Dark Coulee Read Online Free Page B

night. What a pleasant surprise that would be.

4
    C LAIRE smiled to herself as she watched Rich walk away. He didn’t quite swagger, but there was a little backbeat in his walk. She was glad she would get a chance to see Rich later on tonight. She had surprised herself by agreeing to stop by, but now she was glad. That last kiss had been full of promise.
    Billy came over to talk, and she asked him if he had found anyone else who saw what had happened.
    “Not really.”
    “I find it surprising that no one saw someone get stabbed at a street dance. Everyone was all crowded together.”
    “What’re you suggesting?” Billy asked.
    “I’m not sure. Often people are eager to tell what they saw. Was Jed Spitzler not well liked?”
    “Could be. Didn’t really know the guy myself.”
    “You feel like taking me over to the hospital? This guy’s kids are over there, and I’d really like to talk to them tonight while it’s all still fresh in their minds. Steve can stay here and keep on with the questioning.”
    “You’re the boss,” he said.
    “No, I’m not. I’m not even here in an official capacity.”
    He slapped her on the back. “Hey, you are the investigator of the Pepin County Sheriffs Department. You are as official as they come. If you weren’t here now, we’d probably be hauling your ass out of bed.”
    She laughed. She liked Billy. Straight brown hair cut desperately short, lake-water blue eyes that sparkled when he smiled, and a lanky body. He was just out of the academy, and had chosen to work for a small sheriff’s office because he had grown up in this area. Also, he was one of the deputies who liked her. He did not appear to feel threatened by her, and in fact he went out of his way to let her know how much he appreciated her help on anything. She found him completely charming in how open he was to most everything.
    A month ago, Chief Deputy Sheriff Stewart Swanson had assigned her to be chief investigator for the department. This had caused a commotion, since a couple of other deputies had more seniority, but Swanson had explained that Claire had more experience and ended his announcement by commenting that Claire had worked on more murder cases in a year than all of them combined had ever worked on. It had the effect of shutting complaints up short-term, but Claire had felt the resentment from the others. For her the appointment, because it meant she always worked the day shift, was a godsend. She could be at home every night with Meg.
    As Claire and Billy were walking toward his patrol car, a balding man with a big mustache walked up and tapped Billy on the shoulder. When Billy turned, the man asked, “What have we got here, son?”
    “Pit, how you doing?”
    Billy knew Little Rock better than she did. He lived out this way. “This is Claire Watkins. She’s a deputy too. She was here when it happened, she can tell you more than I can.” Billy introduced her to the mayor, a man by the name of Pit Snyder.
    She wondered how he got the name Pit but figured she’d ask later. There was nothing fierce about Pit, a short man with a soft fuzz covering the front of his head. Claire felt the urge to pet him.
    “Jed Spitzler was stabbed. They took him off to the hospital, but between you and me, he looks bad. I’m not sure he’s going to make it,” Claire told him.
    “I don’t like to hear this. It’ll give the town a bad name. Can’t believe something like this could happen here at our annual street dance.”
    “Do you know Jed?”
    Pit shuffled his feet in the dirt. “Not well. He’s not, as they say, one of my constituents. He doesn’t live in the village. His farm is part of the township. Keeps to himself pretty much. We know the kids, because they go to school in town. They’ve always been good kids.”
    “Have you seen him around tonight?”
    “Actually, I think I saw him right before it happened. I had gone to use the john when I walked by him.”
    “Was he alone?”
    “I