Read Online Red Fox by Karina Halle - Free Book Online

that much but I didn’t tell her that. No one dies
happy.”
    I felt Dex tense up beside
me. I stole a quick glance at him. He was peeling the label off his
perspiring bottle. I had an abstract thought about sexual
frustration then turned my attention back to Maximus.
    “ But from what I felt, he
had lived a pretty fulfilled life and he loved his wife, I guess,
so that’s what I told her. She told a lot of people she knew,
including one of her cousins. Will Lancaster. Will lives here in
Red Fox. Called me about a week ago about a disturbance at his
ranch. Sort of your stereotypical haunting stuff if you ask
me…rocks being thrown at the window and roof, doors slamming shut,
the feeling of being watched, sheep carcasses turning up all
bloodied and disfigured, crows flying through the
house.”
    I shuddered at the mention
of crows. I looked out the window to the house across the street
and sure enough they were still there, that black blot on the dead
tree. Maximus followed my gaze and nodded.
    “ So I went there and tried
to do a reading to figure out what was going on. Wasn’t much help.
Will was scared, clearly, but ashamed of it. He’s a big Navajo man,
he didn’t like to admit to his ranch hands that he brought me
there. Let alone his wife. Sarah, she’s blind and…well, kind of a
bitch.”
    Dex laughed. I wanted to
but felt like I should admonish him. Maximus caught my eye
sheepishly. “Well, it’s true. Lordy, she did not want me there. And
she’s not going to want you there, so I’m warning you
now.”
    “ Fabulous,” I sighed. “So,
what did you find?”
    “ Nothing.” He held up his
earphones, which were connected to an mp3 device. “I’ve been going
back and listening to my notes, our conversations…nothing died
there, that’s the problem. I couldn’t pick up on anything at
all.”
    He leaned across the table
and lowered his voice. “But I’ll tell you this…there is something
strange going on. I don’t know what but that’s why you’re here
now.”
    Dex finished the rest of
his beer. I looked at him for his opinion but he wasn’t very
forthcoming. He just tapped his foot on the floor to the beat of an
unknown song.
    “ So…how do we begin?” I
asked.
    “ For starters, I was hoping
that Rudy would be here. But he’s not in until tomorrow
night.”
    I raised my
brow.
    “ Rudy owns
the bar,” he explained. “He’s also a guy who knows a lot. Knows a
lot of people, has lived here his whole life and has seen a lot of
things. A lot of
things.”
    “ So we come back here
tomorrow night. And what do we do until then?”
    Dex impulsively reached
over and grabbed my left hand and displayed it for Maximus to
see.
    “ Made an honest woman out of
her, like you said.”
    Maximus laughed and leaned
back in the booth, giving me a wry look. “Sorry about having you
get hitched to Dex here. Will and Sarah are fiercely Christian. At
least Sarah is…real old school. Now I’ve dealt with a lot of
religious mamas in Lafayette, but she takes the cake. Pretty much
walks around with a cross. She’d probably throw holy water on you
if she found out you weren’t actually married. Two singletons
sharing the same bed? Blasphemous shit.”
    He laughed again and got
up. “Time for more beers.”
    “ Jack Daniels,” Dex shot at
him. “You owe me a double.”
    Maximus waved him off and
walked his hulking body over to the bar.
    I inched away from Dex to
get a good look at him. He had the label off and was working at
folding it into an origami figure. He looked pale, his eyes were
burning holes into this project, his brow furrowed, jaw clenched,
and toe tapping.
    Finally, he stopped, put
down the paper (a bird of some sort) and closed his eyes. “What is
it?”
    I looked behind me to make
sure Maximus was at the bar and, satisfied, I leaned in closer to
his ear. “I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
    He let out a chuckle. “You
care suddenly?”
    He was acting like a little
boy, not the Dex