Glare Ice by Mary Logue Read Free Book Online

old.”
    “This is where he was tied?” Dr. Lord pointed to the ligature marks circling Buck’s thick neck.
    “Yes—as I mentioned, when I found him, he was tied to the headrest in his car with a red rag. The rag had been wrapped several times around his neck. So when the car went into the lake, he couldn’t get out of it.”
    “I’d say he put up one hell of a fight to get free, pardon my French. Somebody pretty big must have done this.”
    “Or he was taken completely by surprise.”
    “Perhaps.”
    “Do you think he was dead when he went in the lake?”
    Dr. Lord gently moved the head back and forth, staring at the marks on the neck. Then he reached up for a hand from Claire. She pulled him up, and he patted her hand in thanks. “Claire, Claire, a little patience.”
    “We’re about to take some photos.”
    “Yes, let’s do that and then move this body out of here. I have seen enough. His extremities are beginning to freeze. None of us need to be working out in this frigid weather.”
    “Cold as a morgue.”
    “A comment like that from you?” He smiled at her. “What time might I expect to see you tomorrow?”
    “When would be convenient?”
    “Late afternoon would be perfect. Come a little early, and you can watch me at work.” He waved and walked away. The proper gentleman, Claire thought, no matter how dirty his hands might be.
    The first time she had come to watch him do an autopsy, he had been a little put out, never having had to perform for the sheriff’s office before. But now she felt that he looked forward to her company. He was the only medical examiner she had known who seemed to still regard the body he was dissecting as a human being. He treated them gently, almost reverently. But then, unlike the medical examiners in the Twin Cities, he maybe only got one or two bodies a month to examine.
    The tow truck was pulling the car out of the water behind them. Claire turned and watched. The truck started right on the edge of the frozen lake and chugged slowly down the dirt road, pulling the car out of the lake like an icebreaker.
    “Just take it into Durand for tonight,” Claire had told the tow company. The crime bureau could send someone out in the morning. And she had a present for the lab. She felt it in her pocket: the glasses that had been on Buck’s face, sealed into a plastic bag. Maybe they would get lucky and pull a print from something in the car or even from the glasses.
    Scott came walking up. “I went and checked out the bar. There were a couple of drunks helping the owner close. The owner said that Buck had been in there tonight. Didn’t stay long. Owner thought some guy he didn’t know had come in, but couldn’t remember much about him except that he was big. Said he thought it was funny when Buck left his dog.”
    “Dog?”
    “Yeah, I guess Buck owned some kind of little dog, and they always let him bring it into the bar. When Buck left, he didn’t take the dog with him.”
    “Strange. He must have thought he was going to return. Where is the dog now?”
    “The bartender said his girlfriend took it home.”
    “Oh, and who is that?”
    “All he knew about her was that her first name was Stephanie. He said they had come into the bar together a few times.”
    Claire stopped when she heard the name. Stephanie Klaus? What might this mean? “Did he describe her?”
    Scott looked back over his notes. “Didn’t say much. Not a very talkative guy for a bartender. Said she was a young blond.”
    Being blond didn’t narrow the field very much in Wisconsin. “So Stephanie and Buck came in the bar together?”
    “He didn’t think so. The way he remembered it was that Buck came in and left, and then Stephanie showed up. Said she seemed a little upset over finding out that the dog had been left there all alone. Said she just took the dog and left herself. This was right when they got the news about the car going in the lake.”
    “This bartender sounds like one sharp