Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek: A Samuel Craddock Mystery (Samuel Craddock Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Grant. We figured the Two Dog Bar needs more than its share of law enforcement, so Oscar ought to be on the committee. And Jim Krueger, since he’s the school principal.” Jim is the father of James Harley Krueger, acting chief of police. The two men couldn’t be more different. “Jim will be an asset to the committee.”
    “That’s only seven.”
    “Slate McClusky was there, too, although I can’t say he contributed much. He mostly grinned and tried to agree with everybody.”
    “Why did you ask him? He only lives here part-time.”
    “He’s a successful businessman, so we thought he might have some ideas.” My motives weren’t pure. I thought since McClusky was the richest man in town he might be willing to chip in a little extra money for law enforcement. I could put money in, and I know a couple of other people I could count on, too. But the committee didn’t get that far.
    “Was he above it all?” She’s not looking at me; she’s busy making little stitches, but I know she’s concentrating on what I’m saying.
    “Nothing like that. Everybody got in an uproar arguing whether we even need law enforcement. Dellmore had the bright idea that we ought to try to get along with a volunteer force to back up the two part-time officers we’re able to pay, and he didn’t want to hear any argument.”
    She sets her work down on her lap. “That’s ridiculous! We can’t make do with a bunch of amateurs who don’t know a thing about how to handle a criminal. Next thing you know someone will shoot somebody by accident. It’s bad enough that everything else in town is falling apart.”
    “Nothing is falling apart. There will be volunteers to take care of things. You know the fire department has always been a bunch of volunteers.”
    “Yes, but I don’t like the idea of volunteer police.”
    “Neither do I, but there were some who wanted to try it.”
    “Who besides Gary Dellmore?”
    “Oscar Grant, for one. You know how Oscar is, though. He’s pretty independent. He said he could take care of problems at his bar, and for any other problems we only need a couple of part-time officers. And Dellmore only needed one person on his side to think he had a majority.”
    “Nobody would argue with him? You didn’t disagree?”
    “Of course we argued. Rusty Reinhardt pitched a fit, but it was hard to reason with Dellmore. It was my fault for not having an agenda for the meeting. Reinhardt had a plan, but I hadn’t counted on people having such different ideas.”
    Loretta picks up her work again. “With Gary being killed, that’s pretty good proof that we need a police force. Until we get one, who’s going to investigate his murder? Somebody has to.”
    “Like I said, Rusty has a plan. He’s off taking care of it right now.”
    “What plan?”
    “Let’s hold off until it’s official.”
    I don’t want to tell her that Reinhardt has me in mind. It may turn out that the sheriff in Bobtail doesn’t like Reinhardt’s plan and will come up with another idea.
    “Shame for that boy to be killed. Such a good-looking boy. But he knew it. I hear he catted around a good bit. You think maybe Barbara had enough of it and killed him?”
    “Loretta, don’t go make accusations like that!”
    “All I’m saying is it must have been awfully hard on her having him run around the way he did, especially her being older—and you know as well as I do she’s not holding on to her looks.”
    “She looks okay to me.” I speak more sharply than I intended to and she looks surprised.
    She sniffs. “I don’t know what’s gotten into all these married men around here anyway, carrying on the way they do.”
    “You mean Gabe LoPresto,” I say.
    “Of course that’s who I mean.”
    LoPresto has scandalized the town by taking up with a young girl who works at Citizens Bank and moving out of his house. He’s in his fifties and the girl is in her twenties. I figure LoPresto is making a last-ditch effort to capture his