Bill Crider - Dan Rhodes 07 - Murder Most Fowl Read Online Free PDF Page B

the door and Rhodes knocked.
    Rayjean Ward looked the same as always when she answered Rhodes’ knock, except that Rhodes thought he detected more than a hint of anxiety in her narrow eyes.
    “Hello, Sheriff,” she said. “Miz Rhodes. What can I do for you?”
    “We’re here about Lige,” Rhodes said.
    “Oh.”  Rayjean’s shoulders sagged. “Did you find him?”
    “You could say that,” Rhodes told her. “Can we come in?”
    Rayjean stood aside and held the door wide. “Sure. I didn’t mean to forget my manners.”
    Rhodes and Ivy went inside, and Rayjean closed the door behind them. “Come on in the livin’ room. I was watchin’ some old Randolph Scott movie on TV.”
    They followed her into a small room where a twenty-seven-inch Emerson stereo TV was flickering in black and white. Rhodes caught a quick glimpse of Randolph Scott and wondered if the movies he’d taped were being run for a second time. He’d never gotten to see the ending of Decision at Sundown .
    Rayjean noticed that Rhodes was looking at the TV. “Lige brought that TV home from the hardware store right before we closed it. He could’ve bought one at Wal-Mart cheaper than he could order it wholesale at the store, but he wouldn’t do that. He’s never set foot in that store, not past the Exit door, anyhow. Why don’t you two have a seat?”
    Since Rayjean took her own seat in a cane-bottom rocker by the TV set, Rhodes and Ivy sat on the couch. It was covered in gray cloth, and Rhodes thought it was too soft.
    “When’s the last time you saw Lige?” Rhodes asked when he had sunk into the couch as far as he thought he would sink.
    “It was yesterday afternoon,” Rayjean said. “He had something to do, and he said he’d be back by dark. But he never came.”
    “You didn’t call us,” Rhodes said.
    Rayjean didn’t say anything. She just sat there, her back stiff, the rocker unmoving. Her feet were flat on the floor, and her hands rested on her knees.
    Ivy spoke up. “It wasn’t the first time he’s stayed away, was it?”
    “No,” Rayjean said. “It wasn’t the first time.”
    There was a pause. Rhodes didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. Ivy seemed to be waiting for Rayjean to say more, and Rhodes was content to wait as well.
    Finally Rayjean said, “He drinks a little bit.”  She looked at Ivy. “It’s only since the store closed. He never did before.”
    There was another pause.
    “But he always came home before,” Rayjean said. “Maybe he’d stay out all night now and then, but he was always home by mornin’.”
    “Not this morning, though,” Ivy said.
    Rayjean shook her head. “No, ma’am, not this mornin’. But I wasn’t too worried till this afternoon. I started to get worried about dinner time. Lige isn’t one to miss his dinner. I expect he’ll be wanting supper mighty bad. Where’d you say he was?”
    “We didn’t say,” Ivy told her. “He won’t be coming home, Rayjean.”
    Rayjean leaned forward in the chair. “Why not?  Is he in the jail?”
    “No,” Rhodes said. “He’s dead, Mrs. Ward.”
    Rayjean slumped back in the chair, wrapped her arms around her thin body and started rocking. Her eyes were closed, and she was making a sound that sounded like “huhn, huhn, huhn.”
    Ivy stood up and went to put her arm around Rayjean. “Why don’t you go get her a drink of water, Dan,” she said.
    Rhodes got up and went into the kitchen, which was right next to the living room. It took him two tries to find the cabinet with the glasses in it. He held the glass under the sink faucet and turned on the water. When the glass was nearly full, he went back into the living room.
    Rayjean’s tightly controlled hair had come partially undone; a thin tendril hung down on her right cheek. Her eyes were open, and she was no longer sobbing.
    Rhodes handed her the glass of water. She took it and drank two quick sips, like a mechanical bird.
    “How did it happen?” she