Read Online The Shadow's Edge by Patrick Dakin - Free Book Online Page B

certainly no signs of trouble. He got back in his cruiser and drove back onto the main road. Once there he drove the quarter mile or so until he was opposite the blue pickup. Miles Wilson’s rig if he wasn’t mistaken. He got out, walked across the road, and glanced inside the cab. Everything appeared normal enough. It was a little odd that the vehicle had been left out here with the keys in it but it certainly wasn’t breaking any laws that he knew of. He got back in his vehicle and drove back to town.
                  By the time Fordham got to the office, Jessup had arrived.
                  “How’d it go out there?” Jessup asked. “Madge tells me Mitch Fuller reported hearing some shots out by his place.”
                  “Didn’t see anybody out there. Mitch wasn’t home when I stopped in to talk to him.”
              Jessup looked surprised at this. “That’s a little strange. By the way, you heard anything from Croop?” he asked.
                  “No,” Fordham answered. “Why?”
                  “I talked to him yesterday to confirm he was supposed to come in around noon today. He hasn’t showed up and Madge says he’s not answering his phone. You want to stop over to his place and see if eveything’s okay?”
                  “Sure, Chief.” Fordham did a one eighty, left the office, and drove off.
                  Madge stood at the door to Jessup’s office. “It’s almost one o’clock, Chief. Mind if I grab some lunch?”
                  “No, you go ahead.” Jessup sat back in his chair, propped his feet up on his desk, and lit a smoke.
                  Not long after that, Fordham called. “No sign of Croop or his car, Chief,” he reported.
                  Jessup took a contemplative pull on his cigarette. “What the hell?” he muttered. Croop was generally a pretty reliable guy.
                  No sooner had he hung up the phone than Jack Parmenter arrived to report his wife was missing.

 
     
     
     
                                                                                                      8
     
    Two days later …
     
                  After Betty stammered out the message from Jessup that he wanted to see me as soon as possible I didn’t waste any time beating a path to town. On the way I kept asking myself what ‘news about Callie’ might mean. It could, of course, be interpreted a number of ways, and not all of them were good.
                  I arrived at Jessup’s office to find the usually placid workplace a frenzy of activity. There were several Virginia State Police cars parked on the street and uniformed and plain-clothes officers milling around inside the building. When Jessup saw me enter he took me by the arm and steered me into his private office and closed the door.
                  I knew all this activity did not bode well for good news and I tried to brace myself for the worst when I asked, “Have you found my wife?”
                  “No,” Jessup barked. It didn’t take a genius to see he was in a state of considerable agitation. “An hour ago we got a call from Mitch Fuller’s neighbor – the guy married to the young lady you spoke with yesterday as a matter of fact. He was doing some fence work at the rear of his property where it borders on the Fuller place. Noticed a car parked in a strange spot on Fuller’s property and decided to check it out. He found the body of my reserve officer, John Croop, lying in the back seat with two bullet holes in his chest. Dead.”
                  The effect of hearing this news was roughly the equivalent of being struck in the chest with a bat. I stood speechless, trying to imagine how this could possibly