectantly for the shattering blast.

Sheriff Morgan nodded. “Heard about that. He was up to yore place yesterday. How you figure he killed her yesterday when it looks like she was alive an’ cooked dinner to-day?”

“I’ve got the whole thing figured,” Kirk jerked out. “When the lawyers didn’t hear from Lucy after writin’ that letter they got in touch with Oscar Bascom. That’s when he first got the idea of killing Lucy and Bobbie. He told them she was dead and then he come on out here to make sure she was dead.

“You don’t know Lucy’s folks like I do,” he wen on savagely. “Stuck up and crazy for money. Oscar was dead set against Lucy marryin’ me and he talked her old man into cuttin’ her out of his will. Then when her pa made a new will an’ left everything to Lucy he was determined to stop us from getting it.” He stopped talking and glared at the sheriff’s impassive face.

“So?” Morgan prompted him.

“So, he comes to Marfa and sneaks around to find out where we live and goes up there. The minute Lucy sees him she gets the idea he has come here to kill me, because he hates me so he couldn’t stand to see me get a dime of the money.

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