A Clean Kill by Ted Wood

Author:Ted Wood [Wood, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

10

The reporter was watching me like a mongoose. I lowered my voice and asked Langdon where he was.

'I'm on the goddamn highway, that's where, at the Shell gas station a half mile up from your side road. The truck's right here.'

'Thank you. I'll join you there. Don't touch anything.'

The reporter had broken off in mid-sentence and was ready to fall into lockstep with me. I reached for a sheet of memo paper and scribbled: Gone to the Shell station north of town. Truck there. Ask Bill to join me.

I passed it to Fred who glanced at it. Then I told her: 'Could you call the doctor to look at the prisoners, please? Also, arrange a bail hearing.'

'Right away,' Fred said. She flipped the rolidex and picked up the phone.

The reporter rose to the bait. 'How badly hurt are those men? Who hurt them. Was it you, Officer?'

I looked at her and went out through the back door without speaking. The two prisoners were sitting on their bunks. Ellis's nose had stopped bleeding and he was rinsing the blood out of his handkerchief. It was almost clean. Amery was hunched over, one hand cupped over his bruised ear. I rubbed my aching knuckles and regretted hitting him.

The reporter's voice was still sawing the air behind me so I left through the side door and was into my car and away within seconds. I drove past the scene of the Langdon killing where a couple of old sedans were parked on the shoulder. Two farmers in green work-clothes were standing, hands in pockets, examining the bloodstain as if they intended to put in a bid on it. Thad Langdon had enriched their lives for them.

The gas station stood on an acre of land that had been chopped out of the bush. The pumps, office and coffee shop were all in the centre. There were haulage trailers and cars parked around the edge of the lot. Langdon was standing behind a trailer and he raised one hand when he saw me. I pulled in next to him and he led me down to the back of the trailer and pointed.

The pickup was sticking out of the trees where someone had made a clumsy attempt to hide it. Langdon bent and peered into the side window. He turned and straightened up as I reached him. 'Pretty damn hard to find,' he said sarcastically. 'Hell, it must've took me ten minutes.'

'Nice work. Thank you. The OPP patrol only comes by here about twice a shift, they could have missed it for a week.'

I hooked the tip of one finger under the door catch and tried it. It was locked, and so was the other side. Peering in, I could see a clutter of junk on the passenger side, a plastic pail with a lid, a pair of jumper cables, an axe head, the kind of oddments you would find in any countryman's truck.

Langdon had the obvious question. 'So I've found it, now what?'

'Now we check to see if anybody saw him.

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