All Chickens Must Die: A Benjamin Wade Mystery Read Online Free Page A

it down with the last of
her tea. I took the opportunity to send the last mouthful of my sandwich down
my gullet. I signaled the waitress for more coffee and tea, then folded my
hands and leaned on my elbows.
    “So this man went into Mr. Teague’s office. They closed the door,
but the walls are thin and I was the only other person in the building. I could
hear my own breath if I wanted to. It was no big thing to hear when the heated
voices starting to yell at each other.”
    “What did they say?”
    “Now, even though the walls are thin, I couldn’t hear every word.
One thing the man kept saying was ‘It’s your obligation to do this.’ He said it
more than once.”
    “Any clue what that meant?”
    She shook her head. “Not at all, but Teague got pretty worked up
over it. He yelled back something like, ‘but that’s illegal. The government
will know what I’ve done if they investigate.’”
    I wrote that down in my notebook. “Any idea what he was talking
about?”
    “I’m not sure, but it was the next day when Mr. Teague ordered
the slaughter of Mr. Smith’s chickens.”
    I gazed at her. Now we were getting somewhere. “Okay, so this
mystery man comes to your office after hours, has a fight with Teague, and the
next day, Teague orders the slaughter?
    She nodded and looked out the window at the noontime sun beating
down on the pavement. The heat shimmered off the street. “Mr. Teague pulled me
aside two days after that and asked if I had heard anything. I was scared. Of
course I heard everything, or the stuff that mattered most. But I couldn’t say
anything or he’d fire me. Or worse.”
    “This guy who’s following you. Same mystery man who came to the
office late?”
    “No.” She clinked the ice cubes in the glass. “Last Friday night,
Danny and I met up after work to go to a dance hall.”
    “Y’all often go out together?”
    “From time to time. It’s not odd, but the timing was. You see, we
hadn’t gone out for a month or two. Then, suddenly, she suggests Friday night.
I didn’t have anything to do so I agreed. There’s a dance hall down on Bell
Avenue. You know the one?”
    I nodded. It had been a while since I took a lady out on the
town, but I knew the place. Not only did traveling big bands come and play at
the Travis Dance Hall, but a good number of Texas swing bands played there,
too.
    “We were there an hour and this man shows up at our table.”
    “What’d he look like?”
    She shrugged. “He was taller than you by a few inches, dark hair,
no mustache, dressed nicely. The thing I noticed about him was his hands. They
were huge.”
    “‘Huge’ as in long or ‘huge’ as in thick?”
    “A little of both. He introduced himself as Amos Peete and he
asked me to dance.” She stopped as if letting the gravity of that statement
rest on me.
    I didn’t get the meaning so I asked her about it.
    “Mr. Wade, I know I’m not a looker, and Danny’s ten times the
lady I am, so it was odd to have him come over and ask me to dance.”
    I smiled. “Maybe he saw your eyes. They’re quite radiant.”
    A blush crept across her face and I used the moment to signal the
waitress for more drinks and the check. “All I’m saying,” I reassured her, “is
that this Peete guy might’ve just found you more attractive than your friend.
So, you dance with him. What makes you think he’s out to get you?”
    The waitress came and poured more coffee and tea. Clara stirred
in sugar and gave me a stare. “While we danced, we made small talk like new
couples always do. When the song was over, he insisted we dance again. It was a
ballad so we had more time to talk. He went on and on about my looks and how
beautiful I was.”
    I had to agree with this Peete guy. Clara Milbanks might not have
ever landed on the cover of a fashion magazine but she was far from
unattractive. In fact, the more I sat across from her, the more I saw the
beauty of her face, her hands, and the way she carried herself.