Stay At Home Dead by Jeffrey Allen Read Free Book Online

each leg by a sharp-looking crease.
    He yanked his mirrored sunglasses off and stuck his nose against the window of the van. “New car?”
    “No, it’s a new plane.”
    He shifted his eyes in my direction. “That supposed to be a joke?”
    “Actually, yes.”
    Carly waved from inside the van. I waved back. Bell removed his nose from the window and stood up. “Why’d you buy a new car?”
    “Because you have my other one.”
    “We’ll give it back. Eventually.”
    “Yeah, well, my wife doesn’t want it back.”
    He slipped the sunglasses back on his face. “Why’s that?”
    “Why do you think?” I asked, exasperated with his television show theatrics. “She’s not real keen on keeping a car we found a dead body in.”
    His lips trembled in something resembling a chuckle. “Found. I like that.”
    I looked away from him because I feared my irritation with him would cause me to deck him, and no matter how stupid I found him, hitting a cop would not do me any good.
    Unfortunately, moving my gaze from Bell to the growing number of mothers near the front of the school who were staring in our direction did nothing for me, either. Sharon Ann and Deborah stood in front of the group, shading their eyes with their hands against the sun, trying to get a good look.
    “Heard you were out at the Barnes home this morning,” Bell said.
    “I was,” I said, moving my eyes back to him.
    “Trying to coerce Miz Barnes?”
    “No. Telling her I was sorry about her husband. That’s all.”
    “Right,” he said, clearly indicating that he didn’t believe me.
    “Are you here to arrest me?” I asked.
    “Just following up on things. Miz Barnes called us to let us know you stopped by.”
    I found that odd, but diving headfirst into a bottle of vodka at midmorning would cause you to do odd things. “Then she would’ve told you that I just came by—after she called me —to give her my condolences.”
    “She called you. Another good one.” He smoothed the clip-on tie. “I’d suggest staying away from her for the time being. She didn’t appreciate the visit.”
    I doubted she even remembered the visit, given how drunk she was, but I wasn’t going to win an argument with Detective Bell.
    “You aren’t here to arrest me, then get out of my way,” I said. “I’m leaving.”
    “We’ll talk later,” Bell said, backpedaling to his car. He caught his heel on the pavement and fell to the ground, smacking his head on the wheel of the Crown Vic.
    I thought about offering him a hand up but decided I’d do a good deed elsewhere later in the day.
    He scrambled to his hands and knees and jumped up. His sunglasses were askew, attached only to his left ear now, hanging across his nose. He attempted to straighten them, and one of the arms broke off. He threw the arm at the ground and stalked around the front of his car.
    “I will see you later, Winters,” he muttered.
    “Have a nice trip,” I said.
    He froze and glared at me.
    “Day, I mean,” I said. “Have a nice day.”

13
    On school days, I usually dropped Carly off at my parents’ house in the afternoon. With Julianne’s parents having retired to Arizona, they were enjoying their role as her sole grandparents in town and Carly thought going to their place was a bit like going to Disneyland. I generally took those afternoons off to work out or to do the running around I couldn’t do with Carly in tow.
    My parents still lived in the house I grew up in, a sprawling ranch house on three acres on the north end of town, near the lake. My father had made lots of noise about getting out of town, going somewhere where they could retire and he could play golf year-round, but my mom just waved him off like an annoying fly. She’d been born in Rose Petal and she intended to die there, with or without my father.
    They were sitting on the front porch, my mother with a novel and my dad with his head tilted back, napping. Carly began squealing as soon as she saw them. My