4 - Stranger Room: Ike Schwartz Mystery 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dorothy Sutherlin raised seven sons, most of the time as a single mother, back in a time when that appellation did not carry the quasi-heroic quality it does now. Except for her youngest, all of her boys had chosen professions that placed them in harm’s way. Billy worked with Ike as a deputy. Frank joined the highway patrol right out of high school. Michael, the twins, Jack and Johnny, chose the army. Danny joined the Navy SEALs and was stationed over in Little Creek, but she never knew where he would be on any given day. The last time she’d seen him he had a Purple Heart and a limp, but he wouldn’t say how or where he’d earned them. Jack had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Every night Dorothy knelt by her bed on arthritic knees and prayed for her boys, that they would stay safe wherever their country sent them, and even though she sometimes despaired for her tattooed youngest, she secretly hoped he’d remain an oddball and safely home.
    Billy, still in uniform, punched his younger brother on the arm. “Where you been, Sunshine?”
    “Had some hours out at Lydell’s. You probably heard about the murder.”
    “You were there?”
    Dorothy Sutherlin beat on the backside of a skillet and shouted at her boys a second time. Ham, sweet potatoes, and fresh picked asparagus filled bowls and platters on the table. Billy and Henry sat and tucked in.
    “I was the one that busted down the door. Didn’t Ike or the new guy say anything?”
    “No, I was leaving when they came in. Just got the gist. So, what happened?”
    Their mother gave them a look. “Grace first,” she said, and the three bowed their heads while she thanked the Almighty for the day, the food, and keeping them all safe. Henry filled them in on the details, laying heavy emphasis on his role in breaking down the door. He described the scene and what he’d learned from the ET’s.
    “I reckon, that’s what I’ll do, Billy. I’m going to give the academy another try and see about being an evidence tech.”
    Billy stared at his brother’s amazing red hair and raised an eyebrow.
    “Hey, there was this guy, DeGraaf, you know? He used to go to the high school, and he had all kinds of tattoos on him and they hired him. So, okay, I’ll have to take care of the hair for a while…and um, maybe the ears, I’m not sure about that…and yeah, I’ll have to study…and…you don’t think I can do it, do you?”
    “I ain’t said anything.”
    “It’s all over your face…you just wait and see.”
    “I have enough sons in danger. Don’t you go joining them, Henry, you hear?”
    “Being an ET ain’t the same thing, Ma. Anyway, I thought I had the solution to the locked door thing this afternoon but it didn’t work.”
    “What did you think?”
    “See, I was poking around an old door and noticed that the lock…it was set like the one we busted, you know, on the back of the door…I see this old lock just fall off the door and I think, what if the lock was busted before we got there, see?”
    “See what?”
    “Come on Billy, you’re the cop, if the door was already broke and Lydell just pretended it was locked up tight, who’d know? Then when the door’s busted open, you just see screws lying around and you don’t ask if maybe they were pulled out before.”
    Billy nodded, impressed. “So why doesn’t it work?”
    “I banged the door down and I’m here to tell you that lock was set in solid. I had to whack it twice before she gave way.”
    “Lydell ain’t your candidate?”
    “Nah, he might bore you to death, or talk you to death but…no, shooting a stranger don’t seem likely.”
    “So what’s your theory now, Mr. ET?”
    “Don’t have one. Wait, how about this? You and me have a contest. The one that figures it out first wins and the loser has to buy dinner somewhere nice.”
    Billy grinned. “You’re on, only we add that Ma gets in on the dinner.”
    “Done. I’m thinking mistaken identity, now. What’s your