Kentucky Murders: A Small Town Murder Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

watching the two men play. Their other games didn’t go as quickly as the first, which might have been mostly luck. The customers poured in until about ten-thirty, and another couple claimed the middle pool table just as she walked in. She was above-average-looking and obviously a regular, since she waved to some and hugged some other patrons. Zack reconsidered his first assessment of her as she came closer and decided that she was actually pretty. She greeted people as she worked her way slowly across the room before sitting alone at a scarred table with her back to the corner.
    Zack watched her for a while as she ordered and received her drink. “No, not tonight,” he said to nobody in a low voice.
    “Can I help you?” asked the friendly bartender, wiping the bar top with a rag and inspecting Zack’s bottle, which was still half full.
    “I’m good, just thinking out loud.” He stood and walked over to the unused pool table, slid two quarters into the slots, slapped the wooden rack on the table, and began filling it with the balls.
    “Alone?” asked a soft, female voice from the other end of the table.
    Squinting from the bright, low-hanging fluorescent light over the green cloth table, he saw her. She looked good, even in the harsh light, but she was slightly older than he had first thought. The beginning of tiny wrinkles forming at the corner of her eyes put her age at about thirty or thirty-five, he guessed. She wore a low-cut, black leather halter top over heavy, firm breasts.
    “I was just going to shoot around by myself. Why, do you want to play?”
    “Sure.” She smiled and walked off toward the stick rack.
    Zack watched as she swayed her rear end to the beat of a Merle Haggard tune playing on the jukebox. He knew she meant for him to watch. They played three games. Zack took the first two; she won the last. He’d tried to win them all, but the third game she just plain outplayed him. He wondered if she had let him win the first two.
    “Well,” he said. “That’s enough for me. I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I have to look for a job.”
    “You’re not inviting me over for a nightcap?” She leaned one hand against a hip, cocking her short black skirt to the side, while her deep blue eyes accented with makeup grew wide, and her shiny red lips formed a pretty pout.
    “ I u h well, I don’t have any…”
    “There’s a liquor store on the corner. We’ll buy a bottle on the way, unless you prefer beer.” She looped her arm through his.
    Zack hadn’t come here to pick up a girl, but since he was the one who had gotten picked up, then hey, what the hell. He motioned with his free hand. “Shall we?”
     
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    Zack awoke the next morning alone and smelling of sex and cheap booze. His watch read 7:23 as he sat up and quickly scooped up his wallet. Empty! The last thing he remembered was downing shots of whiskey. Wait a minut e had she been drinking with him? He couldn’t remember actually seeing her take a drink.
    He sighed and quickly pulled on his clothes. Then he realized that his keys were also gone. “Oh, my God!” he swore, thinking about the $1,180 cash locked in the glove compartment of his car.
    Hurrying outside, he found his car parked where he’d left it, thank God. His happiness was short-lived, however, at the sight of the open glove box door and the crumpled brown envelope lying on the seat. Inside, he sat in the driver’s seat. He stared at the envelope, afraid to touch it. He finally picked it up and was surprised to find it wasn’t empty. He counted out two hundred dollars. She had left a tip.
     
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    After interviewing patrons of the bar, the police found out that the woman had only been a customer for the past few weeks. She had done her best to make friends with the regulars as she apparently looked for her next mark, which turned out to be Zack.
    Zack spent the rest of the day at the police station flipping through mug shot books. The