A Mammoth Murder by Bill Crider Read Free Book Online Page B

them.” Ballinger stood up. “You think they’ll be full of clues?”
    â€œTwo chances they will be,” Rhodes said. “Slim and none.”
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    Ballinger’s funeral home had once been one of the grander mansions in Clearview, with a big front lawn and oak trees for shade, tennis courts in the back, and even a little building that was used for servants’ quarters. That building was where Ballinger now had his office. He and Rhodes had to walk across a small parking area to the main structure. Rhodes supposed it was ironic that this place that had been home to a large and prominent family was now used for a mortuary, but it wasn’t something that bothered him.
    They went in through a back door, and Ballinger led Rhodes to a small storeroom. He opened the door and took out a plastic bag.
    â€œShoes, shirt, pants, underwear,” he said. “Your deputy took the other things.”
    Rhodes took the bag. He didn’t open it. He’d have a look later, after he’d talked to the professor about the Bigfoot tooth.
    â€œWhen’s the funeral?” he asked.
    Ballinger didn’t know. “Nobody wants to make the arrangements.”
    â€œYou’ve talked to his ex-wives?”
    â€œBoth of them. Maybe the county will have to bury him.”
    â€œTry Bud Turley,” Rhodes said.
    â€œI should have thought of him first,” Ballinger said.
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    Tom Vance looked like Rhodes’s idea of a college professor. He had gray hair, parted neatly on the left, and he wore a light blue dress shirt with a dark blue tie.
    â€œI just had my last class of the summer session,” he told Rhodes, “not counting the final exam. I’m ready for a break.”
    â€œHow long do you get?” Rhodes asked.

    They were in the jail. Vance sat in a wooden chair by Rhodes’s desk, while Hack and Lawton pretended to be busy. Rhodes knew, however, that they were listening to every word.
    â€œLess than a week,” Vance said. “When I started teaching, I thought I’d have great summer vacations, but every summer I wind up teaching classes.”
    â€œYou must enjoy your work.”
    â€œThat.” Vance paused. “And I need the money.”
    â€œDon’t we all. Bud Turley tells me you’re a paleontologist.”
    â€œThat’s right. I like to dig up prehistoric animals.”
    â€œWhat about Bigfoot?”
    Vance laughed. “I’ve never seen one, and I’ve never seen the bones of one. But when Turley called, he sounded pretty excited about this tooth he found.”
    â€œIt’s a big tooth,” Rhodes said. “That’s all I know about it. I’ll get it and let you have a look.”
    Just as Rhodes got to his feet, Bud Turley came through the front door. Right behind him was Jennifer Loam, a young, intense-looking woman who was a reporter for the Clearview Herald . Or, Rhodes thought, the reporter for the Herald . The local newspaper didn’t have a lot of employees.
    â€œI hope you weren’t going to start without me,” Turley said. “I had to stop by the newspaper office first.”
    â€œHad to alert the media, huh?” Hack said.
    Rhodes gave him a look. So did Turley.
    â€œSorry,” Hack said, but Rhodes could tell he didn’t mean it.
    Jennifer Loam had something new, a tiny digital recorder. Rhodes knew it would already be turned on.
    â€œSheriff,” she said, “would you like to comment on the Bigfoot tooth that Mr. Turley has found?”

    â€œWe don’t know what kind of tooth it is,” Rhodes said. “We’re just about to get an expert opinion.”
    He introduced Vance to both Loam and Turley and went to the evidence locker. He got out the tooth and took it back to his desk.
    â€œWell,” Vance said after giving it a cursory glance, “it’s a tooth, all right, and it came from an animal with big