Free Bodies & Buried Secrets: A Rosewood Place Mystery (Rosewood Place Mysteries Book 1) by Ruby Blaylock Page B

ended up right back where she began, with a dead, cheating husband and broken down house that was now a crime scene.
    Rory continued. “I started to leave, but Chuck, that was his name, he grabbed me by my shirt and spun me around. Got right up in my face, but I still didn’t swing at him.”
    “What made you hit him with the chair?”
    “After I pulled away from him, somebody cracked me upside the head with a pool cue,” he explained. “I guess I just snapped after that. I picked up the nearest thing, which happened to be one of those heavy wooden chairs, and I swung a homerun hit right upside his head. One hit, and he hit the floor.” He paused. “I didn’t know that I’d fractured his skull. Heck, I didn’t even know I’d hit him that hard. I had blood pouring down my face from the pool cue.”
    Annie listened to his story and realized that his story could have happened to anyone. “And they sent you to prison for that? It sounds like you were defending yourself.”
    They’d reached the front porch, and Rory moved a section of railing that had fallen, clearing himself a seat. “Nobody saw him start it,” he said simply. “Everyone saw me hit him with the chair, but nobody saw him grab me.”
    “Surely someone saw him hit you with the pool cue?” Annie couldn’t believe that a roomful of people could have only witnessed half of a fight.
    “That’s the thing, he didn’t hit me with it. I thought he had, but when I hit him, he didn’t have a pool cue in his hand.” His eyes turned down in embarrassment. “I was drunk and I overreacted. He almost died. A few years in prison was the price I paid for being stupid, I guess.”
    Annie turned this over in her mind. “So you hated Suzy because she was your ex’s best friend?”
    “No,” he replied. “I hated her because someone told me she’d been the one who smacked me in the skull with a pool cue.”
    “But you didn’t see her do it?”
    “No, but I’m sure it was her,” he growled. “She was laughing when I got up, at least until I swung the chair at Chuck. And she testified against me during at the hearing. I heard from more than one person that they’d seen her with the pool cue just before I got hit. I’m not making this up, Annie.” Rory was angry, and rightly so.
    Annie thought carefully about Suzy’s relationship to Rory. If she hadn’t hit him that night, he probably would have walked away from the bar without injuring his ex’s lover. Rory went to jail because Suzy started something that Rory ended up finishing. He had every right to hate her, but did that make him hate her enough to kill her?
    Annie wanted to ask Rory more questions while he was being so talkative, but he glanced at his watch and scooted off the edge of the porch. The moment was lost, and Annie followed him dutifully to his truck to retrieve the flashlight. They were silent for a few moments, then Rory spoke up. “It was the only job I could get after prison.” Annie puzzled over this for a moment, then he continued. “Construction. I got hired on by a real nice contractor who had a lot of work and even more patience. He taught me everything I know about fixing old houses, and a little about building new ones. Heck, I even learned how to wire a house. I can pretty much do it all,” he continued. “I worked with the guy for five years, then he up and left town. I guess I could’ve gone with him, but I just didn’t have it in me to go starting over somewhere else.”
    He clicked the flashlight on as they approached the barn again, and Annie followed him closely, straining to see in the dim yellow glow of the flashlight’s beam. She pulled the collar of her shirt up over her nose and mouth to avoid breathing in any dust. The barn had a moldy scent that reminded her of rot, though Rory assured her that the building looked sturdy enough, at least from the outside.
    They went in a few feet, kicking up clouds of dust and dry hay with each step. Annie looked