Free The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) by L.T. Ryan Page A

of the papers that were spread out in front of
him. According to the documents, Roy Miller’s parents, Susan and
Robert, died when their Taurus sedan clipped the rear fender of
another vehicle and went over the side of a bridge. The reason they
ran into another car? The brakes didn’t work. And the reason for
that?
    The line was severed.
    I noted that the words “was” and “severed”
were used. Not “had been” and “cut.” That’s an important
distinction. There was a line crossed when the word cut was
used.
    “So they both drowned,” Sam said, looking
up.
    Huff nodded.
    “Any insurance?” I asked.
    “Life?” Huff asked.
    The man had come up through robbery, not
homicide. I reminded myself to be patient with him. “Yeah,
life.”
    “You mean like a reason why someone might
have severed the brake line?”
    Sam and I stared at him and did not reply. At
least Huff was on the right track.
    His face reddened. Those veins on the side of
his head stuck out around his temples. “You two are looking at the
same information I am. Find out for yourself.” He rose and walked
to his door and kicked it open. “I’m going for some coffee.”
    “I’ll take,” the door slammed shut, “some.” I
looked at Sam and laughed. “Guess not.”
    “You always giving that man a hard time.
Gonna give him a coronary one of these days.”
    I shrugged. My cell phone rang. I pulled it
out and looked at the display.
    “Who is it?” Sam asked.
    “Lana.”
    “ Kuh-cha ,” he said while snapping his
wrist.
    “Shut up,” I said and then I sent the call to
voicemail. “There now. Would a whipped man do that?”
    Sam laughed, then stopped abruptly. He
pointed at a spot on the paper in front of him. “There it is. Seems
that elder Mr. and Mrs. Miller had a twenty-five thousand dollar
life insurance policy.”
    “Not all that much.” I drummed my fingers on
the edge of the desk. “We should check bank records for the
following two months and see if Roy made any large purchases or had
any debts, legal or otherwise, to pay off.”
    “And check to see if Dusty Anne had a life
insurance policy taken out recently with Roy designated as the
benefactor.”
    I nodded. “Three deaths in two incidents that
appeared to be accidents.”
    “Follow the smell to the barbecue.”
    My phone rang again and I pulled it out and
looked at it and said, “Lana again.”
    Sam held his hand in the air holding an
imaginary whip. His arm twitched. He wanted to snap that whip real
bad. “Come on now, answer it.” The smile on his face broadened.
    “Come off it now,” I said as I sent the call
to voice mail again.
    Huff reentered the office carrying three cups
of coffee. Steam slid through the tiny slits in the lids. Maybe he
felt bad for his childish outburst. “You geniuses figure anything
out while I was gone?”
    Not that bad, I guess.
    “As a matter of fact,” Sam said. “We did.
Turned out mom and pops had a small life insurance policy.”
    “Only problem is,” I said, “this happened
over ten years ago. Banks are a pain about giving up records from
that long ago. Turns out some guy actually has to get up and search
for a physical file. Can you imagine?”
    Sam grinned.
    Huff sat down and said, “Don’t worry, fellas.
I got this one. One of my old contacts can get that for us by
tomorrow.”
    Sam and I looked at each other. He lifted an
eyebrow and nodded. We had a running bet on whether or not Huff
would ever be useful to us. Looked like Sam won. There goes that
twenty from earlier.
    I opened my mouth about to mention that we
ought to check and see if Lana had a life insurance policy when my
phone rang again. I looked at the display. Lana. “There’s gotta be
some kind of crisis going on.”
    “Go on man, me and Huff got this,” Sam
said.
    I gave him a look.
    He held his hands up in retreat. “No whips
this time.”
    I stood up, walked toward the door and pushed
it open.
    “ Kuh-cha, ” Sam said to his own
laughter.