Widow Town Read Online Free PDF

think Redy wanted to skin him alive.”
    “That’s Clark Redy’s solution to most problems .”
    “Yeah.” Ruthers glanced out the window down a narrow road that shot off to their right, there and gone as they flew by. “You th ink he’s alive somewhere, sir?”
    “Who? Miles Baron? I’m not sure. There’s always a chance.”
    “But you don’t think so.”
    “I knew Miles from middle school on. He was one of the most kind, caring, responsible men I’ve ever known. He would not shirk his family or his farm for any kind of offer and if there was a way to get back to the two people in that house, he would. So no, Joseph, I don’t think he is.”
    “It’s just so strange for someone to vanish without notice. No vehicle, no body, no contact if he did run off.”
    “Mysteries, Deputy Ruthers, we’re in the business of mysteries.”
    They finished the drive back to Shillings in silence. Farms passing by, then more trees, a dried river cracked bottom wishing for rain. The dirt beneath the cruiser’s wheels became pavement, humming like a trapped hornet. Gray guided the vehicle down a side street, behind a row of homes set so close to one another a man would have to walk sideways between them. They parked in the long shadow of a two story, brick building. An American flag wilted on a shining pole. Breeze falling into nothing with the coming evening.
    “Can you handle the necessaries for m e, Joseph?”
    “Sure can, sir.”
    “If you don’t get it all done by quitting time, leave the simple things to Thueson. You remember where I live, I assume?”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Good, I’ve got a couple things I want to check. I’ll see you later.”
    Ruthers exited the car and strode toward the sheriff’s office. Gray idled the cruiser out of the building’s shadow and drove a slow path down Main Street. He watched the people he could see, how they moved, how they talked, where they were going. He looked at the way they held their hands and if they noticed him, if there was a reaction there, fear. Gray accelerated past the final business in town and took a left onto a patched asphalt road that led into the sun’s full glare. He put his sunglasses back on, letting his mind coast with the scenery outside the car.
    He made turns without knowing where he was goin g, and knowing the whole while.
    The cruiser ’s tires crunched across the Jacobses’ drive and Gray stopped short of the flapping tape strung several yards in front of the charred porch. He shut the cruiser off, rolling his window down to listen. Birds sang in the surrounding woods, the melody speaking of rain. He hadn’t heard a bird in over a month, not since the last downpour. A squirrel chittered and jumped across a branch, its tail long, catching the sun in gaps of foliage. Gray inhaled, smelling the air. It would rain tonight.
    He climbed from the vehicle, bending under the tape before stopping at the foot of the burnt stairs. He knelt, running his hand across the treads, feeling the fire’s dust coat his fingers. The air still smelled like smoke this close to the house. Gray stood and walked around the side of the building, looking at the ground, the siding, the woods. The Jacobses’ dog was gone now, an empty length of chain trailing to its house
    Gray opened the backdoor and stepped inside, closing it behi nd him. He waited again, reliving the morning. He walked through the kitchen, stopping at the sink with the previous night’s dishes within. Moving to the table, he sat in one of the kitchen chairs, staring down the hall toward the foyer, the front door beyond. The house quiet save for an antique ticking clock near the stairway.
    Gray stood, moved down the hall and paused before the front door. He only spared a glance at Devi’s room befor e turning back to the stairway.
    The second floor had only two areas, a guest room and the master bedroom. The floor of the master still had blotchy patches of dried blood coating its surface but everywhere