Lincoln Perry 3 - A Welcome Grave by Koryta Michael

Author:Koryta, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub

24

It was dark when we left Donny Ward’s house in the woods. The dogs circled around us as we walked to the car. Two were friendly, but the third, that chewed-up hound, kept his distance and growled until Joe had the engine going.

I wondered how old he was, if he’d been around the day Donny had been visited by a man with a gun and a bagful of cash. Might a dog remember something like that? I thought he probably would.

Joe’s car bounced along the rutted lane, and then we came out onto the main road, and within a few seconds Donny Ward’s home was out of sight. It was raining now, a light mist that didn’t make a sound against the car but appeared in thin sheets on the windshield between swipes of the wiper blades.

“We’ve got to give it to Targent,” Joe said. “I don’t believe Donny would do what he said, deny everything. He broke pretty easy with us, and I think that’s because he’s been breaking a little bit over it every day for a long time. He’d give it to the cops.”

“Probably, but it doesn’t make the bridge between Doran and Jefferson.

Not alone.”

“Targent needs to hear it, though. Proves Doran was set up. By somebody who had plenty of money to spare.”

“Yeah. We’ve just got to show that it was Jefferson. I want to get that prick.”

Joe shot me a hard look. “That’s what this is about now?”

“You heard what that guy said. About his daughter, and the dog … If Jefferson made all that happen, I intend to see that people know about it.”

“The man’s dead.”

“The people who need to know what happened aren’t.”

“People like Karen?”

I turned to him, but he had his eyes on the road.

“I didn’t say that. I was thinking more of people like Monica Heath’s family.

Like Andy Doran’s family.”

Joe slowed, a stop sign ahead. “There’s an obvious problem with Donny’s story.”

“I don’t see it.”

“This guy who was sent to intimidate him came before the cops. How would anyone have known what Doran’s alibi was before the police?”

That was a damn good question. I didn’t answer for a while, thinking of the possibilities.

“Could it be a cop was involved? Jefferson paid one off?”

Joe frowned. “Would have had to pay off more than one, don’t you think?”

“That is a problem. I don’t know the answer, but I do believe Donny Ward.

You’ve done thousands more interviews than me, Joe. Did you think he was telling the truth?”

“Yes. But I still want to know how that guy appeared on Donny’s front porch with a bag of money before the police had talked to him.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. Talk to the cops, to the prosecutor, to Doran’s public defender.”

“And tonight when you see Karen? What will you tell her?”

I looked out the window at the shadowy forests around us.

“I don’t know.”

Targent was at Karen’s house when I arrived. I laid my hand on the hood of his Crown Victoria when I walked to the door and found it was cool to the touch.

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