Poison Town by Creston Mapes Read Free Book Online

yerself out.”
    “There’s a problem, LJ. Your house has been … searched.”
    “Searched? Whatcha mean, Jack?”
    “When we got here, we found it—pretty badly torn up. Someone was looking for something.”
    “Tore up? You mean robbed ?”
    “We don’t know if anything’s missing. Do you want me to call the police? I kind of wanted one of you to be here …”
    “Just wait, Jack. We’ll be right there, fast as we can.”
    “Okay, we’re going to keep searching for the notes.”
    “How bad is it, Jack?” LJ’s voice was low and cold.
    “It’s pretty bad, LJ … I’m sorry.”
    “Bo!” LJ had covered the phone, but Jack could still hear his booming voice. “Git yer coat. Find your uncle. We gotta go … Jack?”
    “Yeah.”
    “We’re coming.”
    Jack put his phone away and examined the mess as Derrick made his way to another of the strewn drawers on the floor.
    “Which ones haven’t you looked in?” Jack asked.
    “Those two.” Derrick pointed toward two small desk drawers lying on the floor near the sink. Jack tiptoed through the maze of broken dishes and picked up one of the drawers.
    “Hold up. Got something.” Derrick turned a manila folder toward Jack. “Says D-V right here in pencil.” He opened it, stared down, then lifted the manila folder so that it dangled open—empty.
    Derrick’s face was stone. “This is all that was in it.” He waved a small piece of white paper in two fingers, then held it up and read it aloud to Jack: “LEAVE IT ALONE.”

Chapter 6
    Although you wouldn’t guess it from the clothes he wore, Travis was a neat freak. He tried to keep the house clean, because that’s what his mother had always done. So when he walked into the foul mess at the house, a sick feeling gnawed at the pit of his stomach, and he got right to work picking things up.
    Who could do this to another person’s property? It was downright heartless. There just wasn’t any respect anymore.
    Jack and the other reporter, Derrick, had stayed at the house till Travis and LJ arrived. When Travis saw the note he was scared and blazing mad at the same time. LJ was just blazing mad. They scanned the house and quickly determined that nothing else was missing. To Travis’s way of thinking, that meant the break-in and his father’s poisoning had something, if not everything, to do with Demler-Vargus.
    LJ wanted to wring somebody’s neck but didn’t know whose. Instead, he ended up kicking things around, muttering to himself the whole time, making things even more tension-filled than they already were. Bo had stayed behind at the hospital to keep an eye on his grandfather. So it was pretty much up to Travis to do the work, picking up that cruel mess until the winter sky turned dark at suppertime.
    The cop who came to the house was a skinny, nervous wreck of a kid named Delgado who Travis was sure was a rookie right out of officer training. He basically took a few notes, stuttered that he would file a report, and advised the boys to keep the door locked. Trenton City’s finest.
    “What you want to do for dinner?” LJ lazed into the TV room where Travis had finally plunked down in Daddy’s blue corduroy recliner to take a blow.
    “This mess and Daddy’s poisoning … they got nothing to do with you, right?” Travis said.
    “Me?” LJ craned his neck. “What would they have to do with me?”
    “I want to make sure there’s nothing you’re not telling me, like if you’re in more trouble with Roxanne’s crowd.”
    “No sir. Whoever did this is the same person who poisoned Daddy, most likely.”
    The phone rang, and Travis answered.
    “Travis, it’s Jack. Just calling to see how Galen is.”
    “Bo is still with him. He says they done moved Daddy back to a private room. Nurse said he’s in ‘good condition.’”
    “Is Bo going to spend the night there?”
    Travis raised an eyebrow. “Why? You think they’re gonna try something else?”
    “This thing isn’t sitting right with