Free Dead Giveaway by Brenda Novak Page A

someone in her family had killed her stepfather. She actually says that’s what she thought in here.” Allie slapped the report on the concrete floor. “Finding out that you’re so closely related to a murderer would be shocking for most people.”
    â€œI think she already knew her brother had done the evil deed and she was scared he’d get caught.”
    Allie stretched her legs in front of her because they were getting cramped from being crossed for so long. “Then why didn’t we find any human remains?”
    â€œBecause Clay moved the body before we could get there, that’s why.”
    â€œWas Clay watching you dig?” she asked.
    â€œYes sirree. No one steps onto his property without him knowing it. And it’s best to get permission—with or without a search warrant. It could be dangerous to startle him.”
    She set aside the report she’d been reading, interested at last. “Did he seem nervous? Frightened? Like Grace?”
    â€œHow could you ever tell? That man’s made of stone.”
    Allie remembered the subtle evidence of vulnerability she’d witnessed in Clay last night, the embarrassment and humiliation, the anger and simmering resentment. He’dtried to flirt with her to ease the discomfort they were both feeling, so he wasn’t without sensitivity.
    â€œHe’s as human as the rest of us,” she said.
    â€œNo, he’s not. I could put a gun right between his eyes and cock the damn trigger—and he’d dare me to fire. I’ve never seen a tougher sumbitch.”
    Clay was tough, all right. Allie suspected that life had made him that way. How else would he have survived the constant doubt, the suspicion, anger and animosity he’d battled for so many years? Allie could only wonder why he hadn’t moved as far away from Stillwater as possible. What kept him around? The farm? As Barker’s wife, Irene had inherited it when he disappeared. Then once Clay had graduated from college, she’d passed it on to him. Allie wasn’t sure what kind of an agreement he had with his mother and sisters as far as the property was concerned, but surely he could sell out, pay them off if he owed them money, and buy another piece of land where no one had ever heard of the missing reverend.
    â€œWhy do you think he stays put?” she asked. If he’d killed Barker and buried him at the farm, that would explain it. But if he was innocent…
    â€œWhere else would he go?” Hendricks asked.
    â€œThere must be towns where he’d be welcomed. He’s young, strong, handsome. Without Reverend Barker’s disappearance hanging over his head, he’d be like anyone else.”
    Hendricks wiped the perspiration beading on his forehead. “Guess he stays ’cause he’s got family in the area.”
    Why didn’t they all find a new home? Allie wondered. Molly, the youngest of Irene’s children at thirty, had left as soon as she graduated from highschool. According to Madeline, she was currently designing clothes in New York. Grace had left, too, but she’d come back, and now that she was married to Kennedy Archer, Allie didn’t think she’d leave again. Kennedy, along with his father, owned the bank. He wouldn’t want to uproot his boys, abandon the family business and leave his parents. His father had just survived a bout with cancer. But Clay and Irene had never even attempted to get away. When he returned from college, she’d moved into town and let him take over at the farm. And that was that.
    â€œDo you know much about Clay’s background?” she asked, adjusting her position so she could see Hendricks without putting a crick in her neck.
    â€œAren’t the details all there, in the files?” he asked.
    Some of them were. But the Stillwater police force hadn’t investigated many missing persons—or murders, for that matter—and the files