Dead on the Island Read Online Free PDF

all. But we weren't as
bad as all that. Anyway, Dino remembers. He thinks of me as sort of
one of the family. There's not many of the old bunch left around
here, you know?"
    I said I knew. "Did Sharon have any friends
at the college, anyone she might have confided in?"
    She thought about it for a second or two.
"There's one girl there, Julie Gregg, who works in the Social
Studies Department. Sharon mentioned her a few times."
    "One more thing. How did Sharon find out
about your past?"
    She reached for another cigarette and lit
it, whether she smoked too much or not. "I wish I knew," she said.
"I wish I knew."
     

4
     
    The last time I saw Jan was about six months
before she disappeared. She drove up to Dallas to visit me one
weekend. I'd been promising to get down to the Island for nearly a
year, but I'd never done it. We went out to eat, to a movie, and
talked about the old days. She seemed happy and pleased with her
life.
    When her letters stopped, I got worried, but
not worried enough. And by the time I did get worried enough, it
was already too late. I hoped that I wouldn't be too late for
Sharon. Maybe I was thinking that in some way finding Sharon would
make up for losing Jan. Or maybe in some way I hoped that in
looking for Sharon I could find a trace of Jan, something new that
would put me on the right track. Whatever it was, I'd decided to
give it a try. If Dino hadn't convinced me, talking to Evelyn
Matthews had. I thought she was an honest woman.
    It was still cold when I left her house, but
the sky was beginning to clear a little. It was dark, and I could
see a star or two, which meant that the front had managed to push
its way out into the Gulf and that tomorrow would be considerably
warmer. You could never tell about February, though.
    I drove back to my house, which really
wasn't that far, and parked in the back yard. Nameless materialized
at my feet when I stepped out of the car and followed me inside. I
made sure his water bowl was full and tore open a packet of Tender
Vittles for him. While he was scarfing it down, I went upstairs to
check out the refrigerator. There wasn't really anything I could do
about Sharon Matthews until the next day, and I was hungry.
    The refrigerator still held what it had when
I'd looked earlier, a half a loaf of bread, part of a jar of peanut
butter, a nearly empty two-liter bottle of Big Red, a piece of
cheddar cheese wrapped up in plastic wrap so that I could see the
greenish mold spots on it, a couple of Hormel wieners, and a dish
of something that had probably been edible once, a long time ago.
Having had peanut butter for lunch, I decided to spend some of
Dino's money and treat myself to a hamburger.
    I went back downstairs, carrying a load of
laundry. Nameless was chasing a roach the size of one of those
thick pink erasers I used in the first grade. I watched until he
caught it, then shooed him away and crunched it underfoot before it
could run away. He'd weakened it considerably, or I never would
have caught it.
    I dumped the dirty clothes in the washer,
pitched in some Tide, which had been on sale last week, and started
the washer. By then Nameless was at the door, ready to go out. He
didn't spend any of the nighttime hours in the house, not by
choice. He was nothing more than an orange blur moving through the
darkness by the time I got to the first step.
    Monday night in February--the streets
weren't crowded. I drove down Broadway to the golden arches and ate
two cheeseburgers and a large order of fries. The fries were better
than the burgers.
    It was still early, so I went home and tried
to read a little more of Absalom, Absalom . This time, I
found the going a little easier. That worried me a little, but not
much. I read until ten o'clock; then I went to bed. I was surprised
next morning to realize that I drifted off to sleep almost
immediately.
    ~ * ~
    I got up at seven o'clock, ate a piece of
dry toast, and let Nameless in. He was ready for more Tender
Vittles.