The Surfside Caper Read Online Free PDF

said, “The traffic report shows substantially the same pattern. The truck was going too fast and couldn’t make the curve. Then you went down the mountainside to help. Is that correct?”
    I said, “That’s right. I couldn’t move him. So I came here and called in. It was faster than going to Rio Pollo.”
    “And the man was alive when you left?”
    “He was breathing,” I said. “He wasn’t conscious.”
    “Did you touch him?”
    I said, “What is this? I told you I tried to pull him loose. Why all the questions?”
    Colton said, “When the prowl car arrived, he was dead, Flynn.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that, even if he was a damn fool driver.”
    Colton said, “His neck was broken.”
    I said, “If it was, he broke it after I left.”
    Colton nodded. “That’s the point exactly. Only he didn’t break it himself. Someone broke it for him. With their hands.”
    Both men were watching me with cold, accusing quiet. I thought, “The stupid jerks think I crawled down the mountain to kill the poor guy.” Then I realized they weren’t being stupid. They were either damned clever or someone else had been clever enough to make them think this way.
    Milo Craybaugh said in his deep voice, “Why did you
go
down the mountain in the first place? You could have saved time by driving directly to the police?”
    I didn’t like Milo very much. I didn’t like his logic either. It had holes. I said, “I don’t know the customs around here, but where I come from a man tries to help another man caught in a bind.”
    Craybaugh flushed along his jawline. Colton looked a little hurt again. But he didn’t say anything. And I knew why. He was just here to throw a few official blocks. Milo Craybaugh was going to carry the ball. I had seen smalltown cops work with prominent citizens before. And I didn’t doubt that Milo was probably the town’s heavy-spender. He had the look of a man who controls his surroundings.
    I said, “As long as you’re tossing accusations, let me have my turn. It was your truck, Mr. Craybaugh, and your employee.”
    He wasn’t perturbed. He said, “Samuels was an itinerant laborer. I hire a number of them at various seasons of the year. As I already informed the police, I know almost nothing about him. He came to work for me two days ago. He and the truck both disappeared sometime during the afternoon.”
    Colton said, “And we aren’t tossing accusations, as you put it, Mr. Flynn. I was just stating facts.”
    I said, “Crap. I know a cop squeeze when I’m in the middle of it. You came here with your evidence all lined up. As soon as I admitted going down to the truck, you moved in.”
    The more I talked the more my temper started jumping. I’d had about all I could take in one day—Samuels, Annette, Dolphin, and now this pair of smalltown bigshots.
    I said, “If I had wanted to kill the guy, I wouldn’t have bothered to break his neck. I’d have walked away and told nobody.”
    They just looked at me. I got to my feet. “I may not own a two-bit town like Rio Pollo but I’m a bona fide guest at its fanciest hotel. I’m also a citizen of this state. I know its laws. I’m not forgetting that it was your workman, Craybaugh, and your truck. And that makes both your responsibility.”
    Craybaugh lifted his lip and sneered. I said, “Maybe I’ll bring suit. Negligance on the part of the truck owner, allowing an irresponsible character like Samuels to use his equipment. Said negligence causing Samuels’ death, and also causing a nervous condition in me.”
    I held out my hands, the joints stiff. I made my hands shake like an old man attacked by palsy. I jerked up one side of my face.
    Craybaugh said coldly, “Do something to this fool, Colton!”
    Colton sounded worried. He said, “I’ve seen screwier cases in court, Mr. Craybaugh. If it doesn’t do anything else, a suit can make a lot of people wonder. And make a lot of them laugh.”
    I twitched and hitched my way to the door. I