Pouncing on Murder by Laurie Cass Read Free Book Online Page A

Henry had a guy he needed to talk to about a part for a lawn tractor and he wasn’t about to quit the errand just because I wanted to get home.”
    “How long did it take you to get back?” I asked, laughing.
    “About as long as it would have taken to walk.” Adam gave a crooked smile. “After the tractor part, Henry stopped to see a guy whose dog had just had pups. Then it was close enough to lunchtime to eat at the restaurant out there. And you know what that means.”
    I nodded. “Coffee. Lots of coffee.” A discussion regarding what made the perfect cup of coffee had been the first real conversation Henry and I ever had.
    “Henry didn’t drink it hot,” Adam said. “And he wouldn’t dream of diluting it with a single ice cube. We sat at that greasy table for more than an hour, drinking coffee, eating ham sandwiches, and hardly saying a word.”
    Classic Henry. I felt my eyes mist up. Cranky and crusty as he’d been, I would miss him terribly.
    “And you know what happened next?” Adam asked.
    “Yep,” I said. “Henry wouldn’t let you pay the bill, he thanked you for the best lunch he’d had in a dog’s year, and he slapped you on the back so hard you almost fell over.”
    Adam’s chuckle was quiet and deep. “So you’ve been out to eat with Henry, too.”
    “A couple of times.” Chilson’s downtown diner, the Round Table, was a congregating place for the entire area, and I’d run into Henry once or twice at Sunday morning breakfast. He’d wave me over, make me sit, and we’d have the same type of silent conversation. “He was one of a kind,” I said.
    Adam sighed. “I’ve felt awful about the whole thing.”
    “I’m sure you did everything you could.”
    “It wasn’t enough,” he said, looking at a vacant spot in the air. “And I wish the sheriff’s office . . .” He stopped and shook his head.
    I frowned. It wasn’t that I believed the Tonedagana County Sheriff’s Office didn’t know what they were doing—in fact, I knew very well how dedicated and capable they were. It was more that I knew a little too much about the department.
    For instance, I knew one of their two longtimedetectives had recently retired and the new guy wasn’t quite ready to roll out on his own. And thanks to my friend Rafe, who knew everything about everything in the city of Chilson, I knew that a number of deputies were out sick and on short-term disability. The whole place was understaffed and if that didn’t change soon, the busy summer months were going to become a large problem for the sheriff.
    “What’s that about the sheriff’s office?” I asked.
    Adam looked at me. “Do you really want to hear this?”
    Not a chance . “Yes, please.”
    His gaze drifted past me. “That day, out in the woods. The sap run was over, so I’d stopped by to help Henry clean up the sugar shack. He went out to stack some wood and when he didn’t come back, I went out to find him.”
    I knew where Henry had lived, on a forty-acre parcel covered with maple trees. It was a beautiful piece of rolling land, not on the water but next door to it and bordering numerous cottages that fronted Rock Lake, most of which would be empty at this time of year.
    Adam put his palm flat on his chest. “Henry was under a tree,” he said, the words tumbling out. “I tried lifting it, tried pulling him out, digging him out, but then my heart kind of exploded. Next thing I know, I’m falling to the ground. I’m flat on my back. Could hardly breatheand the inside of my chest is on fire. I know my cell phone’s in my pocket, and when I reach around for it, my head turns, and I swear, I swear . . .”
    I was on the edge of my seat. “What?”
    Adam’s eyes focused on my face. “I swear I saw someone. Running away.”

Chapter 4
    A s soon as the bookmobile had been stowed away for the night and Eddie returned to the boardinghouse, I marched straight to the sheriff’s office and, standing at the tall front counter that