Picnic and a Murder: A Rainey Daye Cozy Mystery by Kathleen Suzette

Author:Kathleen Suzette [Suzette, Kathleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery
Publisher: Kathleen Suzette
Published: 2023-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

After we talked to Jenny Pritchard, we took a drive out to the edge of town. I knew where Henry O’Brien lived because Cade had mentioned him living out this way, and when he described what the house looked like, I realized I had driven past his house many times. For a long while, I thought the place had been abandoned, but since several people said that he lived there, I now knew that it wasn’t.

“We’re not really going to knock on his door, are we?” Stormy asked as I drove.

I glanced at her. “Sure. Why not?”

She shrugged. “He kind of scares me.”

I chuckled. “Are you kidding? Why would he scare you?”

“Have you seen his house? It’s a mess. Normal people don’t live in houses like that.”

“Sure. Every time I drive out of town, I drive past his house. I’ll admit that it doesn’t look great, but why would it scare you?” The truth was that after I’d heard a few things about Henry, I might have been just a touch scared myself, but I didn’t want to admit it.

“Let’s drive by very slowly,” she said, emphasizing the word ‘slowly.’

I nodded, and when we got to his house, I did drive by slowly. She was right, as was Cade. There was junk on the front porch, and some of the windows were broken out and were replaced by cardboard. A 6-foot-tall chain-link fence surrounded the place, with a sign on the gate saying ‘Beware of dogs, enter at your own risk.’ I stopped the car in front of the house and left the engine running. This was a scary place. I turned to look at her. “OK, so what do we do now? If he’s got big dogs that might eat us, I’m not crazy about trying to get through that gate.”

She shook her head. “This was your idea. I don’t want to get eaten either.”

I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw a man a couple of hundred yards away walking in our direction. “Is that him?”

Stormy turned to look and shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of think so.”

I nodded, shut the car off, and we got out and walked slowly toward the man.

“What are we going to do?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but we’re here, so let’s see if he’s willing to talk to us.”

The man was older, about the age that Walt should have been, and he had two large mastiffs on leashes. When the dogs saw us, they started straining against the leash, whining to get to us, but not barking.

“I don’t think I like those dogs,” Stormy whispered as we walked toward him. “They could eat us for dinner.”

I nodded. “As long as he keeps them on a leash, we’ll be fine.” I was hoping he was not one of those people who might turn the dogs loose just for fun.

When we got closer, the man hollered. “What do you want? What are you doing out here?”

I stopped and smiled. “Oh gosh, my car got a little overheated.

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