Read Online Survivors Will Be Shot Again by Bill Crider - Free Book Online

over the side of the well so he could pour the water into the bucket he’d brought from the barn.
    Off to the left the roof of a storm cellar stood about a foot off the ground. Not many people in the county had a storm cellar, but Rhodes knew of four or five others. A tornado had passed through a corner of the county about thirty years ago, and the cellars had all been dug about that time.
    Gus-Gus and Jackie were still waiting when he returned to the barn. He poured the water from the bucket into the pan, and both dogs turned to drink.
    â€œWas Melvin afraid of storms?” Rhodes asked Joyce.
    â€œNo, he wasn’t afraid of much of anything. The cellar was here when we moved in. I’ve never even been down in it. It has water in the bottom, Melvin says, about six inches, and there are spiders down there. I don’t like spiders. Melvin says you never know if a snake might be down there, too. I’d rather face a tornado than a snake.”
    Rhodes hoped he’d never have to make that choice, but he was pretty sure he’d pick the snake.
    â€œWill the dogs mind being shut in the barn?” he asked, setting the bucket down.
    â€œWe put them in here all the time,” Joyce said. “They sleep on those raggedy old blankets over there. They don’t mind it as long as they get outside once or twice a day.”
    â€œIs this where Melvin kept his welding rig?”
    â€œYes, but it got stolen. We should’ve gotten a lock for the doors, but we thought people were honest.”
    Rhodes wasn’t sure anybody really thought that anymore.
    â€œWe have locks now,” Joyce said. “Melvin said we had to get them.”
    â€œA good idea,” Rhodes said.
    â€œI’ll take the food to the house,” Joyce said. “I’ll put it inside the back door. I’ll have to give you a key if you come back to feed the boys. I can come back myself if it’s too much trouble for you.”
    â€œI don’t mind doing it,” Rhodes said. “I’d like your permission to look through the house, too. Maybe it would help in the investigation.”
    â€œAll right, if it will help. I still can’t believe Melvin’s … dead.”
    â€œIt takes some getting used to.”
    â€œI’m not going to get used to it. You’ll find out who did it, won’t you?”
    â€œI’ll do my best,” Rhodes said.

 
    Chapter 6
    On their ride to town, Rhodes asked Joyce a few questions about Melvin, hoping to get some useful information. He didn’t get much, but he did find out that Melvin’s best friend was Riley Farmer and that when Melvin went off on a binge, it was Riley he usually went with. Joyce insisted that Melvin hadn’t been on a bender in a long time.
    â€œHe’s been feeling better about things,” she said. “Even when the welding rig was stolen, he didn’t go off and get drunk.”
    She didn’t have any explanation for why Melvin’s bad habit had improved, but she was happy that it had. Rhodes also learned that Melvin had no enemies, at least as far as Joyce knew. No surprise there. Murder victims were always beloved by everyone, to hear their family and friends tell it.
    â€œNo enemies at all?” Rhodes said.
    â€œNot a one,” Joyce said. “Unless you count Billy Bacon. He wasn’t an enemy or anything like that, but those two just didn’t get along.”
    Billy hadn’t mentioned that little tidbit.
    â€œWhat was their trouble?” Rhodes asked.
    â€œMelvin got turned down for a loan. He really needed the money at the time. We were gonna fix up the house, get the place looking better. Billy said no, said that Melvin didn’t have any collateral. Or a job except what he could get fixing things up or welding a little now and then.”
    Rhodes could see how Billy would think that way. As a loan officer, he had to be sure about the risk he was