Free Barbara Graham - Quilted 03 - Murder by Music by Barbara Graham Page B

a piece of a broken plate against Elmer's throat.”
    Tony started untying the knots as Ruth Ann continued. “To make a long story short, Mike is bringing Dudley in now. Doc Nash is fixing Elmer up, and Ruby won't let either man back into her café.” She touched the edge of her fingernail checking it for dryness. Smiling with satisfaction, she sauntered out of his office.
    Still holding the cord, Tony leaned back in his chair, his thoughts on Dudley Thomas. Dudley had spent some time in the county jail and was certainly no saint. His main crimes were usually drunk and disorderly behavior, public intoxication and car theft. The car theft charges were what Dudley preferred to think of as borrowing what he couldn't afford to buy. His target victims were almost always tourists from out of state who parked in Ruby's parking lot. It was strictly a matter of convenience for him. Dudley worked sporadically at his brothers' gas station. The station next door to Ruby's. On the occasions when he did work, he was the best auto mechanic in three states. Even he failed to fix Theo's minivan.
    Tony knew when Mike arrived with Dudley. He could hear Dudley swearing in the back seat of the patrol car as it pulled into the parking bay. Tony met them in the interrogation room. “Did Mike read you your rights?” From across the room, he could smell Dudley. His odor was an unpleasant combination of sweat, grease and beer. The navy blue jumpsuit he wore had enough grease on the front of it to lubricate every hinge in Park County.
    “Yeah, he did, like I'm not smart enough to know what they are without him going on and on about it. I got me a terrible headache.” Dud whined. “Can I leave now?”
    “No.” Tony hooked his foot around the nearest chair and dragged it towards him.
    Mike just smiled at the screeching sounds it made as it crossed the linoleum, but Dudley covered his ears with both hands and moaned.
    Tony said, “Have a seat, Dudley.”
    Dudley did as he was told. He crossed his arms on the table and rested his head on them. Seconds later he was snoring.
    Tony looked at his deputy. “Ruth Ann gave me her version of the story. What's yours? You think he meant to harm Elmer?”
    “Yeah. I think he was just drunk enough and just mad enough about something Elmer said that he would have killed him if the others hadn't gotten involved. I don't know how long you can lock up someone on ‘would have.’ ”
    Tony shrugged. “What started it? Ruth Ann said something about a threat.”
    “From what I gathered at the scene, Elmer accused Dudley of running up a lot of extra miles on his car when he was supposed to be checking the transmission. Evidently he billed Elmer for several hours when he was just driving around in Elmer's car. Elmer called it gouging and claimed Dudley was using his car for a personal trip. Dudley called it fair business practice.” Mike consulted his notes. “Five witnesses saw him slam Elmer in the face with a plate, knocking him off the stool, and then Elmer started fighting back. All of the diners jumped in then. I was only about a mile away when I got the call, but by the time I arrived Dudley had knocked Elmer unconscious and was threatening to kill him to keep everyone back. The piece of plate he was using as a weapon was sharp enough to have done a lot of damage. I have it in the car.”
    “How is Elmer?” Elmer was in his early sixties and was fit enough to walk eighteen holes, carrying his golf clubs but Dudley was in his thirties and had an advantage of fifty pounds of muscle.
    “Right now he is pretty dizzy and sick to his stomach. Doc says he'll have a headache for a couple of days. Lucky thing for him that Doc was having lunch there. Doc might have thrown a couple of punches himself.” Mike looked at Dudley, whose snores were increasingly loud. “How long are you going to let him sleep there?”
    “His time's up.” Tony pounded on the metal table. The combination of the sound and vibrations