The Blight Way Read Online Free PDF

with a gold money clip.
    â€œWell, this tells me one thing,” he said.
    â€œHe’s rich?” Buck said.
    â€œMaybe that, too. But for sure, he wasn’t killed by one of the Scraggs, and they sure haven’t been out here checking the body. Maybe Batim actually learned something over the years.”
    Pap squatted down and studied the ground near the body.
    â€œSee anything?” Tully asked.
    â€œA couple of tracks. Looks like he was really moving when he hit the fence. Got a couple of faint shoe marks five or six feet apart. The foot with the sock on it didn’t make much of a track. The ground’s pretty hard.”
    â€œSomebody was after him. This guy was hunted down. How far across to that other fence you reckon?”
    â€œHundred yards or so,” Pap said.
    â€œProbably hit with a semiautomatic, don’t you think?”
    Pap straightened up and blew on his hands to warm them. “Probably. I’d guess both slugs hit him just as he got to the fence. Pop pop! Otherwise, the first one would have knocked him down out in the pasture. Must have used a rifle at that distance. Otherwise, he was oneterrific pistol shot, to put two bullets in this guy that close together.”
    â€œI don’t get it,” Buck said. “The Scraggs say they didn’t hear a thing during the night.”
    â€œWhat Scraggs say doesn’t mean much,” Tully said.
    Pap studied the far fence. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was shot from there,” he said, pointing. “Full moon last night. Pretty bright out. Could have shot without a night scope. Probably had a night scope anyway.”
    â€œWouldn’t hurt if we got ourselves a tracker,” Tully said. “See if we can pick up a trail of some kind.”
    â€œHow about Dave Perkins?” Buck said. “He claims to be an Indian.”
    â€œDave is about as Indian as I am,” Pap said. “That doesn’t stop him from talking about opening a casino on his reservation.”
    Tully turned from examining the body. “His reservation? What’s his reservation?”
    â€œI guess it’s what Dave’s House of Fry sits on,” Buck said. “About five acres. Dave claims not only is it the ‘Home of the World’s Best and Biggest Chicken-Fried Steak,’ it’s also the world’s smallest Indian reservation.”
    â€œI suppose he has a tribe, too,” Tully said.
    â€œOh yeah,” Buck said. “The Dave Tribe.”
    â€œFigures. Buck, go see if you can get him out here. Tell him the Sheriff’s Department will even pay him for his services this time.”
    â€œThey paying for my services, too?” Pap said.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHow did I guess that?”

Chapter 5
    Tully slipped the roll of cash back into the dead man’s pocket and the billfold back into the suit jacket.
    â€œI hate to see a law officer do something that stupid,” Pap said.
    Tully smiled. “Not many guys around here carry their cash like that. A wad in their pocket.”
    â€œFor one thing, they don’t have cash like that,” Pap said. “If they did, they’d still keep it in their billfold and the billfold in their hip pocket. They keep all their money and important papers in their billfolds. Most of them look like they got some kind of growth on their butt even without the cash.”
    â€œSo why do you figure a guy like this would be out here in the middle of the night?”
    â€œBeats me. He sure don’t look like a rustler, but there ain’t nothing around here except a bunch of cows. Hey, here comes the new medical examiner now, I bet.”
    A white Chevy Suburban bumped across the pasture.
    The vehicle stopped a few feet away. A trim, tall woman with shoulder-length, dark hair got out. She wore dark-rimmed glasses, a blue insulated jacket over jeans and leather boots. She was in fact quite a bit prettier than Tully’s