Rohn Federbush - Sally Bianco 01 - The Legitimate Way by Rohn Federbush Read Free Book Online Page B

involved in clearing a friend of questionable character?”
    Family can bring up the past, right when a person only needs their support. Sally’s husband Danny didn’t hide his Viet Nam history and his confinement in Michigan’s State Prison for the mentally ill. No matter how many years of service Danny gave the community after he’d served his time, Danny would always be an outlaw in her family’s eyes. Danny hadn’t actually harmed anyone. Maybe he did shorten a few lives of those who witnessed the terror of watching a grown man scream himself into unconsciousness. The siege of suddenly recovered memories of the war caused his breakdown. Sally knew she had aged five years in two hours.
    “You’re right,” Sally said. “If you’ll give me a few names, I’ll contact them without referring to my connection to you.” Sally hated sucking up to people, especially family. “Would that be better?”
    “Much,” Madelyn said. Then she sighed, adding reluctantly, “I’ll pull together a list of names that might help. What’s he accused of?”
    “Murder,” Sally admitted. Why lie?
    “Sally,” Madelyn took a deep breath in preparation for a long lecture.
    “Sorry,” Sally did lie. “My cell is breaking up. I’ll put in a new battery and call you back.”
    Loretta, the sister closest to Sally’s age, was always easier to approach.
    “Oh, good,” Loretta said, all enthused when Sally called her, “Karl and I are planning to visit Illinois at Christmas and I was afraid I would miss your trip.”
    “Madelyn’s busy until Wednesday,” Sally said. “Could I come down Saturday night and stay until Wednesday morning?”
    “Absolutely,” Loretta said. “I have a daybed in my office. Will that do?”
    “The Holiday Inn Danny and I stayed in will be fine,” Sally said. “But I will need most of your time and Karl’s. I’m searching for a lost woman,” she said. “I need to find her before her abusive husband can.”
    Murder accusations were not necessarily the right avenue to take with these two. Karl was a state arson detective with enough contacts throughout Florida to find Mary Jo in the shortest possible time.
    “Give me her name, Sally,” Loretta said. “I’ll get Karl started on tracking her down. Maybe we’ll have something for you by the time you arrive.”
    “Thanks, Loretta,” Sally said. “The sooner I find her the better. I have the license number for her blue VW van, too.”
    Packing for the trip was a bit confusing. Sally had just overhauled her closets for winter. She pulled out the summer clothes from the trunks she used for storage, searching for the right look. She wanted to appear professional, as if she really were a detective, but she didn’t want her sisters to disown her, which they would if she’d worn black slacks and business Harveyets. Sally threw a bright raspberry colored short Harveyet and all her tan slacks into her valise. Compromise was always the best way to handle any situation, according to her late husband.
    He loved Florida, Danny did. Sally thought the state flat, ugly and unpleasant to say the best of what she actually thought of the terrain. The people were all insane, waiting for some one close to them to die or not die, counting inheritances and spending them twice before realizing a penny. The whole place was crazy, thinking they knew how to rule the rest of the nation. Their brains were smitten with strokes and the sun addled any other wits they might have originally possessed. The young people only had drug-induced elders to look up to. Peaches rot faster in the sun. Sally tried to keep her kisser in the refrigerated north, where all the oldest living people resided. God help them all. Maybe global warming should be prayed for every day. Ten feet of higher ocean surf would rid the nation of its cankerous foot. The world probably wouldn’t even notice the limp.
    After adding two cans of bug spray, Sally snapped the suitcases shut and called a cab