Lethal Lineage Read Online Free PDF Page A

first and pick up the key to the anteroom. Visit a little and grab a bit to eat so folks won’t think there’s anything wrong.”
    “Which of course, there isn’t, which is why I’m on my way there.”

Chapter Six
    Twenty minutes later Sam drove into the yard. After he’d chatted up a few people and made a pass through the food tables, I called him into the kitchen. “Who’s on dispatch today?”
    “Betty Central.”
    “Damn it. I was hoping it was Troy.” The new deputy, Troy Doyle, wasn’t as nosy as Betty.
    “Bad luck, but just in case, I have to check in as ‘on duty.’ I want it on record.”
    “Just in case,” I muttered. Well, true, if he found anything wrong, he couldn’t pretend he’d decided to go over there on a whim.
    “I’ll tell Betty I’m going to run by the church and make sure everything got locked up.”
    “OK. And make sure you double-check the anteroom. That’s where we found the body. She was still in her vestments and wearing a dress and a cotton slip so they absorbed all the body fluids. I didn’t see a trace of blood.”
    Through my window, I saw children dash in and out among the cedars. Getting filthy. Getting sticky. This should have been a fine day. “Sorry,” I said again.
    Sam nodded. “After I’m done, I’ll pick up Betty and she can drive Mary’s car back to the office.”
    “OK. After you look around I’ll vacuum and clean. Maybe tomorrow. See what you think or find and the coroner rules.”
    And perhaps I would ask a priest to do whatever it is they do to chase out evil spirits, although I doubted that a full blown exorcism was called for.
    “Try to calm down, Lottie. I’ll take over duty today. You’re off and I’m on.”
    ***
    He was back in a hour. “Nothing, Lottie. A few things left in the pews. Mostly just trash. Used Kleenexes, a couple of ball point pens, a pacifier, and a handkerchief with a crocheted edge. So we know nothing until we get the medical opinion.”
    “That’s a relief. As for the pens and the hanky, I’ll start a little lost and found box.”
    “She was a good woman,” he said.
    “The best. She will be sorely missed.”
    He slapped his hat on his head and started toward his car.
    “Want me to take care of notifying her family?” I called after him.
    He stopped. “Oh shit. No, the coroner will do it. Try to get on with what’s left of the day. If you can.”
    I shuddered. I had a feeling our brave little church wasn’t going to survive this tragic beginning. St. Helena was tainted. Invaded by a dark angel now hovering over the building and the congregation.
    In fact, even if nothing else had happened, the ruinous sermon had set us up for failure. Western Kansans don’t like to be scolded. We just don’t. We don’t like Eastern Kansans or outsiders coming in with high-faluting plans for our part of the state like we somehow lack the brains to manage on our own. The longer I live in Western Kansas, the more I become like the people who have always lived here.
    ***
    After the long day finally ended I poured a merlot and joined Keith on the patio. Some of our relations were staying in the motel in town. Josie was staying at our house. Unaffected by our family’s superstition about the spare bedroom, she’d retreated there about an hour ago trying to ward off a headache.
    Keith reached for my hand and we both lay quietly side by side in the recliners on our patio. It was a rare warm evening for March but the weather likely wouldn’t hold because it never did. There’s a cedar windbreak on the north and west sides of our house. It’s intended to thwart blowing dirt and snow, but tonight the thick trees felt oppressive.
    Nothing bloomed. The branches of our cottonwood trees formed dark silhouettes. No stars twinkled through the smothering layers of soiled clouds. It was too early in the year for our buffalo grass to green up, so there was a sparse brown cast to our yard. Dried up. Like the whole miserable day. Even the