Good Lord, Deliver Us Read Online Free PDF Page B

subject that "in-depth" TV journalism liked to cover. Z
could see TV people putting on pressure to have the house preserved
until a series of "specials" had wrung the fun out of it. A length
of time unacceptable to a man on the "rise" like
Ashlock.
    So, Calder thought there was something
wrong with the deal, did he? That made two of them, doubling Z's
need to take precautions by scouting ahead.
    Z rolled his wrist. Looked at his
watch. Saw it was almost 12 o'clock.
    Nearly noon and not that
hot.
    Or the building's air conditioner was
working better today.
    Or Z's watch had stopped at just
before midnight last night, Z raising his watch to his ear to hear
its asthmatic ticking.
    A quick P B and J sandwich from Z's
lunchtime sack leaving Z with the afternoon to take whatever
"ghostly" precautions seemed necessary.
     
    * * * * *
     
    The 1 o'clock drive to 2609 E.
Franklin was pleasant enough, the open windows of the little
Cavalier providing the evaporation to keep Z cool in spite of the
day's heat. Or it could be that Z felt ... comfortable ... because
he wasn't on his way to yesterday's meeting where he'd thought he'd
be facing an academic giant. (An outside possibility was that Z
felt fine because he liked detective work, the "ghost job" about to
get underway.)
    It was a fifteen minute
trip over the new stretch of I-35 connecting Gladstone to Liberty,
the odors coming through the window the same as before: hot
pavement and dry straw, straw that the highway department had
spread up the sides of the raw cuts they'd made through the hills
to "flatten" the rolling land for the new road, the straw anchoring
grass seed sown in the bare spots. (Z tried not to notice the diesel odor of
truck exhaust, the scorch of overheated tires, or the non-odor of
carbon monoxide sifting through the floorboards from Z's rotted
muffler.)
    Strange, how driving the same route a
few times last year (then again yesterday) had made the distance
seem shorter.
    Thinking about the tricks
your mind could play on you (Z reviewing job-related information to
take his mind off the stiffness in his cramped knee,) mental
mistakes called even the most honest eyewitness testimony into
doubt. Was it a green or a blue car that ran the light and killed
those nuns? Two people standing side by side on the corner would
give you different colors of the car they both "saw" speeding off.
Nor were people's recollections any better after they'd had time to
reflect, people "remembering" what they should have seen!
    Which, now that Z was on
this line of thought, was what was wrong with the Scherer bust. The
cops who'd been following that rental vehicle at a distance had hit
it soon after discovering it parked under an overpass, finding the
van stuffed with marijuana. After that, no less than three
witnesses had come forward to swear they'd seen the Betterton woman
at the wheel of the rental as she passed them by, not five minutes
earlier. Satisfied he could place her in the van (even though the
police found nobody there when they raided it,) Scherer had proudly
arrested her. Did it in person in order to take total credit for
the bust, his plan to use that take-down to become Mr. Drug Fighter
in the next Clay County sheriff's election. After that victory, run for
... anything he wanted.
    It was Z, hired by the Betterton
family, who had done the legwork that proved the woman was
elsewhere at the time. So neat a bit of detective work that Scherer
had never forgiven Z for it. Case closed.
    Memory time over, Z left I-35 by
spiraling down Exit Ramp 13 to take the old access road into
Liberty, Z staying on it until the road changed its name to North
Elm -- a wide, tree-lined boulevard that drifted into town through
old, but well-kept, two and three-story residences.
    Following Elm until it took him past
the square and through the eastern part of Liberty, Z turned right
at the front of the campus, then left again on the road below the
bluff.
    Passing the wedge of college buildings
on