Ugly As Sin by James Newman Read Free Book Online Page A

toked on his first joint...that secret spot in the Snake River Woods where he used to throw pennies into an old well, wishing he could one day be rich and famous just like his idol, Elvis. He nearly grew dizzy beneath the memories.
    He followed Melissa’s directions without consciously thinking about them. His formative years had been spent here, and in many ways it felt as if he had left Midnight only yesterday. Before long, a crooked old one-room church zipped by in his peripheral vision, then a sprawling green pasture in which eight or nine fat black cows grazed behind a barbed-wire fence.
    Nick maneuvered the Bronco around a deep curve, and his destination was upon him.
    He turned down the music.
    The house was small, beige with brown trim. Its gravel driveway was littered with the glistening green fragments of a broken beer bottle. A propane grill leaned against one side of the house. Ribbons of yellow crime-scene tape crisscrossed the front porch (“NO TRESPASSING BY ORDER OF POLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT”). At some point a strip of it had come loose; it dangled from the spidery branches of a dead rosebush in the middle of the yard, snapping and popping in the afternoon breeze. A thick copse of trees lined the rear of the property like a crowd of curious bystanders hoping to catch a glimpse of something gruesome.
    Nick stared down at the photo of his granddaughter that Melissa had given him. Before pulling out of his parking space back at the diner, he had placed the picture on his dashboard next to the Bronco’s speedometer.
    The teenager’s eyes were a radiant blue. Like his own. Her round face showed a hint of the chubby child she must have been at one time. Her dark brown hair was trimmed in a pageboy style. She wore a maroon leather jacket over a gray T-shirt, a Celtic cross necklace. The corners of her mouth were turned up in a mischievous grin, as if Sophie knew a secret that could tear this town apart.
    Nick wondered what she was like. If she was safe. If he would soon be blessed with the opportunity to get to know his granddaughter, or if it was already too late.
    A horn honked.
    He glanced in the Bronco’s cracked rearview mirror, saw a sour-faced man in a dusty VW bug behind him.
    He threw up one hand, quickly pulled over to the shoulder.
    The man tooted his horn again. As the Beetle puttered on down the road, Nick noticed a faded bumper sticker on its back window: JESUS IS COMING, R U READY? He wondered if it was that appointment the guy had been so afraid he’d miss.
    He killed the Bronco’s ignition.
    Wondered why he was here.
    What the hell did he plan to do now? What was he looking for, exactly? He didn’t have a clue. But he had promised Melissa he would try.
    He leaned over, scrounged around in the glove compartment until he found an old pair of work gloves. They had been crammed down in there ever since he first bought the Bronco secondhand, and he had never gotten around to throwing them out. He slid them into his back pocket, just in case (he was about to go snooping around a crime scene , after all).
    He climbed out of the Bronco. Pulled back his hood. His shaved scalp and gnarled forehead were slick with sweat.
    He crossed the road and stepped onto the overgrown lawn. The high grass whispered against his shins. It had rained here recently; the air smelled of mud and, faintly, manure from the pasture down the road.
    Nick took the three steps leading up to the porch in a single stride, ducking through a gap in the police tape to access the front door.
    He dug into his pocket for the key Melissa had given him.
    But then his breath caught in his throat.
    At one time, more of that yellow crime-scene tape had been stretched across the threshold to warn away the curious. Now it lay in a pile at Nick’s feet, like a dead snake.
    The door was ajar. The lock had been busted.
    Nick gently pushed on the door, forcing it open just far enough so he could enter by turning sideways. He wondered if he