The Shadow's Edge Read Online Free PDF

leave he called out, “You know, before you spoke to the Chief about your wife being missing, I got a call from Mitch Fuller – owns a farm out on Thornhill Road – reporting he heard gun shots. I went out there to have a look around but I didn’t find anything to shed any light on what Mr. Fuller heard.”
                  “I know. Jessup mentioned it to me earlier. Did Fuller have anything else to say when you got out there?”
                  “I didn’t see him actually. When I stopped in to talk to him he was gone. He lives on his own out there – kids are grown, wife died a few years ago. There was nobody else around to talk to. But now that we’ve got a missing person situation Chief Jessup will undoubtedly be talking to all the folks around there so maybe he’ll catch him at home.”
                  “You noticed the blue Ford pickup that my wife was driving, parked past the old Crandall place?”
                  “Yeah. I didn’t see anybody around it though. At the time I figured it probably belonged to a hunter and it was his shots that Mr. Fuller had heard.”
                  Not an unreasonable assumption at the time, I thought. “Please tell the Chief to call me the moment he gets back.”
                  “I will. By the way, Mr. Parmenter, I want you to know not everybody around here blames you for what you did to Reuben Henderson. Me included.”
                  “I appreciate the sentiment,” I said.
     
                  When I got back to my room at the hotel I found Bix curled up in a corner. He followed me with his eyes as I stretched out on the bed. “You need to pee, Bix?”
                  He blinked, then continued to stare. I wondered if his apparent sadness had anything to do with the fact that he was Callie’s dog. Maybe her depression had rubbed off on him. Or maybe he just missed her.
                  I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a scenario concerning Callie’s actions today that made any kind of sense, especially now that it was possible gunfire had entered into the equation. Could it be that she had been lured to that spot under some as yet unknown pretext and then kidnapped?
                  But who, I wondered, would be able to get Callie to drive to a remote location without her mentioning it to the two people she trusted most in the world?
                  Who indeed?
                  My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. I opened it to find Jessup standing in the hall with his Smokey Bear hat tipped back on his head, rubbing his eyes which appeared to have smoke in them from the cigarette he was holding.
                  “Chief,” I said, “come in.”
                  He entered the room, took a second or two to reflect on Bix’s presence, then sat down in the room’s only chair. He looked tired. “So,” he mumbled, “not a lot to tell you. I had a good look around and I spoke with half a  dozen residents of farms in the Thornhill Road area – nobody saw a thing that’s of any help to us. Your wife seems to have disappeared into thin air.”
                  I sat on the edge of the bed. “We both know that’s a crock,” I said. “She went with somebody – either voluntarily or not. And what about the report of gunshots out there today?”
                  Jessup sucked his teeth and leaned forward in his chair with his arms on his knees. “It’s not uncommon for eager hunters to try and get a jump on the season. I have no reason to believe your wife’s absence is in any way connected with that report. Personally, I find it extremely interesting that she picked the very day you were likely to show up here to vanish.”
                  “You think she ran away with somebody.” I said. Not a