Dead Right

Dead Right by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online

Book: Dead Right by Brenda Novak Read Free Book Online
Authors: Brenda Novak
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
learn if he or any of his deputies had managed to glean some evidence during their more thorough search of the Cadillac. She knew they must be finished by now, couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t contacted her. So when a call came in just as she’d settled down to work, she grabbed the receiver, despite the blinking curser on her computer screen that seemed to mock her lack of progress.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œMadeline?”
    Madeline paused, confused by the M. Ziegler that had appeared on her caller ID. It wasn’t Chief Pontiff, calling her from some remote location. If she’d guessed correctly, it was Ray Harper. Before the falling out that had left him and her father estranged, he’d been Lee’s best friend. When Madeline was little, Ray had even worked for them, doing odd jobs around the farm.
    â€œHello, Ray. How are you?”
    â€œGood as ever. And you?”
    â€œHanging in there.”
    â€œI heard about the Cadillac.”
    Word traveled fast in Stillwater. “Can you believe it was right there all these years?”
    â€œWho put it there?”
    â€œI have no idea.”
    â€œThat’s got to bother you.”
    It did. But she preferred some development to nothing at all. Besides, she and Ray had both experienced a deeper kind of pain—she’d lost her mother and, a few years later, he’d lost his sixteen-year-old daughter, both to suicide. “I’m okay.”
    â€œDid they find anything—any answers?” he asked.
    â€œNo, not yet.”
    â€œThat’s too bad.”
    â€œI’m not giving up hope.” He didn’t say anything more, so she filled the silence. “I don’t see you around town much anymore, Ray. What’ve you been up to?”
    â€œI’ve been spending half my time in Iuka. My mother fell and broke her hip and she can’t live alone anymore. I’m with her now, moving her to my sister’s place.”
    That explained the strange name on her caller ID. “I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” she said.
    â€œShe’ll be okay now that she’s with Patti. Anyway, I should be home later in the week. Let me know if anything changes, okay? Your father and I weren’t on the best of terms when he disappeared. But I think about him often.”
    â€œI appreciate that.” Her telephone indicated that she had another call coming in. “Good luck with your mom,” she said and switched over. But this caller wasn’t Pontiff, either. According to caller ID, it was Clay. “What’s up, big brother?”
    â€œNothing new,” he replied. “Just checking in.”
    She finally pushed away from her computer and swiveled her chair to look glumly out the large front window of her office, which revealed an entire block of Stillwater’s most prominent businesses—L & B Hardware, Town & Country Furniture, Cutshall’s Funeral Home, Lambert’s Auction Service and Let The Good Times Roll Billiards and Bar. A corner of the police station was visible, too. Her eyes zeroed in on it as if she could see through brick and mortar.
    â€œI’m fine, just tired of the rain.” And growing more impatient by the minute, waiting for Pontiff to call.
    â€œYou took yesterday pretty hard, Mad.”
    â€œHe’s not coming back,” she said distantly. “I thought it’d be easier for me to know if he was…gone for good. But it isn’t. It makes me angry. And it makes me feel guilty, as if I haven’t done enough for him.”
    â€œYou’ve published every possible lead, posted rewards to encourage people to come forward with information, followed up whenever and wherever you could. You’ve hung on, and you haven’t let anyone forget. You’ve done your best.”
    She knew her dogged persistence had created problems for Clay and his sisters and mother. They’d had to constantly defend themselves, suffer two

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