Free The Wild Hog Murders by Bill Crider Page B

situation.
    “What’s that county road number?” Hack asked.
    Rhodes told him.
    “Duke’s out that way, not far from Obert,” Hack said. “I’ll see if I can get you some backup.”
    Rhodes hooked the mic and concentrated on his driving. He didn’t think Duke, the county’s newest deputy, would be of much help. The county roads wound around all over the place, one joining another at odd junctions. The Eccles cousins would know them all, Rhodes was sure, and Duke wouldn’t know them nearly as well. Rhodes had lived in the county all his life, but even he didn’t know all of them.
    “You ought to be able to catch a big truck like that,” Benton said.
    Rhodes hit a bump, and the county car went briefly airborne.
    “Or not,” Benton said.
    “I appreciate your confidence in my driving,” Rhodes said as he fought the wheel.
    The Mack barreled across a bridge that spanned Pittman Creek and thundered up a hill.
    The county car was gaining on them, but the driver turned the truck sharply where there was no real road, just a barbed-wire gate leading into a pasture. The truck tore the wire from its moorings and headed off across the open country, bouncing wildly.
    Rhodes didn’t even try to follow. He stopped the car and watched.
    “Those two are crazy,” Benton said.
    “Not as crazy as I’d be if I tried to follow them,” Rhodes said. “I’ve already got a new dent in this car. I can’t chance tearing up the suspension.”
    “Do you have any idea where they’re going?”
    “Nope,” Rhodes said. “Once they get over the hill they can go a lot of different directions.”
    “So you’re going to let them get away?”
    “I hate to disillusion you,” Rhodes said, “but that’s about the size of it.”
    Benton took off his hat and tried to push it into something resembling its proper shape.
    “I can live with that,” he said.
    *   *   *
    Rhodes dropped Benton off at his house and went back to the jail. Nothing unusual was going on around the county, aside from the fleeing cousins.
    “Just couple of loose cows,” Hack said when Rhodes asked. “Boyd’s after ’em. Broken water main shootin’ a geyser in the air over at the Kelly place on Pine Street. I called the water department ’bout that. Couple of neighbors arguin’ about some trash in the yard. One claims the other put it there. Ruth’s on that one.”
    “Any response to that bulletin you put out last night?” Rhodes asked.
    “About the man leavin’ the scene of a murder? Not a thing. No reports of any hitchhikers. Nobody called to say they saw him. He’s the invisible man.”
    Not so invisible, Rhodes thought. It would be easy enough to walk back to town from the Leverett place and not be seen after dark.
    “I expect ever’body out that way’s got their doors locked up tight,” Hack said. “No use, though. That fella’s long gone, like you said.”
    “Maybe. The Eccles boys know something about it, though.”
    “You gonna tell me?”
    Rhodes could have drawn it out, but he didn’t bother. He told Hack what had happened.
    “That’s just like those two,” Hack said, “but it might not be what you think it is.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “They might not want to talk because of somethin’ else that happened. You know. The Chandlers.”
    “You think the Chandlers might have mixed it up with the hunters?”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Hack said. “You could ask ’em.”
    “I already have. They denied it.”
    “Too bad you can’t ask Lance and Hugh. They might have a different story, if they’d tell it.”
    “They’ll tell it,” Rhodes said. “Eventually. Did you get anything more on those bank robberies Baty supposedly planned?”
    “Ruth did. She said to tell you there’s not any good descriptions of the man who pulled those jobs. Just a big man with a stockin’ pulled down over his face. Had on a hoodie when he went in the bank, so nobody could get a good look at him, anyway.”
    The man in the