Victory Garter (Maggie Sullivan Mysteries Book 9) by M. Ruth Myers

Author:M. Ruth Myers [Myers, M. Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tuesday House
Published: 2020-12-16T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Finding Freeze took considerably less time and effort than getting the address of Delozier’s former landlady. Brief as the item in the paper had been, it had mentioned that his body was found in a field near the fairgrounds. Since it also had referenced the river, I knew approximately where to look. I went south on Ludlow, then onto a couple of minor streets until I spotted a Dayton black-and-white plus two unmarked cars which I knew, even from a distance, belonged to detectives.

I found a place to pull off where no one could accuse me of interfering with traffic or blocking official vehicles. When I got out of the car, I felt the heat of the mid-day sun magnified by the wasteland around me. The imposing buildings of “The Cash,” John Patterson’s National Cash Register Company, held court not far away. Tossing my suit jacket into the car, I made my way toward the blocky shape that was Boike and the leaner one which was Freeze.

They turned as one at the sound of me.

Freeze scowled. “Somebody back at the office tell you where to find me?”

“I saved them the embarrassment of turning me down if I asked.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I read about your new stiff in the paper this morning. I came to let you in on the daily special: Two homicides for the price of one.”

Freeze lighted an Old Gold. He’d come up in the world. He snapped his thumb over not a match, but the flint of a metal lighter. I wondered if he’d acquired a girlfriend and she’d given it to him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Delozier used to work for the Barretts, the family that young woman killed in the hit-skip two weeks ago was supposed to marry into. He got fired for stealing some silver. Oh, yeah, and a few months back he finished serving a stretch for auto theft.”

The detective swore for a full minute, after which he glowered at me. “So he worked for them. What makes you think there’s a connection?”

“The fact he might have had a grudge. The fact he knew that neighborhood well enough to get away fast from a crime. The fact the car that killed Charlotte Littlefield was stolen.”

“Yeah, yeah. Too much speculation for my taste.”

“Too much coincidence for mine.”

Boike, who was Freeze’s right-hand man, had turned his blond head away to answer a question from one of the uniformed cops who were combing the area. He’d lost part of an ear in the war, but he was listening to the conversation.

Freeze puffed furiously until the uniformed cop moved on. He looked at the other detective. “What do you think, Boike?”

“While she lived with the Barretts, the hit-skip victim could have learned something Delozier was using to blackmail one of them.”

“You figure she and Delozier might have known each other?”

“Possible.”

“So he uses something she tells him—”

“Maybe that she just mentioned in passing.”

“He uses that to squeeze money from someone in the Barrett household?”

“Something like that.”

“And Delozier runs her down so she couldn’t tell what she knew.

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