Between the Living and the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page A

bedrooms, just to be sure. He found that they were all much the same, small, square rooms with a few strips of wallpaper hanging off the walls or lying on the floor. A good bit of the old woven backing still clung to the wall.
    The rooms contained little of the furniture that had once been in them—a couple of dressers with all the drawers pulled out and broken and an armoire with shattered mirrors on the doors. Rhodes figured those things had been too heavy for anyone to carry down. No mice jumped out of the furniture to surprise him, for which he was grateful. He didn’t want to gun down a mouse.
    He went into a narrow hallway and looked at the stairs to the attic. They were even dirtier than the ones to the second floor. No one had used them for years, maybe decades. He might have gone ahead to check the attic in spite of the evidence of its disuse, but he heard the ambulance arrive. By the time he got down the stairs, the JP was there, too.
    Ruth had the EMTs and the JP waiting on the porch, and Rhodes told the JP to come in first. His name was Wade Franklin, and he was a tall slab of a man wearing a long robe with pajama bottoms visible below the hem and a pair of run-down house shoes. He didn’t look thrilled about being called out so early in the morning, so Rhodes didn’t comment on the color of the pajamas.
    â€œSorry to have to wake you up,” Rhodes said as they went into the hall.
    â€œJust part of the job,” Franklin said. “What do we have here?”
    Rhodes stopped him at the door to the sitting room and pointed inside. “A man named Neil Foshee. He’s from Railville.”
    â€œThat’s over the county line. Why’d he have to come and get killed in our county?”
    â€œHe does some business here,” Rhodes said. “With his cousins.”
    â€œI don’t think I know him. What kind of business?”
    â€œMeth,” Rhodes said. “We just shut him and his cousins down not long ago. They’re all out on bail.”
    â€œLooks like this one will be staying out,” Franklin said. “I’d better have a look at him.”
    â€œI don’t want to prejudice your findings, but it looks to me like he’s been shot.”
    â€œShine a light on him,” Franklin said.
    Rhodes did. Foshee lay on his back, still as a plank, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. Two red blotches stained the front of his blue shirt.
    â€œLooks dead to me,” Franklin said. “I’ll check to be sure if you don’t think I’ll mess up your crime scene.”
    â€œJust don’t touch anything else,” Rhodes said.
    â€œI know better,” Franklin said, taking three careful steps into the room and bending down over Foshee’s body. In a couple of seconds he straightened and walked back to join Rhodes. “He’s dead, all right. I’ll get the paperwork done.”
    â€œThanks,” Rhodes said.
    They went back to the porch. Franklin left, and Rhodes asked the EMTs to wait a few minutes while he and Ruth went back inside and looked over the body. Ruth held the flashlight, and they saw nothing nearby. Rhodes knelt down and checked the shirt pockets. They were empty. He patted the pants pockets and heard some clinking. He reached into the pockets and came out with some change and keys.
    â€œNo cell phone?” Ruth asked.
    â€œBack pocket, maybe,” Rhodes said. He rolled Foshee over. “Nope. Just a wallet.”
    â€œSome people have gotten smart about cell phones,” Ruth said. “Too smart to leave a helpful video on one for you to find it.”
    Rhodes stood up. “Sometimes you can find one, though. Even I did.”
    â€œWith a little help.”
    â€œFrom your friend Seepy,” Rhodes said. “I admit it, but I’ve learned a little bit about cell phones since then. I even know that if Foshee had a phone, it was probably a prepaid one that he bought at Walmart or