A Simple Murder by Linda Castillo

Author:Linda Castillo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

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Painters Mill isn’t exactly a bustling metropolis, but on most Friday evenings half a dozen businesses stay open past dark. The new upscale coffee shop on the corner. Two of the Amish tourist shops. The funky little thrift store. And, of course, LaDonna’s Diner. Tonight, as I idle down Main Street, the town is as dark and deserted as some post-apocalyptic movie scene. I pull up to the police station, trying not to notice when a black cat skulks past the entrance and darts into an alley.

Skid makes eye contact with me.

“Don’t say it,” I tell him, but we both grin.

Pulling my Maglite from its nest, I head inside. The reception area is deserted. Jodie has lighted two candles along with a battery-powered lantern we keep on hand for this kind of scenario. My dispatcher is nowhere in sight.

“She’s probably in the basement, trying to start that generator,” I say.

“Pull cord is kind of hinky,” Skid puts in.

We’re midway through reception when the emergency lights blink on. The phone system beeps three times, and then one of the lines begins to shrill. I hear Jodie pound up the stairs.

I stride to the switchboard and pick up the headset just as she emerges from the hall. “Oh,” she says. “Hey.”

I nod at her as I answer the incoming 911 call. “Painters Mill Police.”

“I just had a vehicle drive through my yard,” comes an agitated male voice. “Left ruts a foot deep, went through my garden, and broke the damn dogwood tree clean in half.”

I pick up a pen. “What’s your name, sir?”

“Rick Sweeney.”

“Where are you located, Mr. Sweeney?”

He rattles off an address that’s just down the road from the Davenport farm.

I jot it down. “Did you get a look at the vehicle?”

“Hell yes I did. It was a damn buggy full of Amish kids and they looked like they was up to no good. I ran out and yelled at them and one of ’em flipped me the bird! Listen, I’ve had four buggies and a dozen cars come down this road in the last hour. I got puke in my driveway and beer cans in the ditch. They’re playing loud music and making all sorts of noise. I’m sick of it. Gotta be one of them wild parties going on someplace.”

“I’ll send an officer out there now to check it out.”

“I want someone to pay for that tree and clean up all the crap.”

“Would you like to file a police report?”

“Hell yes I would!”

“I’ll send someone to your location as soon as I have an officer—”

He hangs up on me.

I look up to find Jodie and Skid standing around the desk, watching me.

“I take it phones are up?” Skid asks.

I address Jodie. “You all set here?”

“Got it under control, Chief.”

I turn to Skid and tell him about the call from Rick Sweeney. “He’s right next to the old Davenport place.”

“Looks like they started the party without us,” he says.

“Get a statement from Sweeney and then meet me out there.

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