Read Online Death and Relaxation by Devon Monk - Free Book Online Page B

and was one of the few mortals who knew the town’s secrets.
    “Afternoon, chief,” he said.
    “Afternoon, Roy. How’s the day?”
    “Smooth sailing.”
    He always said it was smooth sailing. If a sinkhole swallowed up the station and dropped us all into a volcano, he’d say it was smooth sailing until the last sizzle.
    Myra stood at her desk talking to the out-of-towner—a businessman who was waving a parking ticket in her face. She glanced up at me over his shoulder, her light blue eyes narrowing a moment. I gave her a later nod, and she went back to not changing her mind for the guy.
    I strolled to the record room, which was just a little storage space with shelves for cleaning supplies on one wall and files on the others. I stashed Thanatos’s contract in the hidden safe we used for temporary keeping until it could be stored back home in our family vault.
    I didn’t lock up the white envelope. I wanted to show it to Myra.
    By the time I walked back out, the parking ticket guy was out the door.
    “So did you give him the small-town rent-a-cop break?” I asked Myra, using the insult he’d last thrown at her.
    “I gave him the small-town hospitality of not throwing him in jail for being an ass.”
    Roy chuckled. He was working on his newest Rubik’s Cube, which looked tiny in his hands. He had a collection of them. I had no idea why.
    “How’d it go?” she asked.
    “He signed. So I expect him to swing by for his welcome packet in the next day or so.” I dropped my jacket across my chair and sat.
    “What does he look like?”
    “Thin. Meticulous. Pale. Black suit and eyes. Elegant undertaker sort. I think he’d be hard to miss.” I dug the envelope out and handed it to her.
    She scanned the name. “Typewriter?”
    “Yep.”
    “Did he give this to you?”
    “No. It was left at the drop. Delivered by normal means. The cashier said it arrived like all the others: in a sealed, prepaid postal box.”
    “Weren’t you just out there Friday?”
    “This showed up today. Same route driver.”
    Myra pinched it so that the envelope yawned open. She tugged out the paper and read it.
    “What in the hell does that mean?”
    “I have no idea. Thoughts?”
    “Thanatos?”
    I shook my head. “He doesn’t strike me as the type who would go through the mystery of whatever this is. I think he’s the kind who would enjoy telling bad news to someone face to face.”
    She scanned the back of the envelope and held it up to the light. “Could it have something to do with the explosion?”
    “I don’t know. Did you find anything?”
    She replaced the letter in the envelope and handed it back to me. I dropped it into my In box.
    “It was dynamite. About a half a stick.”
    I nodded. That wasn’t going to do us a lot of good for narrowing down who the suspect might be. Plenty of people in this area had dynamite. Especially anyone with land that needed clearing.
    “I’ve gone through the photos. Can’t see any evidence of who might have snuck into his backyard to blow up the garden patch, but it was a direct hit. Only his rhubarb was destroyed.”
    “And his burn pile,” I added.
    She nodded. “That was a favor, if you ask me.”
    “So who in town doesn’t like Dan Perkin?”
    “I think the shorter list is who in town doesn’t hate Dan Perkin.”
    I nodded and scrubbed at my forehead. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. “Pearl likes Dan.”
    “Pearl has a soft heart for everyone,” Roy said, finally joining the conversation.
    I walked over so I could see him better. Also to make coffee, because I hadn’t had nearly enough pots of it yet today. “You have insight on this one, Roy?”
    “Not really, no. But I think if someone had been out to kill Dan, or to do him any real harm, they wouldn’t have blown up his burn pile. Just as easy to stick dynamite under his house. Or his car.”
    I agreed with him. This was sounding more like a case of criminal mischief with the intent to