2 A Deadly Beef Read Free

asked as he finished taking his notes.
    "Like
I said, that’s just off the top of my head.  I feel bad enough
telling you about those three.  I don’t like the idea of being a
rat."
    "You’re
not being one in my book," the sheriff said as he put his notebook
away.  "You’re facilitating an ongoing police
investigation."
    "Call
it whatever you want," Moose said, "but it still leaves a bad taste
in my mouth."
    "Well,
I for one appreciate it," the sheriff said.
    "I’m
willing to bet that the three of them won’t," Moose said. 
"Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go over something with
Greg in the kitchen before I go."
    Sheriff
Croft got a call on his radio as he nodded to Moose, and then he turned his
back to us.  The sheriff was on for a long time, and when he finally got
off, there was a pronounced frown on his face.
    "Is
there trouble?" I asked.
    "More
than I even like to think about," he said.  "I just got my
monthly update on crime in our area.  It’s something the state
police are doing as a courtesy, but to tell you the truth, at times it can be a
little overwhelming, given my limited time, budget, and staff.  Why Raleigh insists on doing it over the radio is beyond me."
    "What
kind of problems do you have to deal with on a countywide basis?" I
asked, curious about the kinds of trouble the sheriff had to deal with. 
    "Let’s
see.  There have been a couple of cases of arson in the area recently,
somebody’s called in three bomb threats to one of the local high schools
in Laurel Landing, the marijuana trade is evidently picking up throughout the
entire county, and there was an attempted robbery in Molly’s Corners this
morning that didn’t turn out how the crook expected."
    "Was
anyone hurt in the robbery?" Moose asked as he returned just in time to
hear the sheriff mention the robbery "No, in a way, that one’s kind
of funny.  It turned out the perp picked the wrong woman to go after in
the mall parking lot.  She was an off-duty state police investigator out
on maternity leave, and she was shopping for diapers when he made a grab for
her purse.  Evidently, she had him in handcuffs before he knew what hit
him.  She told one of the cops who came onto the scene that she’d
been missing the action of her job, and she had a lot of fun apprehending
him.  All in all, it’s nothing much out of the ordinary, and all of
it can wait.  I’ve got a murder on my hands at the moment, and that
goes to the head of the line."  Almost as an afterthought, he turned
back to us on his way out and said, "I’ll touch base with you two
later."
    After
the sheriff left the diner, Moose started to disappear in back, no doubt to
confer with Greg about something culinary.
    I
wasn’t about to let him get away with scooting off, though, as I followed
him into the kitchen.
    My
grandfather and I needed to have a little chat.
     
    As I
walked into the room, I found Moose waiting for me with an agitated expression
on his face.  "Now Victoria, before I get a lecture from you about
being loyal to my friends and keeping my mouth shut with the police, you need
to realize that I had to say what I did to Sheriff Croft.  It was the only way I could get the man off our family as his main suspects, and I had to do it
fast."
    "I
just have one question for you, Moose.  You didn’t make any of that
up, did you?" I asked him.
    "Of
course not.  Everything I told him was the solid truth, and if I
hadn’t done it, he would have never allowed us to dig into the murder
ourselves."
    "Okay,
I can see that," I said, accepting his explanation.  My grandfather
had taught me many things in my lifetime, and some of them might even conflict
on occasion, but one thing was certain; he was a man of his word, and I knew
that I could always believe him when he told me that he was telling the
truth.  Sure, Moose might fib to me to get a smile, but he would never
outright lie.  It was something I could count on as much as I did seeing
the sun