Dying for a Change Read Online Free Page A

interrupted.”
    We weren’t going to this time. I also wanted to know what had happened.
    What was he hit with?” I asked. “It must have been something pretty hard, there was an awful lot of blood.”
    “ Head wounds bleed a lot,” Dan said, noncommittally.
    “ Dan--” I started.
    “ We think whoever it was used a brick, one of the ones by the upstairs fireplace. It looks like he was attacked in the bedroom, pulled into the closet while lying on the tarp, then hit a few more times."
    I felt a little sick. Sharon’s face was blank but she’d turned pale under her makeup.
    “ Who would do such a thing?” I blurted out.
    “’ That’s what we mean to find out,” Dan said, then turned his attention to Sharon again. “Wasn’t Hank a client of yours?” he asked.
    Sharon nodded.
    “ He was in and out of your office a lot,” Dan pressed, making it more a statement than a question. Sharon nodded again.
    “ I hear there’s been some problems lately,” Dan went on.
    Here we go, I thought. Poor Tom.
    Sharon looked up, started to say something, but changed her mind. “Hank was going to press some kind of charges against Ray Yarbourough?” Dan went on.
    I sat up straight. Ray? I hadn’t heard that. Ray was the only other agent at Harpers Land Sales. I didn’t like him much, but couldn’t see him bashing Hank over the head. He wouldn’t want to get blood on his white shoes.
    “ Hank said something, yes,” Sharon answered carefully, not looking at Dan. “We had a meeting set for tomorrow afternoon, the three of us.”
    “ What did Hank think Ray had done?”
    “ I don’t know.” Sharon sighed. She looked directly at Dan for the first time. “I didn’t want to know. I told Hank to bring in his information, or proof, or whatever. I’d let Ray answer, then we’d see.”
    “ Hmm,” Dan said, then started to pat his pockets. He stood up, patted some more, and headed for his jacket.
    “ What are you doing?” I asked.
    “ Getting this,” he answered. He handed Sharon a piece of stationary with a Harper’s Land Sales logo. “Ever seen this before?”
    My curiosity was itching like crazy. I got up and went behind Sharon to try to read what was on that paper. Nothing but a list of names and addresses.
    “ We found that in Hank’s pocket. Couldn’t help but wonder about it,” Dan went on. “See, some of the names have yellow highlighter, others don’t. Hank’s on that list, and his name isn’t highlighted. Neither is yours, Sharon.”
    “ Where did you get this?” Sharon asked. She stared down at it, holding it in two fingers as though it might explode.
    “ I told you,” Dan said mildly. “Hank’s pocket. It’s a list of — what?
    “ These are the original investors in a limited partnership I put together, oh, a couple of years ago,” she said slowly. “We bought land. Just one piece of land. The highlighted names sold their shares, the others are still in.”
    “ What land,” Dan asked, holding out his hand for the paper.
    Sharon took a deep breath, hesitated a minute, and finally handed it to him. “The land Stop N Shop is buying to build their new store,” she said.
    “ Holy--Toledo,” Dan said. “Everybody thought that land was worthless, until Stop N Shop came to town. You all must have made a killing.”
    “ It’s turned out quite well,” she said. A brief satisfied smile came and went, replaced by a frown. “At least financially. There are times when I wish I’d never heard of Stop N Shop.”
    “ Why?” I asked. “It’s exactly what this town’s been needing for years. We’ve always had to go to San Luis Obispo to shop, unless you wanted to brave the Emporium. Everyone must be delighted."
    “ Not everyone,” Sharon said. “There are a lot of people who don’t think that store should come. They’re being led by Benjamin Lockwood and they all blame me.”
    “ Benjamin Lockwood,” I mused, lost for a moment in the past. “I haven’t thought about him in