Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale Read Free Book Online

most likely.
    “Graffiti,” I said.
    “Yeah,” Leonard said, “but is there anything about it in the notes?”
    “No,” Marvin said. “And that’s because no one thought it meant anything. Kids paint on trees and underpasses and walls all the time. Why would someone kill them and then make a design on a tree?”
    “All I’m saying,” Leonard said, “is Mrs. Christopher may be right. It might not be a random murder.”
    “That whole mystery clue thing with paintings on trees and feathers and moles in the shape of the state of Rhode Island on a blonde’s ass, in real life, it doesn’t happen much,” Marvin said.
    “He’s working his way through the Sherlock Holmes series,” I said. “He’s gotten a little obsessive about mysteries. He found a pair of socks he’s been missing for a couple of months, and he thinks he’s full of deductive reasoning now. Like maybe the socks had some kind of plan to hide out.”
    “Listen, Ace,” Marvin said. “You and Hap just go out and ask questions and bumble around. I’ll do the real detective work from the office.”
    “Ouch,” Leonard said.

13
    So that’s how it went. Now we were sitting on the couch looking at those same photos and reading the information that came with them, thinking back on our meeting with Marvin.
    It had started raining hard again, and the atmosphere had settled on the house like a woolen cap. The electricity blinked and crackled a few times but stayed on. It was so dark outside we had to turn on a light.
    “So,” Leonard said. “Where do we start?”
    “Same place the cops did, with the people who knew the victims.”
    “There’s a long list here,” Leonard said, flipping through the folder.
    “I think we should do what Marvin suggested. Talk to the sister.”
    “To do that,” Leonard said, looking out the window at the rain, “we have to get off the couch. And drive around. We could wait until tomorrow.”
    “We weren’t hired to stay home and play Scrabble.”
    Leonard’s eyes lit up. “It’s a perfect day for Scrabble. Me and John used to play Scrabble when it rained.”
    “I’ll get us a couple of rain slickers and we’ll go to work.”
    “So,” Leonard said, “you’re not suggesting we sit on the couch in rain slickers and play Scrabble and call that work?”
    “Nope,” I said.
    “Dang it.”
    We left Leonard’s wreck in the driveway to let the rain work the hardened bird shit off his windshield, took my car.
    Before we left, Leonard got something out of his car and slipped in beside me. He laid what he had on the seat between us and pulled off his slicker and put it in the backseat with mine. He picked up what he had laid down and put it on his head.
    “What in the hell is that?” I said.
    “It’s a deerstalker cap.”
    “A deerstalker cap?”
    “You know, Holmes wore one in the movies.”
    “I know, but what are you doing with one?”
    “I’m wearing it.”
    “Should I wear a bowler and carry an umbrella and let you call me Watson?”
    “Would you?”
    “Where did you get that?”
    “I bought it last Halloween, for a party.”
    “You dressed up like Sherlock Holmes for Halloween?”
    “I don’t get to dress up often,” Leonard said. “John went as Watson.”
    “So why are you wearing the hat now? Halloween is long past.”
    “We’re on the hunt. The game’s afoot.”
    “Leonard, you are not wearing that foolish cap.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because you stand out like a hard dick in a nunnery.”
    Leonard quit looking at me. He turned and stared at the windshield.
    “So you’re gonna give me the cold shoulder?”
    He didn’t respond.
    “You have this thing for hats, Leonard, but you are not a hat person … Look, you can wear it in the car. The car only. Got me?”
    Leonard put on his seat belt, rested his hands in his lap, and stared straight ahead.
    “Outside the car, you got that thing on I might have to kill you.”

14
    First on our list was Ted’s sister’s house. My