Dead Hot Shot (Loon Lake Fishing Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the full-time services of an odontologist. That budget issue guaranteed him access to Chief Ferris whenever their region yielded the remains of a hapless fisherman who suffered a heart attack while landing a 47-inch muskie, a hunter felled by a self-inflicted gunshot wound as he tumbled from a deer stand, or a snowmobiler too drunk to see a break in the lake ice.
    It pleased Osborne, too, that over time Lew had made it clear she preferred to work with him — the guy she met in a trout stream the night he thought he had hired a fishing guide named “Lou” — rather than Pecore. And having decided to teach him that fly fishing was about more than just fishing — she refused to let him pay for instruction on how to cast a weightless trout fly.
    Pecore managed to aid and abet their relationship with his own aberrant behavior — a pattern that combined a talent for disappearing without notice with so many DUIs that he was likely to be transportation-challenged when most needed. But no matter how hard he might work to compromise his duties as Loon Lake’s appointed coroner — Pecore was in for life, the mayor was his brother-in-law.
    • • •
    “Doc, the victim’s family has been patient,” said Lew as if she suspected he might be intending to finish a cup of coffee.
    “I’m on my way. I’ll stop by the house for my medical bag and be there within fifteen minutes. I know a shortcut off County C so it won’t take long. Routine death certificate?”
    “Umm — circumstances uncertain.” The tone in her voice changed, implying she didn’t want to say too much given people standing nearby. “Todd is on his way and I’ve got a call in to the Wausau boys who are, of course, off for the holiday so who knows when they’ll connect, but I’ve alerted St. Mary’s we may using their morgue.”
    Her tone was crisp and the signal clear: something was out of the ordinary. Had to be if she was pulling Todd Martin, her junior officer, away from his Thanksgiving table. And enlisting the Wausau Crime Lab on a national holiday? The Loon Lake municipal budget would be charged double for that. Osborne was intrigued. He forgot all about Kathleen and Fred.

CHAPTER 6
    Jeez, Dad, what’s all the excitement about?” said Erin, glancing up from where she was slathering a pale yellow sauce over steamed broccoli as Osborne walked back into the kitchen.
    “Not sure exactly.” He reached for the hunting jacket that he had hung over a kitchen chair. “Lew needs me out at the Reece place. There’s been an accident — a drowning she said — and Pecore is AWOL, of course.”
    “Who drowned?” said Erin, wooden spoon midair and her face serious. “Anyone we know?”
    “No idea. Lew didn’t say. Doubt it though. Your mother used to talk about Nolan Reece. Sort of like Loon Lake royalty.”
    “Yeah, and I’ve been hearing a lot about the Reece place lately. They say the house is amazing.” Opening the refrigerator, Erin bent to pull foil-covered dishes from inside as she said, “Better brace yourself — that Mrs. Reece is a piece of work.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Observation. She’s been in the Loon Lake Market a few times when I was there with the kids. And, Dad, I know I sound mean-spirited but to my eye that woman is big, she’s loud, and you’d think she owns Loon Lake the way she bosses people around. Just ask the poor guys behind the meat counter — according to her they can’t do anything right.”
    “Oh? Maybe that’s the problem,” said Osborne. “Lew’s asked the Wausau boys to help out, and you know how she hates to do that.”
    “The crime lab, huh. Must mean an autopsy. Well, isn’t that interesting.”
    “Now don’t jump to conclusions, kiddo,” said Osborne, aware he may have said too much. Given his son-in-law was the assistant DA, he didn’t need to have Mark’s office on high alert unless there was good reason. “Drowning is not considered death by natural causes so an autopsy is