Deadly Secrets Read Free Page A

that,” he snapped and turned back to Johnson. “Go call the CID, then wait out front to show the lab boys where to bring their stuff.”
    Done with that, he turned to the medics. “You might as well get your shit out of here,” he growled. “You can stick around out front until the coroner arrives, then shove off.”
    The senior medic, an old-timer who looked like he’d been through this before, shrugged and motioned to his partner to step away from the body. Johnson pulled his cell out of his pocket and pressed a button.  His call would bring the criminal investigations division, a team of forensic experts and the county coroner.
    Kelly walked over to where Adams stood frowning at Anna’s body.
    “Suppose you tell me what you know about this,” he growled at Kelly. “Let’s sit down over there.” He turned and marched over to one of the picnic tables. Kelly rolled his eyes and followed him. Adams slid onto one of the benches and Kelly eased his long frame onto the other one.
    Adams took out a notebook.
    Kelly propped his arm on the table and turned his mind back to the start of his rounds. Jake, who’d stood back from the group of strangers, padded over, sank down and rested his nose on Kelly’s boot.
    “I was doing last rounds,” Kelly said. “That’d make it about two o’clock when Jake here raised his hackles and started growling.”
    Jake, hearing his name, lifted his eyes to the sergeant.
    “You don’t know Jake.” Kelly reached down and stroked the dog’s head. “He doesn’t make a fuss without a reason, so I was edgy. There’s not much goes on around here after the barn’s closed up but sometimes we get kids messing around. This wasn’t like that though. Jake knows the difference between kids and trouble and something was damn sure setting him off.”
    “Whereabouts were you when this happened?”
    “About half way down that aisle.” Kelly pointed toward the last row of tables. “At first I couldn’t see anything but when I trained my flashlight on the refreshment stand, I spotted what looked like a bundle of rags dropped in the aisle. I clicked the beam on high and that’s when I recognized Anna’s poncho.”
    “Did you hear anything?”
     “Nope, not a sound, except Jake here. He was riled something fierce.”
    “Okay, then what?”
    “Well, like I said, I recognized that old, black poncho of Anna’s. She wore it all the time. So I took off down the aisle like a bat out of hell. The poncho was wrapped around her face and I pulled it off. That was tough.” Kelly squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. Then he continued. “There was a red scarf sunk so deep in her neck, I thought she’d been slashed.”
    “Did you touch the scarf?”
    “Just the edge. I pulled her skin back a bit, to make sure but there wasn’t a chance.” Kelly shook his head and shuddered. “After that, I headed for the phone, got the county dispatcher and gave her the details, then Jake and I went to the cabin to wait for your deputy.”
    “You got any ideas who did this?”
    Kelly shook his head. “Just the obvious one that comes to mind from seeing her cash box broken open and coins scattered around the ground.” Kelly leaned across the table and fixed his eyes on Adams’ face. “It don’t make a lot of sense, y’know? If all he wanted was money, why kill her? For that matter, what was she doing prowling around down here at that time of night?”
    “He?” Adams questioned.
    “He…her…whatever. I guess strangling’s kind of fixed in my mind as something a man would do.”
    “Do you know of anybody who might’ve had it in for Ms. Davis?”
    “Hell, no. Anna was kind of an eccentric. She drank like a fish, ate like a bird and God only knows how old she was. I liked her a lot but she was a bit of a tartar—especially when she’d been hitting the bottle. Still, I can’t see any of the Indian Creek folks having it in for her. They pretty much took Anna in their stride.”
    “We’ll be