Death Among the Mangroves by Stephen Morrill Read Free Book Online Page B

resume their normal schedule. That evening Troy went to Lee Bell’s house. Lee had set up a ten-foot-tall Christmas tree and she and Troy spent an hour stringing lights and decorations around it. Such domesticity was foreign to Troy, to whom holidays meant nothing much.
    “Where did you get this enormous tree?” Troy asked. “And did you bring it home strapped onto your Corvette?”
    “The nice man at the tree lot over on Barron Key delivered it,” Lee said. “It was the largest one he had.”
    “Lee, men are always nice to you. You’re gorgeous.”
    “Thank you.” She grinned. “And isn’t that… nice .”
    Lee had a few wrapped presents for Troy and for some other people she knew in town and she spread those around beneath the tree. Troy had no present for Lee and apologized.
    “I can’t take time off right now to go shopping in Naples or Fort Myers,” he said. “Or Miami.”
    “You ever hear of the Brown Elves?” Lee said.
    “The what?”
    “UPS, stupid. Santa’s neighborhood elves in the big brown trucks. You shop online. They deliver. No problem.”
    “Oh. I guess I’m old-fashioned. I like to go look at things before I buy them. Feel them. Buying a personal gift online is almost as bad as simply handing someone you love a store gift card. Where’s the romance, the feeling, the personal attention?”
    “Am I hearing that you love me?”
    “Well, of course I do.”
    “You never say it.”
    “Lee Bell, I’m in love with you.” He grabbed her and they kissed.
    “Good,” she said breaking off the kiss. “Now what are you going to do to show your love?”
    “Probably have a UPS driver hand you a store gift card.”
    Lee punched him in the arm. She was tall and strong and had a good punch, and it knocked him sideways slightly. “That’s it,” she said. “You go home and sleep in your cold, lonely bed.”
    “Won’t that make your bed cold and lonely too?”
    “Good point. I’ll let you stay. But only if you make mad love to me.”
    “Sure thing, little lady,” Troy said. “Think of it as the gift that keeps on giving.”
    “You wish.”

Chapter 9
    Monday, December 23
    The man clutched his ex-wife tightly, her back against his chest, his left arm around her under her breasts, his right hand holding the steak knife to her neck. He looked at the other Tampa police officers and then sideways at Troy.
    “Put down the knife,” Troy said. “Nothing is so bad we can’t work something out to help you. You don’t want to hurt her. You love her.”
    “I can’t go on like this,” the man said. The woman was weeping silently, her eyes on Troy as if he were her salvation. “I can’t go on without her.”
    “Please help me,” Wanda Frister cried out in her front yard in Mangrove Bayou. Billy Poteet only pressed the barrel of his handgun tighter against her head.
    Even in the dream, a part of Troy’s consciousness wondered what had happened to the man with the knife from so long ago. He seemed to be having two intermingled dreams.
    The man with the knife shook his head. “You’ll just put me in jail. I’ve been to jail before. I’m never going back.”
    Troy had his Glock lined up on the man’s right ear, about the only thing he could clearly see behind the terrified woman. “I came this far,” the man said. “I’ll take it all the way.”
    Billy Poteet’s right hand pressed the handgun harder against Wanda’s throat.
    “Don’t do it,” Troy said. “I can’t let you do it.”
    Billy Poteet bent his head to look when Milo Binder fired off some shots to get his attention. Suddenly Troy was seeing Billy’s right eye and part of his skull over the top of the sights on the Colt. Troy started to squeeze the trigger.
    “You win,” Billy said. “I don’t really want to do this.” He took away the gun. He let Wanda go. And Troy’s Colt Commander went off and killed him.
    As always, Troy woke at this point and leapt out of bed. He was in Lee Bell’s house and not his