Read Online Shelley Freydont - Celebration Bay 03 - Independence Slay by Shelley Freydont - Free Book Online

respected advocate. And right now it looked like Leo could use all the allies they could muster.
    The three of them walked inside and stopped at the sign-in desk. The desk sergeant sent them straight through to Bill’s office.
    Liv was surprised to see Leo sitting at a rectangular table drinking a soda and helping himself to a box of cookies.
    Silas Lark was also there. He came over to meet the three as they entered. He was a small man with thinning dark hair, mild mannered, but he took no prisoners according to Miss Edna. Liv had seen him in action. She was glad he appeared to be representing Leo—if the young man needed representing, which she ardently hoped he wouldn’t.
    Liv leaned over to whisper to Ted. “Where are his parents?”
    Ted frowned. “Tell you later.”
    Pastor Schorr went straight over to the table and said with a smile, “I hear you’ve been having some adventures tonight, Leo.”
    Leo shrugged, looking contrite. “I wanted to talk to the ghost.”
    Schorr placed a comforting hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Now, you know, son, that there’s only one ghost and that’s the Holy Ghost and he loves all his children.”
    Leo nodded, but he frowned, as if he weren’t sure. Liv didn’t know what was different about Leo. He was slow in the way he moved, the way he talked, the way he thought, though he went to high school with the other local teenagers.
    “You know you’re safe with God?”
    Leo nodded.
    Liv thought that was all well and good, but if the person who had murdered Rundle and had attacked Leo thought Leo may have recognized him, the boy would probably need a little more get-down-and-get-dirty earthly protection.
    Which made her think of Chaz Bristow, something that was happening more often the longer he stayed away from town. He’d taken Leo and some of the other kids out fishing more than once. Any other man would call it mentoring. Chaz said it was a pain in the butt, but it was the only way they would stop pestering him.
    “So, you don’t have to worry about any other ghosts.”
    Leo shook his head.
    Liv didn’t think it would be so easy. Leo had feared for his life up there on the roof.
    “Is Leo eighteen?” she asked Ted.
    Ted nodded, tight-lipped. So if it came to it, he would be tried as an adult. She looked over at the boy happily separating the two sides of the cookies and licking out the cream filling before eating the outsides.
    She didn’t for a minute think he’d killed Jacob Rundle. But she’d only met him a few times and those times were when Whiskey had been with her. Boy and dog had bonded over the “Hallelujah Chorus” last December. Now they were fast friends. Of course, Whiskey was Mr. Congeniality.
    On the other hand, he knew a bad guy when he smelled him, and he liked Leo. Could dogs testify in court?
    Bill came in a few seconds later. “Sorry, I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long, but I stayed to ask Hildy a few questions.”
    Leo looked up and actually smiled at the sheriff; there was a chocolate ring around his mouth from the cookies, and in spite of his size he looked so young that Liv longed to protect him, which was strange, since she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body—not yet anyway.
    Ted pulled Bill aside before he got two steps into the room. “Are you charging him?”
    “Not at this point. I don’t think he’s a flight risk, and all the evidence is circumstantial so far. We’ll know more after the tests come back from the state lab.”
    Which could take months
, Liv thought. She glanced at Ted and knew he was thinking the same thing. Plenty of time to find the real killer and just hope to heaven it didn’t turn out to be Leo.
    They each gave their version of what had happened that night and then were sent home. Leo was released into the custody of Reverend Schorr, though how adept the young bachelor would be at caring for the teenager, “gentle soul” or not, was anybody’s guess.
    Silas Lark and Ted had a short conversation