Free Dark Places by Reavis Z Wortham Page A

around.”
    â€œYou don’t accuse us!”
    â€œDid either of them say y’all was under suspicion?”
    Dwight shrugged. Malcom and the rest watched, waiting. “No.”
    â€œThen you’re talkin’ to hear your head rattle, like I said.” John nodded to end the conversation. “Now, y’all hear anything about that hit and run out by Center Springs, you let me know. Some of you have family out there that might know something.”
    Malcom picked up a wrench and stared outside at the rain as if it might offer a clue as to whether he should get back to work. “I hear you got a connection yourself out there.”
    John grinned, thinking about his girlfriend Rachel Lee. “We gettin’ connected up all right.”
    â€œShe’s somethin’ else.” Linwood Carter chuckled. “My wife’s second cousin was kin before her old man run off back to Jefferson.”
    â€œShe’s divorced now.” It was the first time John had said the words, though he’d paid the court costs to finish the paperwork. It felt good to tell them she was free from any entanglements with her ex-husband. He headed toward the back door. “And you’re right, she’s a keeper.”
    He stepped outside, and then stuck his head back in the door. “Oh, and Spec, I reckon you oughta get that sorry-assed brother of yours and run over to the sheriff’s office and turn yourself in to get all them troubles of yours straightened out. It’ll go better for you if you do. If I have to run y’all down tomorrow I won’t try to help a’tall.”
    Spec plucked at his shirt and then shrugged. “A’ite.”
    John grinned and disappeared. They heard his voice through the open door, over the suddenly heavier rain. “That’s what I like to hear.”

Chapter Fourteen
    The day was about done when Ned and Cody dropped by the courthouse to see Judge O.C. Rains. He’d been at his desk all that day, trying to catch up on the mountain of paperwork that continually threatened to overwhelm his office.
    The windows in his office were wide open, since the rain came from the west. There were no screens on the public building and flies buzzed in and out during the summertime without impediment. Fortunately, the rain beat them from the air, filling the room with the damp smell of paper, mildew, and old books.
    Knowing his old friend hated for folks to come busting through the door, Ned walked in without knocking. He slapped his wet Stetson on the hat tree beside the door.
    O.C. glowered upward from under bushy white eyebrows. “What’s the matter with you?”
    Aggravated that it showed, Ned grunted and picked up a pile of papers from a wooden chair. He put them on the worn oak floor and dropped heavily into the uncomfortable seat. “My bullet hole’s hurtin’ me today.”
    Cody closed the door. “Doc Heinz said it could be the weather making his wound act up, or it could be that he has some kind of infection, but this cranky old fart wouldn’t let him do a complete exam.”
    â€œYou ought to listen to him.” O.C. screwed the cap back on his fountain pen. The wind shifted and O.C. twisted around and pulled the window to within an inch of the sill. Water streamed down the wavy glass. “You can’t do much outside today anyways. Go back over there and let him check you good.”
    â€œAin’t got time.” Ned shot Cody a couple of daggers. “What about these missing businessmen?” He pointed at the newspaper on O.C.’s desk. The headline in The Chisum News was large enough to read from across the room: Two Disappear, Foul Play Suspected.
    O.C. tapped the paper with a thick fingernail. “Ask the sheriff there. All I know is what he told me, what’s in this rag, and what I might have heard from other unnamed sources.” It felt good to goad Ned with as little information as