The Opposite of Dark by Debra Purdy Kong Read Free Book Online

to meet you.” Casey watched his gaze slip to her breasts. “Listen, the cops won’t tell me much and I was wondering if you heard anything the night my dad was killed. I was told it happened on Sunday between 8:00 and 10:00 PM .”
    â€œI—I, uh.” He tried for her face again, “I told them I heard a car pull into his driveway a little before eight.”
    Interesting. “Did you see the car?”
    â€œNo.” He wiped his hand on his shirt. “Just a lady in the house.”
    â€œWhat lady?” Rhonda asked.
    â€œAnd where in the house?” Casey added.
    â€œIn a room with a lot of books,” Gil replied. “It’s on the ground floor, next to our fence.”
    â€œSo, you can see into the room?” Casey asked.
    â€œA little bit of it, when I’m in the garden, like I was then.” Gil lowered his voice. “Saw her through the knothole. It’s opposite a door with a window in the upper half.”
    Must be a good-sized knothole, Casey thought. How much time had he spent looking through it? “Do you often garden at night, Gil?”
    â€œNo, but my parents will be back from Arizona soon. I’m supposed to have all the gardens ready for planting and the lawn mowed by then, and I’ve kind of put it off.” He shrugged.
    Gil zeroed in on her boobs again, but Casey didn’t mind. It was a small price to pay for crucial information. If he’d witnessed the murder, she’d toss him her bra and throw in a belly dance.
    â€œGil, did the woman look in her seventies?” Rhonda asked.
    â€œI only saw the back of her, but she didn’t dress old. She was in some sort of blue sparkly outfit with a matching hat.”
    Rhonda’s eyes narrowed. “What was the woman doing? Did you see her hair color?”
    â€œShe was standing and talking, and her hair was either really short or pushed up under the hat ’cause I didn’t see it.”
    Casey knew what Rhonda was thinking: the woman could have been a lover. She wanted to ask Gil if he’d seen them embrace, but Rhonda was developing a pout.
    â€œToo bad you didn’t see the woman’s car,” Casey said.
    â€œI can only see his driveway from my bedroom upstairs. Anyway, I gave up on the stupid garden pretty quick, then went inside and cranked up the music. Crashed about eleven-thirty.” He glanced at Casey’s breasts again. “I did look out the window once, but the car was gone. Must’ve left while I had the music on. Didn’t hear an engine start.”
    â€œCan you see into the room with the books from your bedroom window?” Casey asked.
    â€œAngle’s too sharp, but when I closed my drapes I saw that the lights were out. Didn’t think in a million years anyone was dead in there.” He tucked strands of hair behind his ears.
    Rhonda fidgeted. “Had you seen the woman before?”
    â€œNah. Didn’t see him around much either. No parties, loud music, not even a barbecue.”
    â€œDid you tell the police about the woman?”
    â€œUh-huh. They came in and looked out the window, tracked freakin’ dirt all over the carpets.”
    Casey sighed. What else had Lalonde not bothered to tell her?

Five

    CASEY STEPPED OUT of her Tercel and glanced at the back of Mainland Public Transport’s admin building. The drab gray paint and two floors of narrow, paned windows always reminded her of a warehouse rather than an office building.
    On her way to the entrance, she heard three-hundred horsepower engines starting up in the yard behind her. Most people couldn’t bear the smell of diesel fuel, but to Casey it meant paychecks, friendships, and busy-ness. In summer, when the windows were open, the yard was noisy, but she didn’t mind. The atmosphere was more informal than downtown’s tinted-glass towers with talking elevators. Here, people used the stairs and talked to one another.
    She’d