An Unmarked Grave Read Online Free PDF

"These are rich kids, Mr.
Forester. They go to private schools. You know what I
mean?"
    Unfortunately, I did.
    Bones and the Grasshoppers were playing a week's gig
at the Vegas Club in Dallas, named after the infamous Jack
Ruby's club back in the sixties.
    From where I parked, two blocks away, I could hear the
band pounding away. I was surprised the walls didn't vibrate into a pile of brick dust. The club was jammed, and on the
dance floor, heads, arms, and legs bobbed up and down and
around.

    Other than the club owners, I didn't see anyone who
looked over twenty-one, yet cigarette smoke filled the room
like a thick fog, and I didn't see one table that didn't have
beer, wine, whiskey, or pills on it. I couldn't resist the cynical observation that perhaps somewhere in this milieu of
smoke and booze was the president of the United States in
thirty years.
    They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I suppose
the same could be said about music-that its beauty is in
the ear of the listener.
    If loud implied good, the group was great.
    Somehow from my spot next to the rear wall, I managed
to tolerate the reverberations until the band's first break.
    A bouncer stopped me when I tried to go backstage. "No
outsiders," he growled. Two twenties made me an insider.
In the dressing room, the five musicians were slouched on
    couches and sprawled on cots, eyes glazed, features slack,
gathering their inspiration by toking on joints.
    They paid me no attention. I spoke up. "First, I'm not a
cop. I'm a friend of Justin Chester, and I'm looking for a
gentleman called Bones"
    No response.
    Finally a thin, black man with long fingers rolled his head
to one side. He was one of those whose age was impossible
to guess. He could have been anywhere between twenty-five
and seventy-five. "Well, I ain't no gentleman, boss, but I'm
Bones"

    I quickly explained the inheritance. When I mentioned
Justin's share was ten million and there would in all likelihood be a reward, Bones grew interested. "What do I gots
to do for the money?"
    I shrugged. "I've got to find him. When your group played
at the Brentwood Country Club last spring, you talked to him.
Remember?"
    Bones' blue-black forehead wrinkled in a frown. "Yeah.
I remembers. Done forgot about it, but now I remembers"
    "Did he give you any idea what his plans were, where he
might go?"
    Two of the other musicians snickered. One muttered sarcastically, "That the crazy honky, Bones?"
    Bones grinned and tapped the side of his head. "Aw, the
guy's okay. Just a little far out"
    The other musician snorted. "Loony-tunes, if you ask me"
    I frowned. "Far out?"
    "Yeah. He's into all this far-out stuff like UFOs and aliens
and all that weird stuff. Always been that way"
    "You known him long?"
    "Yeah, man. I knows him back in Austin before he ups
and leaves. Over the years, I see him about. Last time was at
the country club"
    "Any idea where he might be?"
    He squinted at me through eyes covered with a gray film.
"Reckon I do. What's in it for me?"
    "I'm a PI" I handed him my card. "I don't know how
much, but there will be rewards to those who help me find
him."
    Nodding slowly, Bones cleared his throat. "When I last
talked to the boy, he tolds me about a place called Elysian Hills, somewhere north of Fort Worth" He grunted and
shook his head. "He must've had too much booze, 'cause
he claimed a spaceship landed there over a hundred years
ago and the town buried the pilot in the town cemetery." He
toked again. His glazed eyes lost their focus. "I didn't believe him. He's done talked all about those things for years.
You might find him up there"

    "Thanks."
    "Just don't forget who told you"
    "No sweat. How do I get in touch with you?"
    "O'Brien Agency here in Dallas. They can find us"
    I started to leave, then turned back. "Has anyone else
asked you about Justin lately?"
    He squinted at me, a frown on his forehead. "No. Why?"
    "Just wondering."
    At that moment, a stagehand