Murder at the Courthouse by A. H. Gabhart Read Free Book Online Page B

sure.”
    â€œSometimes luck has little to do with it. Anthony goes out hunting trouble.”
    â€œThat’s what hard-luck kids do best. I remember when his mother took off years ago. Told the kid she was going to the grocery store and left him watching television. He was there alone a couple of days before anybody knew she was gone. He was just a little fellow. Around five, I think.”
    â€œNo wonder he’s mad at the world.” Michael frowned. “Aunt Lindy says his mother left the same summer my folks were killed in the auto wreck.”
    â€œYeah, that’s right. Best I remember, you were hurt pretty bad in that wreck yourself. Everybody thought you might be out for the count.” Buck turned and gave Michael’s arm a light punch. “Glad you weren’t, kid.”
    â€œMe too,” Michael said. “But that summer is sort of a blank for me, so I don’t remember anything about Anthony’s mother leaving.”
    â€œYou could ask your aunt. She could fill you in.”
    â€œI have, but she won’t talk about it. Says what’s in the past might as well stay there.”
    â€œCould be she’s right. And I don’t guess it matters all that much now. Most people figured Roxanne ran off with some man.” Buck blew out a breath. “I had a hard time believingit at first. But she never did show up anywhere, so I guess she did. Still, she did act like she thought the sun rose and set on that kid. It didn’t seem like something she’d do. Running off maybe, but not leaving the kid behind. That never seemed right.”
    â€œDid you know her?” Michael asked.
    â€œSure. What man in Hidden Springs didn’t?” Buck shrugged. “She was a treat for the eyes.”
    â€œA prostitute?” Michael glanced over at Buck with raised eyebrows.
    â€œNot as far as I know. She was a waitress, but rumor had it she made some money on the side. If she did, I never saw any proof of it, but you know how folks around here are. They pegged Roxanne back when she had that kid and wouldn’t tell who the daddy was.”
    â€œYou sound like you knew her pretty well.” Michael stopped walking to look straight at Buck.
    â€œNow don’t be getting the wrong idea here.” Buck swiped a hand across his face as if to rub away the surprising red that popped up there. “I was already married to Susan and had Billie Jo then. But sometimes when I stopped in at the Country Diner for coffee, Roxanne and me would swap kid stories, you know. She always got this different look on her face when she talked about the boy. I still can’t figure her taking off without him.”
    â€œBut she did,” Michael said.
    â€œThat’s what everybody decided.”
    â€œYou didn’t?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Buck stared off across the street for a few seconds as though gathering his thoughts. “Somehow it struck me as odd at the time. I was new to the job then, nota detective yet, just a patrol cop. But I poked around a little. Talked to everybody who saw her that day. You know, that kind of thing. Nobody knew anything about where she’d gone. Or anything about any guy she’d been seeing. She didn’t draw her money out of the bank. She didn’t leave her sister any kind of note asking her to take care of the boy.”
    â€œNothing ever turned up on her?”
    â€œNot a thing.” Buck gave his head a shake. “I figured she’d send for the boy when she got things worked out, but then she never did. Could be she got sick or something. Who knows? And then she might still show up again someday.”
    â€œI’m not sure Anthony would be glad to see her after all these years.”
    â€œWell, it’s not likely to happen anyway. She’s been gone too long.” Buck shook his head again, slowly this time. “But that Roxanne was a looker. No matter what else anybody said about