Death in the Secret Garden Read Free Page A

are they the same sex?’
    â€˜Boy and a girl.’
    â€˜Then do they … Well, what I mean is, do they …’
    â€˜Make out?’ a male voice blurted from the seat behind Boots.
    â€˜Make what?’ Lyon had automatically asked. He immediately regretted his naive response as laughter swept the room. He remembered Boots valiantly attempting to maintain her composure. Laughter built within her like strong pressure from an underground spring. When the giggles broke through she leaned her head back and was convulsed by a paroxysm of guffaws. That was his remembrance of the dead young woman.
    The phone rang inside the house. Lyon took his time going to the kitchen phone. He hoped that the caller would get discouraged. He counted twelve rings and became certain that the caller would persist. The insistent caller won. He snicked the phone from its wall bracket. ‘I will not come over there to view the body of a dead girl,’ he said without preamble.
    â€˜How did you know it was me?’ Rocco asked. ‘Don’t you have any other friends?’
    â€˜I know how you operate,’ Lyon answered. ‘My other friends do not call when they know I am trying to work. I refuse to scour the woods for clues or get more upset over the death of a young woman who I knew.’
    â€˜I’ve got to bring Spook in, Lyon. I don’t want to use a state police SWAT team to do it. I need your help.’
    â€˜Spook didn’t kill her. I don’t care if you did find one of his souvenirs in her hand. He may be in orbit, but he’s not a killer anymore.’
    â€˜Jamie Martin doesn’t keep police investigation secrets well, does he?’
    â€˜A lot of men served in that army division.’
    â€˜That may be, but Spook has to be brought in and I need your help. If I have to do it formally he could get hurt.’
    â€˜Damn it, Rocco! I’ll go with you, but I don’t like it.’ He slammed the phone into its mounting to break the connection.

Two
    On Route 40, beyond the trailer park, Lyon turned into the narrow lane that led to Spook’s acre. He parked his red Saturn behind car one of the Murphysville Police Department. He waited while Rocco finished a cellular phone call. A heavy growth of brush marked the boundaries of the property. Through a narrow opening hacked through the overgrowth he could see the large tree that held Spook’s house.
    Rocco finished his call and slouched over to the Saturn. He placed both hands on the roof by the driver’s window. ‘He’s home,’ he stated laconically.
    â€˜Maybe you had better call your brother-in-law on the state police and ask him to send over that SWAT team he’s so proud of.’
    â€˜Very funny. You know Spook would go ballistic if he spotted a bunch of guys wearing camouflage suits carrying automatic weapons.’
    â€˜I suspect he would consider their intentions dishonorable.’
    â€˜Exactly. So, it’s going to come down my way. Same as last time. I’m the company commander and you are the battalion surgeon.’
    â€˜OK. We’re going to do another “he’s in trouble for not taking his malaria tablet again” scenario.’
    â€˜You’ve got it,’ Rocco said.
    â€˜He might remember that we used that only a couple of months ago to get him down to the VA hospital for his medication change.’
    â€˜Hell, it worked then, it will work again.’
    They pushed single file into the narrow path that cut through the overgrowth into the hedged perimeter containing the huge oak tree. The tree divided into two distinct sections twelve feet up the trunk. It was at this junction that Spook had constructed his tree house. Short lengths of two-by-fours nailed to the trunk provided a ladder access. A twelve-by-fourteen-foot room had been built using the tree’s wide crotch as a base, with support pillars provided by the divided trunk. Tar paper covered