Read Online Wife or Death by Ellery Queen - Free Book Online

uneventful weekend, and the first two days of the following week were equally without fireworks. On Wednesday afternoon, however, ten days after Angel’s departure, he got home at 4 o’clock to find Chief August Spile waiting for him on the front porch.
    Ridgemore’s chief of police was Jim Denton’s age; they had been high school classmates. He looked ten years older. A big man, he had let himself grow to fat; his enormous belly jiggled when he moved, and the back of his neck looked like a roll of liverwurst. His face was a blown-up red balloon; he was three-quarters naked-skulled; and he had heavy-lidded little eyes that made people unacquainted with him think of him as slow-witted, if not stupid. Chief August Spile was neither. He was a shrewd, able and honest officer who would have arrested his own grandmother if the facts warranted.
    â€œHi, Augie,” Denton said. Spile’s boyhood friends called him Augie; friends of more recent vintage knew him as Gus. “What’s up?”
    â€œJim.” Chief Spile had a soft, almost womanish voice. It fooled a lot of people. Now it held a curiously mixed note of reluctance and stubbornness. “Got to talk to you.”
    Here it comes, thought Denton. “All right, Augie,” he said pleasantly, and he unlocked the front door and waved the police chief in. He led the way into his living room. “Beer? Maybe a shot?”
    â€œNo, thanks.” Spile stood still, looking around.
    â€œWell, at least take a load off your feet.” It was an old joke between them, but this time the chief did not react. He merely nodded and lowered himself ponderously into the heaviest chair in the room. Denton sat down on the sofa and said, “Well?”
    â€œDropped by to ask about your wife, Jim,” Spile said.
    â€œShe’s not here.” Denton did not pretend surprise at the question.
    â€œI know she ain’t. That’s why I’m asking. Where is she?”
    â€œDon’t you read the Clarion , Augie?” Poor Augie, Denton thought. May as well make him sweat a little—and wondered why he wanted to.
    Spile took out a huge handkerchief and ran it over his bald head. “You wrote she’s visiting her folks, Mr. and Mrs. Stanislaus Koblowski, in Titusville, Pennsylvania. You also told it around town. Jim, she ain’t.”
    â€œShe ain’t?” Denton grinned.
    â€œJim, this ain’t a joke. Some bad rumors in town. The D.A.’s asked me to check.”
    â€œHe did, did he?” Denton said, suddenly grim. “Are you sure our D.A. didn’t start them?”
    The chief began to blink. “I don’t get you.”
    â€œOh, come off it, Augie. You know Ralph Crosby’s got such a yen for Angel he makes a drunken slob of himself every time he spots her.”
    â€œWell, now,” Spile said, still blinking. “Any gossip I hear’s got no bearing on the matter at hand. Jim, I don’t like asking you these questions—”
    Denton softened, finding no pleasure in his game. “Sure you don’t, Augie. I know the position you’re in. You’ve got to follow up any aberration of the D.A.’s. How about laying it on the line?”
    August Spile sighed with relief. “I phoned the Titusville police this morning. They phoned back a while ago. Your wife ain’t visiting her parents, and they ain’t expecting her. Matter of fact, they ain’t seen her in years. Haven’t even had a letter in six months.”
    Denton threw up his hands. “Okay, Augie. As the lawyers say, I’ll stipulate that she isn’t visiting her parents.”
    â€œDid a little more checking, too, Jim. Unless you drive, you know the only way to get out of this town is by bus or one of Mac’s taxis—the nearest rail stop being twenty miles away and the nearest airport ’most a hundred. Job Troy down at the depot swears she never bought a bus ticket.