A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge by Terry Shames Read Free Book Online

speaks, her voice is unlike anything I’ve heard come from her. “Sometimes you dance around a subject a little too delicately for my taste, Samuel.” Abruptly she gets up from the table. “Let’s go inside. I’m starting to get eaten up by mosquitoes.”
    I get up, too. “That doesn’t answer my question about your brother.”
    â€œHow’s this for an answer—it’s none of your business. I won’t discuss my brother with anyone, not even you.”
    On the way home, I mull over Jenny’s harsh response and what she isn’t telling me. Maybe I’m making too much of the incidents with the horses. The snake could have hitched a ride on someone’s pickup, or may have been somebody’s escaped snake. But the cut lock was no accident. I don’t want to intrude on Jenny’s privacy, but somehow I’ve got to find out who she thinks has a reason for the attacks, before they graduate to attacking her as well.
    Back home, Truly Bennett’s truck is parked outside of Jenny’s place. He usually doesn’t come until after dark, but I asked him to put the horses away this evening since I’d be with Jenny, and he must have decided there was no sense in going home afterward. I check in by phone with Zeke Dibble, who was on duty today, but he says it was a slow day. He had to settle a problem between a couple of boys down at the Two Dog bar in the late afternoon, but that was the only ripple in his day.
    I’m settling down to watch the news on TV when I hear a cry from Jenny’s place. It sounds like somebody yelling, “Help me!” At first I think it’s probably Mrs. Summerville’s TV next door. She’s hard of hearing, and sometimes the TV gets loud. But it’s too late for Mrs. Summerville and her daughter to be up. And besides, my cat Zelda, who’s been keeping me company, is alert, staring in the direction the sound came from. I hold my breath, straining, and I hear it again.
    I jump to my feet and head for the door, but then I stop myself. This is no time to rush in without protection. I get my heavy flashlight and slip my shoulder holster on, checking first to make sure the gun is loaded.
    Instead of going out the front, I head into my back pasture. There’s a gate between my place and Jenny’s, and I can slip into Jenny’s property that way. As I approach the stable, I hear the sound again, this time with a moan. I shine the light around the outside of the barn but don’t see anything wrong.
    â€œTruly?” I call out.
    â€œChief Craddock. I’m in here.” His voice sounds weak.
    I fumble around on the inside wall of the stable and turn on the lights. Truly is sitting, propped up against the wall that holds riding gear—halters and such. Blood is seeping from a head wound down the side of his face, and he’s holding his arm tight against his side. A length of pipe lies a few feet away next to his bedroll.
    â€œI’m glad to see you,” he says.
    â€œHold on, Truly, let me check first and make sure nobody is lurking around here.”
    â€œI think he’s gone,” he says.
    Both horses are awake and have poked their heads over the stall gates, ears pricked forward like a couple of gossips, but they’re quiet, so I suspect Truly is right. Still I check the stalls and the tack room before I come back and crouch down next to him to look closer at the wound. His hair is short, so I see that he’s bleeding from two places. “What happened? Who did this?”
    He groans. “I didn’t see who it was. I got the horses put away and went to my truck to fetch my bedroll, and when I got back somebody jumped me.”
    â€œHow many were there?”
    â€œI think it was only one. He hit me with something that felt like a lead pipe before I had a chance to fight back.”
    â€œThe pipe’s right here. Not too clever of somebody to leave it