Cemetery Road Read Online Free PDF Page B

enemy camp.
    ‘Toni is a licensed private investigator up in Seattle where she lives now,’ Frances Burrow said. ‘And she’s going to stay down here and talk to people until she gets some answers.’
    I turned to Toni, who only looked back at me with the burning resentment of an indentured servant.
    ‘I’m not sure that would be a very good idea,’ I said.
    ‘No? And why is that?’
    ‘Because the police aren’t going to like it, Mother. I’ve explained that to you,’ Toni said.
    ‘I don’t care what they like or don’t like, and neither should you. They think your father was a common drug dealer, and as long as they have that ridiculous idea, they’re never going to find the animal who killed him. Never!’
    R.J.’s widow set her jaw and waited for her daughter’s rebuttal, but Toni Burrow didn’t offer one. I gathered my nerve and spoke in her stead, again about to tread on dangerous ground.
    ‘I hope both of you will forgive me for asking this, because I’m certain you’ll find it a ridiculous question. But it’s been over twenty-five years since I last saw R.J., like I said, so I don’t know.’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Is there any way he could have died the way they say? That is, is it possible—’
    ‘No.’
    ‘If things weren’t going well for him lately, or if he was in some kind of serious money trouble—’
    ‘No! He wasn’t out on that beach making any drug deal!’ Frances Burrow was livid, her eyes tearing up now. ‘You didn’t know him. How far he’d come, how hard he’d worked to change.’ She looked over at Toni. ‘Neither one of you knows.’
    ‘That isn’t fair, Momma.’
    ‘What isn’t fair is what they did to him. He didn’t deserve to die like that, I don’t care what he was doing that night!’
    She finally broke down, sobbing into her hands, body heaving. Her daughter went to comfort her, but was waved away.
    ‘I’m going back up to my room,’ Frances Burrow said, rising on unsteady legs. ‘I’m tired.’ I stood up again and watched as she slowly made her way to the door. ‘Goodbye, Mr White. Bobby always spoke very highly of you, and it was kind of you to come by.’
    I opened my mouth to apologize but she was gone before I could get the words out. Toni Burrow and I endured an awkward silence for a moment, then she put us out of our misery. ‘I’ll walk you to the door,’ she said.
    Back out on the porch, in lieu of a simple goodbye, I said, ‘She’s a very headstrong woman and she obviously loved your father a great deal. But I don’t think your mother understands how much trouble you could get yourself into, trying to find out who killed R.J. on your own.’
    ‘No. She doesn’t.’
    ‘At the very least, I expect the LAPD would threaten to arrest you for interfering in an ongoing investigation.’
    ‘Actually, it’s Santa Monica PD, but your point is well taken.’
    ‘You really a private investigator up in Seattle like she said?’
    ‘Yes. But not the kind she thinks. I work for a law firm up there, Hubble and Kleinman. The majority of what I do is conduct interviews and collect evidence in paternity cases.’
    ‘Then homicide investigations aren’t a big part of your practice.’
    ‘They aren’t any part of my practice. But trying to tell that to Mother is pointless. She thinks my license to operate in Washington State is as good as a detective’s badge anywhere in the world.’
    ‘Well, you can’t really blame her, can you? Convinced as she is that the police are all wrong about R.J. and the way he died, what else would she do but expect his daughter to set them straight?’
    If she heard the question, she didn’t answer it.
    ‘Or maybe you don’t think they need to be set straight,’ I said, probing.
    ‘It was good of you to come back and see us, Mr White,’ Toni Burrow said. ‘I hope you have a pleasant trip back home.’
    It was all the farewell she was going to leave me with before closing her mother’s front door.

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