Death in the Secret Garden Read Online Free

And I ain’t no corporal anymore. Fact is, I think I’m out of the service now.’
    Rocco arched his eyebrow at Lyon before he reached into his bottom desk drawer to pull out a pint of Smirnoff vodka. He poured three ounces into a jelly glass and carried it to Spook.
    The former corporal grasped the glass with both hands and steadied their tremors by pressing his elbows against his thighs. He slowly bent toward the glass and drank greedily. ‘Oh, boy, that tastes good.’
    â€˜Do you know Boots Anderson?’ Rocco asked mildly.
    Spook shrugged and chugged down the remains of the vodka. ‘Yeah, I know her. She works down at the supermarket.’
    â€˜How well do you know her, Spook?’
    Shutters clamped shut behind the veteran’s rheumy eyes. ‘I know what you’re after, Captain.’
    â€˜Glad you do,’ Rocco answered in a non-judgemental tone.
    â€˜I’m not saying another word.’
    â€˜I think you should seriously reconsider that position, Williams,’ Rocco said. ‘Things are coming down heavy.’
    â€˜My lips are sealed. I know that the manager at the market sicced you on me. But you get nothing from me. Not a word.’
    â€˜The manager?’ For the first time Rocco sounded puzzled. He wondered if Larry Bell, the market manager, was involved. Were she and Boots an item?
    â€˜You can bring in Viet Cong torturers and you won’t get anything from me. I owe her.’
    â€˜Boots went out to the state forest today with either Eddy Rashish or Larry, right?’ No answer. ‘You saw them on the blanket without clothes on,’ Rocco continued. ‘The guy left and Boots decided to sunbathe without clothes …’
    â€˜Huh? What are you talking about, Captain?’
    â€˜Don’t fade out on me now, Spook,’ Rocco snapped. ‘You’re here. You’re in Murphysville. Earlier today you were in the state forest watching a lovely young woman parade around naked. It turned you on.’
    â€˜You better stay away from the booze for awhile, Captain,’ Spook said. ‘You’re talking crazy.’
    â€˜You couldn’t help yourself, Spook,’ Rocco continued. ‘I understand how it was. I don’t blame you. No one blames you. You just got carried away and had to shoot her.’
    â€˜Shoot her!’ Spook stood on trembling legs. ‘She was an angel. I thought you got me here because the manager made you because of the check-out line stuff.’
    â€˜What in the hell are you talking about?’ Rocco snapped impatiently.
    â€˜Boots kinda ran her own food bank down there at the market. Toward the end of the month, when my disability check runs out, she lets me buy tuna fish and crackers cheap. If she knows you don’t have much money she keeps the cost down. She kinda slides stuff around the scanner, know what I mean? I don’t want to get her in no trouble. What you talking about, naked girls and can’t help myself? The manager sent you after me because of the tuna fish, right?’
    â€˜Oh, Lord,’ Rocco groaned. ‘Where were you today, Spook?’
    â€˜Hell, Captain. It’s the end of the month and I don’t have no money left. If I had a few bucks I’da been down at Sarge’s place tossing down a few.’
    â€˜You’ve been in your tree house all day?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    â€˜Did you kill Boots, Spook?’
    â€˜I don’t kill no one anymore, Captain. You know that.’
    â€˜What did you do with the gun?’ Rocco pressed.
    â€˜I don’t have no side arms since I turned in my army forty-five when I was shipped home from Nam. You know that, Cap.’
    Rocco sighed. ‘We’re going to have to check out your tree house. Is that OK with you?’
    Spook held out his tumbler for more vodka. ‘Hell, yes. That’s OK with me, Cap. That’s your job, right?’
    Sarge’s Bar and Grill was a