A Grave Every Mile by Crisman Strunk

Author:Crisman Strunk [Strunk, Crisman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Davis took Bill with him back to Sarasota to fill out some forms and was going to have a couple of uniforms collect Bill’s car. I could tell that Davis was as shaken as I was. He might not like Bill for how he handled the drug situation, but no one could see how much pain Bill was in and not be moved, at least a little. Davis had kids too so he probably understood the agony Bill was going through better than I could. As for me, I found myself pulling beside my trailer not remembering how I’d made it back. I had driven on autopilot while my mind was a hundred miles away. I’d tried to imagine how someone could take a pretty, young girl like Kelly, kill her, and dump her like so much trash beside the road. I thought about how I’d be damned if I didn’t find out one way or another if Melton had killed her. And I thought a lot about what I would do to him if he had.

I went into my trailer, stripped off, and took a long shower to take away the chill I’d gotten from standing in the rain. I put on a Bucs t-shirt and pair of basketball shorts and dropped into my recliner with a glass half full of Turkey to knock back the chill I was feeling inside. I turned on the television and started watching an episode of Andy Griffith. No young girls were ever killed and dumped by the side of the road in Mayberry. The only problems they had to contend with were kerosene cucumbers and dynamite-eating goats. And Warren. Warren was pretty bad.

The phone rang, startling me, although I had the fortitude not to spill any of my liquor. I reached over and picked up the phone.

“I see you’re home,” Lucky said.

“You’re really getting a hang of this detective thing.”

“What’s wrong?”

“What makes you think something’s wrong?”

‘Because you’re even more of a smart ass when you’re upset about something.”

He had me there. So, I told him about the evening’s events. I told it flat, trying not to add any emotion to it, afraid that I might betray what I was feeling.

“Damn, that’s rough,” Lucky said.

“Rough doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean what am I going to do? I’m going to try to find who did it.”

“You know who did it.”

“No, I don’t know who did it. I know Melton’s definitely a creep, but I don’t know he killed Kelly.”

Lucky was silent for a few seconds. “Then, confirm it to your satisfaction. Afterward, just say the word, and we’ll put this guy out in a swamp as gator bait.”

I understood Lucky’s impulse. A part of me would like nothing better than to cut Melton’s cord and watch the lights go out. But I don’t intend to let him drag me down to hell with him. Not if I could do it another way. “I don’t want Melton to go down that way.

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