[To Die For 01] - A View to Die For (2012) Read Online Free PDF Page A

risen to well over one hundred.
    “Did Mike have a nice service?” I asked, catching a breath of the moist air blowing into the car.
    “I guess. Me and Grandpa missed most of it. He started hacking, so I got elected to take him out back.”
    It sounded like my father was back to smoking his two packs a day. “Maybe the tar from the cigarettes will patch the hole in his lung,” I said.
    Kevin must have missed out on the family’s sarcasm gene. He gave me a blank look then turned his attention back to his driving, just before nearly rear-ending a slower car in front of him. After giving the other driver a one-finger salute in his rear-view mirror, he turned toward me again. “What you going to tell the cops, Uncle Martin?”
    “Haven’t given it much thought, Kevin. If it wasn’t for my wallet, I’d make them wait. I really want to check on Fred first, but I’ll need money to pay his bill. And please. I’m not a Martian – call me Jake.”
    “Huh.” he said, his expression going blank again. Either I was showing my age by referring to the old sixties television show, My Favorite Martian , or my nephew had some kind of synaptic short circuit.
    Except for asking Kevin to slow down every few minutes, we didn’t talk much the rest of the trip. He was too busy practicing his stockcar skills, and I was trying to second-guess the sheriff. I couldn’t imagine why he wanted to see me. We then passed the accident scene, and I almost freaked out. “Pull over, Kevin!” I yelled.
    “Here? There ain’t no friggin place to pull over!”
    “Then slow down for Christ sake. Okay, pull over by that bridge.” There was a scenic turnout right before the bridge crossed the lake. Kevin and I got out of the Tempo and started following some tire tracks back to where my van had jumped the ditch. The tow truck must have come this way to get my van. I hobbled after my nephew who was yards ahead of me. Then I saw tracks leading toward a big oak tree, and another set that hadn’t been so lucky. I slid down the bank to where my van had been stopped by the tree, only yards from the edge of a steep bluff. From there it was straight down to the water. The other tire tracks went right up to the edge and disappeared.
    “Wow, this is the same place Mike ate his lunch,” Kevin said when I caught up with him. “Kind of weird, huh.”
    “Very weird. I wonder what the odds are that I almost dined here too.”
    He turned away from the water and looked at me blankly. Then the light went on. “Oh, I get it, Uncle Martin. You meant ate your lunch, too.”
    “Something like that,” I answered while looking past him, toward the road. Several cars had gone by in the time it took us to reach the accident scene, and now one of them was slowing down to watch us. I waved at him even though I hadn’t a clue who he was. The driver waved back then sped up.
    “What’s weird, Kevin, are those tracks by the road.”
    “Think they were Mike’s, Uncle Martin?”
    “No. Mike’s tracks go straight to the water. Those tracks parallel the road.”
    “Must have been the ambulance,” he said.
    Or the people who nearly killed me , I thought and started back toward the Tempo.

Chapter 3

    Kevin stopped the Tempo at a bank a block from the county jail. He didn’t really park the car, nor did he turn off his motor. The bank’s thermometer read ninety-nine – and that was in the shade. Compared to the sauna Kevin called a car, it felt great when I stepped out on the sidewalk. “I ain’t going nowhere near that jailhouse,” Kevin said, still sitting in the car. “You can call my cell when you need me.” And then he took off without giving me his cellphone number.
    The jail wasn’t exactly out of Mayberry, but it was close. The jail and sheriff’s office was housed in an old, two-story, brick building right across from the town square, one of those old town squares with a hundred-year-old courthouse, surrounded by all the local businesses. But most