Read Online Murder in the Raw by C.S. Challinor - Free Book Online

was much good at writing essays. That’s why I went into oil and cattle. ‘But here goes nothing,’ I thought at the time. I felt I should describe that scene at our ranch when Vernon and Sabine came to visit last year. Things got pretty ugly.”
    “So I read.”
    In his statement, Duke had gone into detail about an argument between the couple over a young stable hand at his Silver Springs Ranch in Texas. The upshot was Vernon had slapped Sabine across the face, leaving an ugly welt that prevented her from making public appearances for two weeks.
    Rex almost smiled when he thought about the effort the police must have gone to in order to have the pages of Duke Farley’s statement translated, written as they were in Texan vernacular—if in fact they had been translated. Judging by Rex’s earlier meeting with Lieutenant Latour, it was highly doubtful the Gendarmerie had gone to the trouble of making certified translations.
    “Ah, here comes my lovely wife,” Duke exclaimed.
    Pam, her chest visibly preceding her, sashayed over to the bar in a gold pareo spangled with silver hibiscus flowers.
    “What you drinking, honey? I was just talking to Rex about the time Vernon and Sabine came to stay at the ranch.”
    “Highly embarrassing for everybody,” Pam told Rex. “Sabine had her face on ice for two days. Fortunately, the paparazzi didn’t know she was at Silver Springs, so news of the fight never got out. Our staff is very discrete and our nearest neighbors live five miles away. We had to turn down invitations and tell people Sabine had come down with an ear infection.”
    “What happened about the stable boy?” Rex asked.
    “Jason? Why, nothing,” Pam replied. “He wasn’t to blame. He just happens to be real cute, and caught Sabine’s eye. He was saddling her horse one morning, and they were laughing and maybe flirting just a little, but it got on Vernon’s last nerve. He dragged her inside the house and backhanded her. I could hear the blow clear across the hall. When I got to her, she was clinging to the newel post. Not crying—I guess the shock was too great at that point. Vernon, well, he just stared, like he couldn’t believe what he’d done. As soon as he saw me, he marched off out the door, muttering, ‘She darn well asked for it.’”
    “Then Pam called me,” Duke growled, “thinking he might go after Jason. I told the boy to lay low for the rest of their visit.”
    “I felt bad for Sabine, but she really brought it upon herself. You don’t wave a red flag at a bull.”
    “That gal had spirit alright!” Duke drawled in admiration. “She was more woman than most guys could handle.”
    Pam’s baby blue eyes blazed her husband with a contemptuous look. Rex thought she was probably more woman than most husbands could wish for, but then some men never were satisfied. The night had lost its glamour, the guests looked jaded, tensions ran high. Even the band sounded flat. Rex decided to call it a night and make a fresh start on the case in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning, Rex made his way to the main building, hoping for news from home. It was too soon for a letter from Iraq to have been forwarded to the Caribbean, but his mother would call him at the resort if any word came from Moira or from the British Embassy. He experienced a twinge of guilt when he thought about Helen arriving in a few days.
    Och, she’s just a friend, he told himself; and Paul Winslow had told him to enjoy himself while he was here.
    “Nothing for you today, monsieur,” said the front desk clerk who had been on duty the previous day and whose name, he had discovered, was Danielle.
    “Do you have the times of ferries to St. Barts departing from Oyster Pond?”
    She handed him a schedule. The ferry left for St. Barts, twenty kilometers away, at nine in the morning, returning from Gustavia Harbor at 5:00 p.m. and docking back at St. Martin approximately forty-five minutes later.
    “How long is the drive