Read Online 4 The Marathon Murders by CHESTER D CAMPBELL - Free Book Online Page A

view.
    “That’s Bradley,” the sheriff said.
“He loved this old Jeep. Even installed seat belts in it.”
    “He’s strapped in,” said Agent
Fought.
    The investigator studied the head
for a few moments. “The question is was he really driving? Looks
like he’s been struck a pretty good blow just in front of the right ear. Not the sort of injury that would likely come from a plunge into the lake.”
    My cell phone rang at that point
and I turned away from the group to answer it.
    “Greg, we need your help,” said
Warren Jarvis, a dire note in his voice.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “I think I just killed a guy.”

Chapter 10
     
    I stood there for a moment in shock, not sure I heard what I
had just heard. After what we had encountered at the lake, Warren’s words hit
me like a thunderbolt.
    “You what? Who?”
    “It was an accident. I’ve called
the police. I guess they’ll send a homicide officer. Do you have any contacts
there?”
    “I have a good contact in Homicide,
Detective Phil Adamson. He knows about that scroll business in Israel and that
you helped me out over there. But what happened?”
    “I’ll tell you the whole story when
you get here. Basically, I got back to Mr. Liggett’s house a little while ago
and found Kelli being accosted by the guy who tailed her across town earlier in
the day. When he tried to run, I tackled him. He hit his head on a large metal
umbrella stand. Before we could do anything, he was gone.”
    After hearing that horrifying
experience, I couldn’t add to his misery by telling him about Pierce Bradley. I
took a deep breath. “You have Kelli as a witness. I think they’ll treat it as
an accident, at least initially. Jill and I are up in Trousdale County. We’ll
head on back right now. Hopefully we’ll be there within an hour. Just be
careful what you say. You might want to get a lawyer.”
    Despite the anxiety evident in his
voice, Jarvis seemed to be in complete control. I knew he had faced many crises
during his Air Force career, but I suspected few rivaled this one. Jill
agonized over the possibilities all the way to Nashville. Looking at it from an
investigator’s standpoint, I knew there could be real problems, especially if
somebody like Murder Squad Detective Mark Tremaine ,
my personal nemesis from the past, happened to show up. But since the person
responsible for the death was known, it wouldn’t be a job for the Murder Squad.
    The big question we faced was could
they keep the story from the newspapers, and if not, could they keep Kelli’s
name out of it? Maybe I could prevail on Phil Adamson to soft pedal her role in
the affair.
    When we got back to discussing
events in Trousdale County, Jill looked downcast. “It’s really sad when a young
man survives all the carnage in a war zone, then comes home and has one of his
fellow citizens do this to him.”
    This kind of case always stirred
feelings of sadness and anger, but over the years I had learned to
compartmentalize the anguish, step aside, and view the situation with as little
emotion as possible. Jill, new at this detective business, had a long way to
go.
    “It’s bad,” I said, “but the best
thing we can do for him is to find those papers he planned to give Arthur
Liggett. Plus, see if we can tie them into his murder.”
    “Without Bradley’s help, where do
we start looking?”
    “I need to give that some thought.
I wish we could have stayed until they searched his house. Maybe they’ll turn
up the Marathon papers when they pick the place apart.”
    “But if the murder had anything to
do with them, the papers probably won’t be there.”
    I turned off Twenty-first Avenue onto Blair Boulevard and gave her a sidewise glance. “Then let’s hope
Bradley stashed them somewhere else. At any rate, we need to put on a full
court press to find those papers before anything else breaks loose.”
    A Metro Fire Department ambulance
pulled away from the Liggett house just as we drove up. A white