A Romantic Way to Die by Bill Crider Read Free Book Online Page A

she gets lonesome sometimes with Twyla Faye gone and Daddy in the pen.”
    Rhodes believed him, though he had a hard time figuring out why anyone would miss a man like Cy Appleby. Ivy had tried to explain it to him, and he knew it was possible. He just had trouble with it.
    “Anyway,” Claude said, “I was about to go out the back door when I saw that woman. I didn’t see much, though. She was already heading back into the trees.”
    “But she was naked, right?”
    “If you can call it that. I think she had on a little pair of panties. Tell you the truth, I couldn’t see that much. I was looking through the screen door, after all.”
    “So you wouldn’t recognize the woman if you saw her again.”
    “Not a chance. Not even if you just showed me her back.”
    “All right,” Rhodes said. “You can go on back in. I’ll bring the flashlight to the door when I’m finished with it.”
    Claude nodded and turned back toward the house.
    Rhodes headed for the trees. He could hear a dog barking persistently off to the left. Must be a stray cat, Rhodes thought, shining the light on the ground in front of him and swinging it from side to side, looking for anything that resembled a clue.
    He didn’t see a single thing, but he kept on going, thinking that he might have been better off to wait until morning and come back in the daylight. In the dark, he was about as likely to mess things up as he was to find anything of significance, assuming that there was anything to find.
    But he kept going. He was almost to the trees when the shooting started.

7
    R HODES STOPPED AND LISTENED. THE SHOTS SOUNDED AS IF they’d come from somewhere nearby, probably from a shotgun. Rhodes started running in what he hoped was the right direction.
    When he got into the trees, he had to be careful. Running through a woods in the dark could be hazardous to a person’s physical well-being, even if the person was carrying a flashlight, mainly because it was impossible to shine the light on the ground to see what was in front of you and to shine it on the tree limbs that reached out to grab you from all sides at the same time.
    Rhodes elected to shine the light on the ground, which turned out to be a mistake. A limb that he didn’t see caught him just under the eye, popped his head backward, and brought him to a sudden stop.
    “Hold it right there, you sorry window-peeping son of a bitch,” a man yelled, though not at Rhodes, who was standing in the dark woods rubbing his eye and wondering what had happened to the flashlight.
    “If you even look like you’re gonna move, I’ll fill you full of number twelve buckshot,” the man yelled.
    Rhodes looked down at his feet. The flashlight was there, sending a strong yellow beam through the wet leaves. Rhodes picked it up and shined it off to his left. He didn’t see any more treacherous-looking limbs, so he started walking toward where he’d heard the voice. The barking that Rhodes had heard earlier was louder.
    A shotgun blasted. Rhodes ducked instinctively, though the shot passed well over him. Leaves and sticks pattered down on his head.
    “Who’s that comin’ through there?” the voice yelled. “You better stop right where you are. That shot was just a warnin’. Don’t think I’m scared of two of you! I got three more shells in this here gun, and I’m loaded for bear!”
    “Just hold your fire,” Rhodes said. “I’m the sheriff.”
    “Yeah, I’ll bet that’s right. You’re the sheriff, and I’m the Lone Ranger. You just stay right where you are. I’ve got your friend here in my sights, and if you show up yourself, I’ll let him have it.”
    “Do that, and you’ll be spending your time in the county jail while you wait for a free ride to prison,” Rhodes said. “I’m fixing to come out of the trees, so you just hold your fire.”
    “Be damned if I do. There’s not gonna be any more window-peeping around here. Just gonna be two dead window-peepers.”
    “I don’t