Read Online Eleven Little Piggies by Elizabeth Gunn - Free Book Online Page A

had not been friends in school: he was a couple of years older and I was far below him in the social scale, a grubby kid working my way through. I was only vaguely aware of him then and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t remember me at all. If, as Ray said, he was focused on blaming the police force for his troubles, I wanted his attempts at intimidation documented.
    He started talking as soon as I came in, not waiting for any questions. ‘I told your Detective Bailey in no uncertain terms,’ he said, ‘and I want to repeat to you first thing: I’m not satisfied with your department’s handling of this investigation.’
    â€˜Yes, you’ve made that very plain. Now I want to be equally frank with you,’ I said. ‘You can keep on getting whatever satisfaction you’re getting out of blaming us for your misfortune, or you can cooperate with the investigation. Then with any luck, we might have some of the answers you need quite soon. It’s up to you.’
    He blinked, stared in disbelief for a few seconds and began to swell up like an alarmed puffer fish. Nobody, his face said, talked like that to Attorney Kester. ‘Now see here,’ he said.
    â€˜No.’ I shook my head. ‘You’re the one who needs to see. Nobody on the Rutherford police force caused your brother’s death. It’s a terrible calamity and we all feel sympathy for your sorrow, but blaming us is just a waste of time. You can calm down and answer some questions, and get the help you need, or you can keep on making threats and get yourself nudged a little higher on the list of suspects.’
    It was a gamble, and I almost lost. He stood up and put his hat back on, muttering, ‘We will see about this,’ and reached for his coat. But halfway through shrugging into it, he turned back and said, ‘What do you mean, higher on the list of suspects? You’re not suggesting I killed my own brother, are you?’
    â€˜We always look at family first.’ I said it as blandly as if I was discussing the weather, but I knew it was a shocker. It had the added weight of being perfectly true. Go look at the stats some time. We’re all in more danger from our nearest and dearest than from anybody else.
    â€˜My God,’ he said. ‘I feel like I’ve wandered into a nest of lunatics. First you invade my farm in the middle of the night and now you accuse me of being a killer.’
    He had a number on speed dial, and he called it now, standing over me with his hat on crooked, one arm in his overcoat and one out. It was answered quietly, halfway through the first ring.
    â€˜Uncle Jonas?’ His voice trembled a little, which I suppose made him angrier. ‘This is Ethan. I’m at the police station, talking to a detective named, um,’ he looked at my name tag, ‘Jake Hines. Yes. Yes, you got the name right. But listen, he doesn’t seem to realize . . . He looks as if he probably didn’t grow up around here, so I don’t think he understands what we . . . who I am. Will you speak to him?’
    I used to get this reaction a lot when I was a rookie cop. I’d be writing up a ticket and the voice of the speedster would say, ‘You’re not from around here, are you?’ My face looks like it was assembled by a committee at the United Nations, and in those days, Minnesota’s population was about ninety-eight per cent white, mostly descended from northern Europeans. Most of the people I dealt with thought a guy who looked like me should be trimming their lawn.
    I still don’t know whose child I am, but I do know I’m a true native son. I was raised by the State of Minnesota since my first day on earth, when I was found in a dumpster at the back of a motel in Red Wing. Minnesota is a somewhat impersonal parent, but it’s been fair to me and I try to return the favor.
    The voice that came over the phone had the