Here Be Monsters (Tyler Cunningham) Read Online Free PDF

lie.
    “How on Earth do you know Jacob Hostetler?” Frank dropped the bomb, short-circuiting some clever back and forth that I had already scripted.
    “He purchased one of my watercolors recently.” Very recently...
    “So his daughter just happened to call you and ask for a ride home?” I nodded in response to this, not wanting to give tongue to the lie, when a gesture would do as well.
    “You pick her up in Saranac Lake?” This was a trap, but Frank had the courtesy to smile and let me know that he knew it was an easy one.
    “No, I picked her up sometime around 3a.m. ( more like 2:25, but precision never improves the early drafts of a story ), at the gas station near Despo's.” This last detail was a lie, but I had stopped at that station on the way out of town for a coke and some other stuff for the drive up to Madrid Springs; I even had a receipt if it came to that ( I find that precise details/evidence that don't really mean much can nonetheless be useful in persuading Frank to move on to harder targets ).
    “So you weren't at the Olympic Motor Inn last night for the excitement?” Frank asked.
    “Nope, what happened, and what's it got to do with Sadie.” We could both play at the faux show of our cards game.
    “Probably nothing... I hope nothing. I got an earful from a friend of hers two days ago about Sadie going missing after dancing with some boys, said they were from North Country.”
    “North Country School?” It's always worth dodging the easy traps.
    “North Country Community College. Sadie's friend thought that the boys might have doped her drink and taken her for a private party back at their place; and late last night two boys from NCCC had some car trouble... their car, what kind was it again?”
    “I don't know, you tell me.” I've been trapped by Frank before, but the day he gets me on a lob like that, I'll pack my bags and move to Detroit.
    “It was a Honda, if that matters.” I couldn't imagine how it could, but didn't want to stop Frank’s flow; he continued, “It burned to the exterior metal, and melted the tires so it was resting on rims by the time the Fire Department finished foaming it down.”
    “Sounds nasty, was anyone hurt?” I already knew the answer to this one, but I liked serving it up to Frank to remind him that I'm as careful as I can be.
    “Lucky break... nope, nobody hurt... the boys had asked for a room way off to one end, so there weren't any other cars nearby. Interesting thing about the fire and the boys though...” He left that hanging there, so I stepped up, reasonably sure that I could see the path this conversation was taking.
    “What's that? Did they know Sadie? Now that would be a coincidence.” Luckily I don't do much in the way of facial expressions, or I might have let a smirk slip at this point.
    “Well, at first they were really pissed about the car, and who wouldn't be? They were yelling at each other when the LPPD rolled up after the fire trucks were pretty much done hosing their car down. But once they started talking to the police, they got quiet and stupid and obsequious with the LPPD.”
    “Nice word.” I nodded at Frank.
    “Thanks... anyway once they started talking to the responding officers in LP, they backtracked a bit from an earlier version that sounded as though they blamed 'some bitch' or 'that bitch's friends'. Instead, they decided that the fire must have been their fault.”
    “Huh... well there you go, nothing to do with me or Sadie, just some dumb kids.” I'm not a physical guy, and once I had found Sadie, I couldn't think of a way to get her out of the room, past the two big guys, that didn't involve Frank's type of solution, or me bleeding in the gutter... neither option appealed to me, so I went with plan C. A nice parking lot fire is easy to start ( HEET gas line cleaner, works well ). It gets peoples' attention, makes lots of noise, throws lots of pretty colors and shadows, and generally provides great cover for a