Free The Shadow's Edge by Patrick Dakin Page A

I was in the habit of hanging on to but fortunately I had not yet had the opportunity to change what I’d been wearing yesterday and the stub was still in my shirt pocket. I dug it out and handed it to her.
                  She looked briefly at the stub, handed it to one of the troopers, and nodded her head at him. He immediately left.
                  “Sit tight, Mr. Parmenter,” Manochet said. “We’ll be back to you shortly.” She walked out leaving me alone with trooper number two.
                  It took longer than it should have for trooper number one to return with confirmation of my alibi. At least it seemed that way to me. Time tends to pass very slowly when you’re waiting out something like that.
                  When the process of establishing my innocence in the murder of Officer Croop was finally completed Sergeant Manochet was gracious enough to offer a curt apology. “Sorry for the down and dirty,” she said. “We have to cover all bases.”
                  I nodded my understanding. I’d been there, done that – six or seven hundred times in fact. “Anything yet on my wife or this Fuller guy?”
                  “Not yet,” she replied. “I imagine you’ll be among the first to hear when we find them.”
                  I had to at least respect her confidence. There was no ‘if’, only ‘when’.
     
                  So what was the relationship between Callie and Croop, I pondered as I drove back to the Wilsons. Was he the caller of whom Miles had spoken? The way things were shaping up it looked liked Callie may have killed him but, if that was so, what in the name of hell was her reason? If it was a justifiable shooting – which, of course, I was praying it was – why would she run? Was it possible that Fuller had killed Croop and then abducted Callie? Maybe that’s why Croop was on the scene. He had come across Callie and Fuller arguing and tried to intervene, getting himself killed in the process. It made as much sense as any other scenario I could conjure up.
                  When I sat down with Miles and Betty I brought them up to speed on all that had happened. They were every bit as mystified as I was by events.
                  “Tell me about Croop,” I said. “What kind of guy was he?”
                  Miles shrugged. “I never really knew him. He moved here about - what was it, Betty, two, three years ago?”
                  “Yes,” she said quietly. “About three years, I think.”
                  “Was he married?” I asked.
                  “No, a bachelor,” Miles stated. “A good lookin’ fella, lots a ladies in town givin’ him the eye all the time.”
                  “Is it possible he was the one calling Callie for the past couple of weeks?”
                  “I suppose. Callie always took the calls so I don’t know, but coulda been. ”
                  “What about Fuller?” I asked, deciding to run my theory past them. “Do you think it’s possible that he and Callie might have been arguing about something and Croop came along, intervened, and was subsequently killed by Fuller?”
                  Miles made a doubtful grimace, indicating extreme skepticism. “I’ve known Mitch for thirty years,” he said. “Fine man. The type to help anyone he felt needed it. Can’t believe he’d be involved in anything illegal, much less the murder of a police officer.”
                  “Maybe an unintentional thing?” I proffered.
                  Miles shook his head. “I just don’t see it as a credible possibility, Jack.”
                  That tended to shoot a big hole in my theory and pretty much put us back at square one.
                  Was Callie alive? And if she was, why