The Dead Past Read Online Free PDF Page B

that Anna would go to bed with a man who actually used such a word as yahoos to describe any part of his anatomy.
    She pulled Anubis aside while Broghin leaned down and hugged her, cautiously working his way around the coffee table to the couch, careful of his yahoos. He didn't sit down so much as he quit fighting gravity and let himself topple backwards to the cushions. The couch slid a few inches and thumped the wall, shaking the picture frames.
    Anna turned her chair and smiled at me as if to say, Now what? I smiled stupidly back at her. She asked, "Franklin, may I offer you a cup of tea or coffee? We have a good deal of food left over from brunch. I can fix you a plate."
    "No," the sheriff said. "Thanks anyway. I was just paying a call to see how you were, after last night.”
    “You needn't have worried. I'm fine."
    "Yeah, I knew you would be." He nodded in my direction. "But I'm still glad Johnny's here with you. You're on your own too much of the time as it is, and you really shouldn't be alone after something like this, Anna. I feel a lot better knowing there's somebody else with you for at least a few days."
    It was obvious she didn't want to hear him talk about being watched over and taken care of, which only served to remind her of her own fears; the night had already faded before the fervor of her curiosity. "Have you made any progress in the case?"
    "Not a whole hell of a lot, Anna, to be truthful," he said. Broghin had a deep, melodic and pillowy voice when he wasn't shouting, along the lines of Bing Crosby. " Harraday was a creep from a whole family of creeps and I guess it just caught up with him is all."
    "Caught up with him?"
    "Yup."
    Anna waited for him to explain himself. When he didn't she commented, "I fail to catch your meaning.”
    “What meaning?"
    "Your meaning."
    "My meaning? What I mean?" The pulse in Broghin's neck ticked rapidly and the snow left a sheen of droplets on his face. "Well, it's the same old story. You've got a kid who's a bum and is always going to be a bum. He gets into trouble as a teenager and works his way into the fringes of serious crime. He steals a couple cars when he's bored, snatches a few purses, burgles houses every now and again, and eventually makes a few enemies. He was probably moving up to committing heavy-time felonies when he came across an even worse badass who double-crossed him. A drug deal gone wrong is my guess."
    I said, "Lowell told me that Margaret's home was Harraday's first burglary."
    "First one we caught him at, Johnny. That doesn't mean it was his only one." He pointed his index finger at me and cocked his thumb, shooting me with a silly grin like an oversized uncle playing games with his favorite nephew. It knotted my stomach to see him act this way. I almost would've preferred the red-faced maniac who'd cuffed me and escorted me to jail.
    Jesus , I thought, Broghin's nervous about something, too. What the hell is going on?
    Anna asked, "What was the cause of Richie Harraday's death, Franklin?"
    "I'd rather not say."
    "Why is that?"
    "I'd rather not say why not."
    "Why not?" she asked.
    "Why I don't want to tell you? Because I don't want to, Anna."
    "Yes, but why is that?" she insisted. It cracked me up how she worked him.
    "Why? Because we're so early into this investigation—Christ, it's barely been twelve hours—and I don't want to start taking potshots in the dark. We need more to go on." He held his hand up as if to ward her off. "When we have some leads I'll let you know exactly what's happening, but for now let me handle it."
    "But surely telling me the cause of death is not taking a potshot in the dark if Wallace has already finished his medical examination."
    "No, it's not," Broghin consented, "but this is a homicide and we don't want to run around bouncing into walls. Besides, they're only preliminary results."
    It was a pleasure to see my grandmother hitting her stride, as tenacious as the Rottweiler. She wasn't going to let go of this