A Mammoth Murder by Bill Crider Read Free Book Online

Colley hadn’t been at the Bolton family reunion. “That was a long time ago,” he said.
    â€œStill bothers you, I bet.”
    â€œYou’d win.”
    Rhodes didn’t like leaving things undone, and he’d never found out what happened to Ronnie Bolton. As far as he knew, no one else had, either. At the time, there had been no suspicions of foul play. Everyone at the reunion alibied everyone else. Rhodes had still never been satisfied with the idea that Ronnie had simply wandered off and disappeared.
    Some people thought that the most likely explanation was that he’d been picked up by someone driving along the county road. Or that he’d been killed by feral hogs. Rhodes supposed that was possible. A lot of things were possible. Bigfoot? Even that had been suggested.

    Gerald and Edith Bolton, the boy’s parents, had been distraught, and Rhodes could understand why. They’d called him daily for weeks, and regularly after that for a year or more before they’d finally stopped. Rhodes doubted that even now they’d given up hope. As long as no trace of the boy had been found, they’d think there was a chance he’d come home. Rhodes thought it was unlikely, and he’d told them so, but he knew that wouldn’t change their thinking.
    â€œYou gonna talk to the Boltons?” Hack said.
    â€œI might,” Rhodes told him. “I have some other people to see first.”
    â€œDon’t forget that professor from the college is coming to see that tooth.”
    Rhodes said he wouldn’t forget, and Hack and Lawton got back to work, or pretended to. Rhodes looked through the things on his desk and found the inventory of Larry Colley’s personal property that Ruth Grady had written out. Colley’s billfold still held his driver’s license and credit cards, as well as forty-six dollars. He’d had thirty-seven cents in change, a Timex Ironman wristwatch. No rings or other jewelry.
    No cell phone, either. That was interesting. Either Chester Johnson wasn’t the only man in Blacklin County besides the sheriff without a cell phone, or Colley’s was missing.
    Around nine thirty, Rhodes decided that he’d done all he could at the jail, so he told Hack he was going to have a talk with Larry Colley’s ex-wives.
    â€œYou think you have time?” Hack said. “Before the professor gets here, I mean.”
    â€œI have time to see at least one of them, if not both. I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

    â€œI’m not worried. I’m just lookin’ out for you.”
    Rhodes told him that he appreciated it and left.
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    The first thing Karen Sandstrom told Rhodes was that she didn’t care one way or the other about Larry Colley.
    â€œHe was a lifetime ago, as far as I’m concerned,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything from him in ten years, and that’s just the way I wanted it.”
    Sandstrom was a slim blonde who worked at the circulation desk of the Clearview Public Library. She and Rhodes were at a round table in one of the meeting rooms so as not to disturb the library’s patrons, who were looking through the new books, working at the computers, reading the magazines, or just browsing the used paperbacks that were being sold off a cart for a quarter a pop.
    â€œYou haven’t had any contact with him lately?” Rhodes said.
    â€œNo, I haven’t. I made a big mistake when I married him, Sheriff. The day my divorce was final was the happiest day of my life. I’ve remarried now, and I’m very happy. I never even think about Larry Colley.”
    While she spoke, she toyed with the wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand.
    â€œNo calls, no cards, no nothing,” Rhodes said.
    Sandstrom laughed. “Cards? You don’t think Larry was a sentimentalist, do you, Sheriff? The kind who remembers birthdays and anniversaries? He didn’t even do