Stranger in the Room: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

have-nots. But the Wades were about to take off work, which they can’t afford, and drive seven hours from Big Knob to the coast, pay to charter a boat just to toss a bunch of cement mix into the Atlantic.”
    “And chicken feed,” I added.
    “That’s right. And chicken feed, for God’s sake.” Larry chuckled. “How would you feel?”
    “Lord knows.”
    “See what I mean?”
    “And you just want to help,” I said. “What a guy.”
    “That’s exactly right,” Quinn agreed, and I could tell he was smiling that big smile that was famous on Atlanta television.
Make one call before the fall
, he’d say in that Old South accent, and point at the camera.
    “So, what’s up with the chicken feed?”
    “According to the owner,” Larry told me, “this person stored the bag of cement mix he intended to use in the urn with the chicken feed. There was a spill and it ended up getting mixed together somehow.”
    “Chickens? At a crematory?”
    “Fried chicken,” Neil muttered.
    “Look, Keye, the point is the ashes weren’t ashes.”
    “Yeah, I get it. And I still want to know why there are chickens at a crematory.”
    Quinn sighed, as if his detective shouldn’t pester him with questions. “Well, the way I understand it is it’s a little farm. Sixteen acres. It’s actually a good thing the chicken feed got mixed up in there or nobody would have noticed. Cement mix looks pretty much like cremated human remains. Or so I’ve been told.”
    I thought about the blown weekend planned with Rauser. I thoughtabout the desserts my mother would have on the long picnic table in their Winnona Park backyard—deep-dish blackberry cobbler, sweet-potato cheesecake, banana cream pie. Then I imagined what she’d say when I walked in alone.
Keye, bless your little heart. You have always been attracted to the kind of man who would leave you all alone on a holiday
.
    “This weekend might be a great time to catch people at home,” I told Larry. “I’ll do it. Email me contact info on the Wades and the crematory’s sneaky employee.”
    “That’s another thing fishy about this guy. The Wades claim folks up there don’t remember any employees since the father died and the son took over the business a couple of years ago. Kirkpatrick says he doesn’t have a way to get in touch with the man. Hispanic, no green card. Says he was paying him under the table.”
    “Illegals have names too, Larry.”
    “Not this one.”
    I disconnected and stood leaning against the kitchen counter with my coffee cup in my hand. “That was totally weird,” Neil said, and switched back to his morning news program.
    “Tell me about it.”
    “Think you’ll have to see dead people?”
    I took a last drink of red foamy coffee and left my cup on the counter. “I hope not.”
    “Yeah, that would be creepy.” Neil tossed his head to get the bangs away from his eyes. “Can I go?”
    “Seriously?”
    “I need to get away.”
    I grinned at him. “You made plans with
both
of them, didn’t you?”
    “It was an accident.”
    “And now you’re just going to stand both women up and run away?”
    “Pretty much.”
    I grabbed a soft leather file bag with a shoulder strap and stuffed it full. “I’m going to drop off some background reports and pick up a job from Tyrone. I have my phone.” I glanced down at it and saw a new email had arrived. Miki’s list of six men she’d dated in two years. Four in the United States, two in Europe—the complications or benefits of traveling for a living. I forwarded the list to Neil’s mailbox.
    “Bring some food back, would ya?” Neil asked. He’d cleaned out whatever supplies we had in the refrigerator and cabinets, and resorted to eating one of those sample boxes of cereal that arrived in the mail. We were out of milk too, but he poured the cereal in a bowl anyway and ate it with a spoon.
    “You know,” I said, “this problem is easily solved by grocery shopping. It’s way past your