Daisy Lane Read Free

not to betray what she had done. Ed looked at her thoughtfully and then at her grandfather.
    “I saw him walk out this way so I followed him,” he said. “It seemed suspicious to me. Neighbors have to look out for each other.”
    “Hmph,” her grandfather said, which meant he believed it even if he didn’t like it.
    Ed looked down at Grace and winked.
    The EMS arrived and Graced backed up onto the porch. She inched her way into the far corner, where she stood in the shadow of the overgrown hedge.
    “Get him out of here,” her grandfather said to the EMS workers. “He’s nothing to do with me and mine.”
    Police Chief Scott Gordon arrived and conferred with Ed before addressing Grace’s grandfather.
    “No one you know?” the police chief asked her grandfather.
    “No!” bellowed Grace’s grandfather. “Probably some tramp, looking for a handout. Now that this country’s gone to hell in a hand basket they’ll come creeping, along with the drug dealers and prostitutes. I have to keep my gun loaded and one eye open so I don’t get murdered in my sleep.”
    He held up his shotgun and Grace was impressed at how quickly Scott leaped to the top of the stairs and helped Grandpa lower the gun.
    “No need for that,” Scott said. “Let’s just stay out of the way and let these people do their jobs.”
    “You can’t come onto my property and tell me to do a dad-gum thing,” Grandpa said. “I know my rights.”
    Grace’s grandfather, Jacob Branduff, was tall and gaunt, with a scraggly long beard and wisps of white hair floating up from his balding head. His old-fashioned glasses might have made him look like a skinny Saint Nick, but his demeanor prevented anyone from making that mistake more than once. He had on his nightshirt and overalls, his swollen feet stuck in tattered slippers. His feet were so swollen he couldn’t wear any of his shoes. When he didn’t have on his slippers, he had on ancient gumboots.
    “There’s no need for that, Mr. Branduff,” Scott said to him, in a calm, reasonable voice. “As soon as they can get him off your porch they’ll leave you in peace.”
    The EMTs lifted the man’s body onto a gurney, secured it with straps, and carried it down the stairs.
    “That’s done then, so you all get on out of here,” Grandpa said. “All of you.”
    “I need to ask Grace some questions,” Scott said.
    “You’ll do no such thing,” Grandpa said. “Grace! Dad-blasted girl. Where are you? Get yourself in the house and stay there. Do as I tell you.”
    Grace skittered around behind him and slid in through the doorway.
    “I can do it now or later,” Scott said, “but it will have to be done.”
    “If you bring a warrant down here, you can take her to jail,” Jacob said. “Lock her up and throw away the key, for all I care. It’ll save me her room and board. Otherwise leave us alone.”
    Grandpa went in the house, slammed both doors behind him and yelled, “Grace! Fix me some coffee!”
     
     
    Scott left the porch and met Ed and Tommy in the lane, where the EMTs were just closing the doors to the ambulance.
    “No ID on him,” one of the EMTs said. “Just these.”
    He handed Scott a bus ticket and a folded piece of paper so old it was soft and coming apart at the folds. Scott wanted to have gloves on when he examined it, so he dropped it into a plastic bag and put it in the squad car.
    “I’ve never seen the man before,” Ed said to Scott.
    “Grace said he sounded like Matt Delvecchio’s dad,” Tommy said. “He might be Italian.”
    “I’ll call the bus company,” Scott said. “What are the chances I’ll be able to talk to Grace, do you think?”
    “Slim to none,” Ed said.
    “Her grandpa is mean,” Tommy said. “Since her grandma died Grace is not allowed to do anything but go to school and work in the greenhouse.”
    “Isn’t she a friend of Charlotte’s?” Scott asked. “I used to see her over at Ava’s B&B all the time.”
    “Not since