Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek: A Samuel Craddock Mystery (Samuel Craddock Mysteries) Read Online Free

knots of people huddle around talking in low voices. There are a lot of grim expressions and a few red-eyed women. Cookie Travers, who has worked at the bank for years and is now a vice president, rushes across the marble corridor to greet us. “Samuel, I assume you’ve heard what happened. It’s terrible.” Her eyes are red-rimmed and her usually cheerful face is haggard.
    I tell Cookie that I’m helping Odum and ask where we can find Alan Dellmore.
    “As soon as he got the news about Gary he called us all together to tell us and then he went on home. We’re going to close up the bank in a few minutes out of respect. Mr. Dellmore wanted to keep the bank open long enough for our regular morning customers to do their business.”
    Gary Dellmore’s wife kept on with her gardening after she heard the news of his death, and now his father wants business to proceed as usual after hearing the news. Is there anyone who will be upset enough to stop their regular activities? I’m thinking that would be his mother, Clara Dellmore.
    “Do you know who told Alan about Gary’s death?”
    “I didn’t ask him. You know how things get around, though. Poor man, he was devastated. But I imagine he’ll have the bank open tomorrow and you can talk to him then. The way he is, this bank is like another child to him.”
    I don’t share her optimism that Dellmore will be up to business as usual tomorrow. But I could be wrong. Dellmore is an old-fashioned banker. He owns the bank and could leave the day-to-day business to others, but he prefers to keep his own steady hand on it. There’s a board of directors, but everyone knows the committee usually follows Dellmore’s lead.
    I respect Dellmore, and for a long time kept my money here at his bank, but after Gary began working here, it became clear that he didn’t have the discretion you want in a banker. He spread all over town how much money people had and where they spent it. I didn’t want that kind of information known and slid the majority of my money into a bank over in Bobtail, leaving only enough here for daily expenses. And I know I wasn’t the only one.
    Bill Odum and I go back outside. Earlier in the day the air was cold and still, but a north wind is coming in and it’s beginning to cloud up. I shiver and zip up my jacket.
    I consider if we ought to go by to check in on Alan and Clara Dellmore, but there’s nothing we can do for them. They know the basic news. “Let’s go back to the American Legion Hall and see if the crime scene investigators have arrived.”
    When we get back, there’s a crime scene van in the parking lot and an ambulance around back. The EMT duo is leaning against the ambulance smoking, waiting around for the forensics people to finish up. Reinhardt and Schoppe are watching the two crime scene investigators at work.
    “They’re almost finished here,” Schoppe says, nodding in the direction of the two investigators. They’ve got photos of the scene and blood samples and they took a couple of possible footprint samples, although they agreed that the ground isn’t going to yield much.”
    “You missed Doc Taggart. He didn’t spend much time here,” Reinhardt says.
    “He took the vitals and said the medical examiner will do the rest.”
    “Who’s going to do the autopsy?” I ask.
    Schoppe says, “They’ll figure that out when they get the body to Bobtail. Depends on how overloaded the ME is whether they do it there or send the body on to Houston or San Antonio.”
    I’m hoping T. J. Sutter, the ME and justice of the peace in Bobtail, will do the autopsy at his place. Once a body gets shipped off to Houston or San Antonio, no telling what will happen to it—or when.
    “Did you find Gary’s wife at home?” Reinhardt asks us.
    “We did.”
    “How’d she take the news?”
    “Shook her up, but she’ll be okay.”
    Reinhardt turns to Schoppe. “What happens now?”
    “The Rangers could get somebody on this investigation right