Truth and Consequences Read Online Free PDF

kennel behind the house. The gate stood open, moving slightly in the soft breeze.
    “Come on.” Jim Ed ambled to the pen, where the dog waited inside, panting. Jason followed, eyeing the huge deck and professional landscaping behind the house. When Jim Ed reached the gate, he stopped. “Goddamn son of a bitch.”
    His cousin’s low growl sent unease skittering up Jason’s spine. “What?”
    “I told that boy to clean this pen.” Jim Ed stalked away, fists clenched.
    Jason surveyed the kennel: neat dog house, white concrete floor, automatic watering system, stainless steel bowl full of kibble. Looked clean enough.
    “Jamie.” Jim Ed bellowed into the house. “Get your ass out here.”
    A skinny teenager ducked out the back door. “Yes, sir?”
    Jim Ed wrapped a hand around the boy’s neck and shoved him in the direction of the kennel. “Look at my goddamn dog pen. I told you to clean it before I got home.”
    “Daddy, I—”
    “Don’t fucking argue with me, boy.” Jim Ed spoke from between obviously clenched teeth. Jason tensed, ready to step forward and get between his cousin and the kid. Hell if he wasn’t different with Jamie. The indulgent father Jason had seen with Laurel was nowhere in existence. “You know what I mean by clean and this ain’t it.”
    Jamie ducked his head, shaggy sandy hair falling forward to hide his eyes. He didn’t speak but scuffed one tennis shoe on the grass.
    Jim Ed dug his fingers into the boy’s thin shoulder and a grimace crossed Jamie’s face. “Do you hear me, boy?”
    Clearing his throat, Jason shifted his stance. Everything in him wanted to shove his cousin away, make him leave the kid alone.
    Everything except the voice telling him to do so would be a fatal mistake. Seeing this side of Jim Ed made him wonder just what had happened that afternoon before he’d arrived.
    Had Jim Ed really pulled the trigger on those boys?
    “Do you hear me?” Jim Ed’s voice deepened to a menacing rumble. His grip tightened until his knuckles glowed white against his tan, and Jamie winced.
    “Yes, sir.” The words emerged as a whispery mumble.
    “I can’t hear you.”
    “Yes, sir.” Louder this time, but holding a trace of unshed tears.
    Jim Ed released him and stepped into the pen. The dog wagged its tail but he didn’t spare it a glance. Instead, he picked up the dog bowl and flung it against the floor. Jamie and the dog flinched from the metallic clanging as kibble rained all over the concrete. Jim Ed didn’t look at his son as he strode by him. “Clean it up right this time. Don’t come in until it’s done.”
    He slapped Jason on the back as he passed. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
    The joviality had returned to his voice and Jason followed him with one last glance at the teenager kneeling in the kennel, gathering dog food piece by piece.
    Jason shook his head. Maybe taking Jim Ed up on this job offer hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
    What the hell had he gotten himself into?
    * * *
    Kathleen prowled her living room, picking up the remote, flipping through the channels, putting it down again. A magazine received a cursory glance. Finally, she pulled her notebook from her soft-sided briefcase and flipped it open to Jason Harding’s statement.
    He knew something.
    She just didn’t know how to get it out of him.
    In the morning, she and Altee could drive over, interview him again.
    Yeah. Sure.
    The key would be catching him off-guard. On his own territory, where he was comfortable, but when he wasn’t expecting her. And one-on-one. Somehow, she knew he’d shut down if the conversation involved more than the two of them.
    Not giving herself time to regret the decision, she grabbed her keys and notebook and jogged downstairs to her car. Using the interior light, she read his address, trying to remember where the hell Cotton Boll Road was in Haynes County. Wasn’t that out behind Dale Jenkins’s dairy farm? A quick check of her regional map proved her