R.P. Dahlke - Dead Red 04 - A Dead Red Alibi Read Online Free PDF Page B

item. It was a padded jacket, turned inside out, the f lannel lining dirty and ripped.
    Karen stopped my dad before he could pick it up. “Wait. This could be an important piece of evidence. Detective Tom will want to see it where it is.”
    My father looked confused. “It looks like—”
    We all turned at a man’s deep voice. “Karen? Is that you?”
    “Ian Tom,” Karen said. “I’m so glad to see you. Lalla, Mr. Bains, this is chief homicide detective for Cochise County, Ian Tom. Lalla Bains owns the old Bains place now, Ian.”
    The man looked to be in his mid-forties. Bronzed skin and epicanthic folds at the inside corner of his eyes hinted at a distant Native American ancestor. He was also tall, maybe six-three, his big shoulders and flat abdomen under a neatly pressed dress shirt said he did more than sit behind a desk.
    He shook my dad’s hand, and I was pleased to see he wasn’t one to assume my dad was anything other than what he said he was—a retired crop duster from California.
    I thought it odd when the detective’s gaze landed on my hands. They were, as always, chapped, nicked from working, with short, unpainted nails and only my engagement band with the single diamond to mention my single or not status. Then again, was he looking to see if these were the kind of hands that could kill someone? When my eyes came up to meet his, I saw humor, as well as speculation, as he worked around the how and why I might be involved with this murder case. I had to agree with Karen, this was a man who could put two and two together and know what to do about it.
    Introductions over, he asked about the jacket on the ground.
    “Matilda led us to it,” Karen said. “I thought it might be a clue, since we started out looking for Mr. Bains. Of course, we also found the police chief.”
    He shook his head, frowning. “The police chief? Back up a minute. What’s this have to do with the police chief?”
    “ Deputy Dumb-Ass,” my dad muttered.
    I nudged him before he could add an expletive and said, “ A sheriff’s deputy.”
    I started from the beginning, ending with Karen’s identifying the body in the pit as Wishbone’s police chief.
    “And the deputy got your particulars and took your statements?”
    “Not exactly,” Karen said. “He was interrupted by a call to come here and secure another crime scene.”
    The detective heaved a sigh and took out his notebook. “Let’s start over again. Karen, you said you and Miss Bains tracked her father to a mine pit where you also found the body of the police chief? Where exactly is this pit?”
    Karen looked downhill, “About a mile east, between the Bains’s place and here?”
    Detective Tom eye-balled my dad’s dusty clothes. “And how did you happen on the pit, Mr. Bains?”
    The Adam’s apple on my dad’s neck bobbed. “I was enjoying my new Jeep you see, driving through gullies and over hills, looking for my uncle’s gold mine. That’s when I saw someone on the property. He must’ve seen me and sped off before I could get there.”
    “What kind of vehicle?”
    “A truck. White, I think. That’s when I noticed the pit. The old boards covering it looked to have been messed with. I-I thought I saw something below. I took off my jacket and laid it on the Jeep fender, got out some rope, tied it to the bumper and went down the hole. Then the rope broke and … I just don’t know how that ,” he said, pointing to the jacket, “got all the way up here.”
    “What’re you talking about?” I asked.
    “The wind couldn’t blow it this far, could it?” Karen said, looking uncomfortable with the suggestion.
    I looked down at the item in question. “Are you saying this is—?”
    “—my jacket,” my dad finished for me.
    The detective tilted back his head and looked up at the quiet poplars. “I think it would be fair to say that someone brought it here. Leave it, and I’ll have a deputy bag it. I’ll send deputies to secure the pit until the