Murder Grins and Bears It Read Online Free PDF

pretty
soon so was I. My stomach started up and before you know it, I had
a bellyache you wouldn’t believe. So I took the car and went back
to the house for my Tums. I usually carry them, what with my bad
stomach, but I forgot this morning. Wouldn’t ya know, just when I
need ’em. And you know how I git. Starts with gas rumbling through
my intestines and…”
    “ Okay, okay,” I
interrupted. The last thing I needed was a graphic description of
Carl’s bodily functions. “Then what?”
    “ Then I drove back and
found that guy. What was left of him. It was awful.”
    I thought about giving Carl a pat on the
hand or an arm squeeze to let him know everything was going to be
okay. But in the warmth of the afternoon the chicken grease fumes
radiating from his body were about to knock me flat out.
    “ What was Little Donny
doing through all this?”
    “ When I left, he was
leaning against a tree, cradling his rifle in his arm and stuffing
a doughnut in his mouth.”
    That’s my grandson.
    “ And when I come back,”
Carl continued, “his rifle was throwed down next to that dead guy,
and Little Donny was gone. I called around for him, but he didn’t
answer. Then I went and got Blaze. But I waited here. I couldn’t
bring myself to go back in them woods.” Carl looked out at the rows
of cop cars. “Looks like the whole state of Michigan’s police force
is here.”
    I followed Carl’s gaze. Deputy Sheedlo,
another of Blaze’s key deputies, a lardy man with no apparent neck,
opened the back of a truck bed and hauled an animal out of a crate.
The two of them trotted by, heading for Little Donny’s Ford
Escort.
    The animal swung its head in my direction
and our eyes met. It was an enormous, black German shepherd with
red devil eyes and fangs the size of meat hooks. My blood quit
pumping through my overworked veins.
    I wasn’t going to find Little Donny waiting
for me at my house, griping at me because I took his wheels. I
wouldn’t find him at the refrigerator eating me into the poor
house.
    “ Omigod,” I whispered to
myself, staring at the beast. “They’re searching for Little
Donny.”

    chapter 3

    Deputies and volunteers scattered when they
saw Devil Fang approaching with Deputy Sheedlo in tow--all except
greasy-headed Dickey, who stood waiting with his skinny legs spread
wide and his fists clutching the lapels of his green hairy
jacket.
    Deputy Sheedlo had his hands full, working a
few muscles that he didn’t normally use just trying to keep the
enormous canine from ripping the leash right out of his hands. You
could see blue veins bulging on the man’s forehead and sweat beads
gleaming along his receding hairline.
    Deputy Dickey opened the driver’s door of
Little Donny’s Ford Escort and Devil Fang bounded into the car. He
did the old sniff-snort around the seat and steering wheel, then
No-Neck Sheedlo led him to the edge of the woods and looked back at
Dickey.
    Devil Fang was sniff-snorting the ground
when Dickey nodded the go-ahead. Sheedlo released the animal from
the leash. I was still leaning against the side of Blaze’s
sheriff’s truck watching the action when the light bulb went on in
my brain. Since I was the last one driving Little Donny’s car, my
scent was undoubtedly all over it.
    Quickly I scooted around the outside of
Blaze’s new truck, heading for the driver’s door, when I heard the
blood-curdling howl. The hairs on my arms stood up.
    I almost made it.
    I ripped the door open and reached for the
steering wheel with one hand. I even had one foot firmly planted
inside before the dog had me by the back of my suspenders. He
clamped on and shook his head back and forth, snarling.
    Deputy Dickey found us that way. I hung on
to the steering wheel for dear life while Devil Fang tried to rip
me out by my orange suspenders.
    “ Get this big, stupid,
sorry excuse for a domestic animal off of me,” I hollered. “He
ripped my new suspender pants.”
    At a command from Dickey, the