Grave Sight Read Online Free

kind.” Edwards shrugged. “Or, if Dell shot himself on the upslope side of the log and fell over it, the gun could have slid down the hill quite a distance, gotten hidden like that.”
    â€œSo the wounds—how many were there?”
    â€œTwo. One, a graze to the side of his head, was counted as a . . . sort of a first try. Then, through the eye.”
    â€œSo the two wounds were counted as suicide wounds, one unsuccessful and one not, and no gun was found. And he was on the downslope side of the log.”
    â€œYes, ma’am.” The lawyer took off his hat, slapped it against his leg.
    This was all wrong. Well, maybe . . . “How was he lying? What position?”
    â€œWhat, you want me to show you?”
    â€œYes. Did you see him?”
    â€œYes, ma’am, I sure did. I came out to identify him. Didn’t want his mom to see him like that. Sybil and I have been friends for years.”
    â€œThen just humor me by assuming the position Dell was in, okay?”
    Edwards looked as if he wished he were elsewhere. He knelt on the ground, reluctance in every line of his body. He was facing the fallen tree. Putting out a hand to steady himself, he sank down to the ground. His legs were bent at the knees and he was on his right side.
    Tolliver moved behind me. “This ain’t right,” he whispered in my ear.
    I nodded agreement. “Okay, thanks,” I said out loud. Paul Edwards scrambled to his feet.
    â€œI don’t see why you needed to see where Dell was, anyway,” he said, trying his best not to sound accusatory. “We’re looking for Teenie.”
    â€œWhat’s her last name?” Not that it mattered for search purposes, but I’d forgotten; and it showed respect, to know the name.
    â€œTeenie Hopkins. Monteen Hopkins.”
    I was still upslope of the fallen tree, and I began making my way to the right. It felt appropriate, and it was as good a way to begin as any.
    â€œYou might as well go back up to your SUV,” I heard Tolliver telling our reluctant escort.
    â€œYou might need help,” Edwards said.
    â€œWe do, I’ll come get you.”
    I didn’t worry about us getting lost. Tolliver’s job was to prevent that, and he’d never failed me; except for once, in the desert, and I’d teased him about that for so long that he’d about gone crazy. Of course, since we’d nearly died, it was a lesson worth reinforcing.
    It was best if I could walk with my eyes closed, but on this terrain that would be dangerous. The dark glasses helped, blocking out some of the color and life around me.
    For the first thirty minutes of struggling across the steep slope, all I felt were the faint pings of ancient deaths. The world is sure full of dead people.
    When I was convinced that no matter how stealthily he might be able to move, Paul Edwards could not have followed us, I paused at a rocky outcrop and took off my dark glasses. I looked at Tolliver.
    â€œBullshit,” he said.
    â€œNo kidding.”
    â€œThe gun’s missing, but it’s suicide? Shot twice, and it’s suicide? I could swallow one of those, but not both. And anyone who’s going to kill himself, he’s going to sit on the log and think about it. He’s not going to stand downhill of a landmark like that. Suicides go up .” We’d had experience.
    â€œBesides,” I said, “he fell on the hand that would’ve been holding the gun. If by some weird chance that should have happened, I feel pretty confident that no one would be reaching under the corpse to steal the gun.”
    â€œOnly someone with a cast-iron stomach.”
    â€œAnd through the eye! Have you ever heard of anyone shooting himself like that?”
    Tolliver shook his head.
    â€œSomeone done killed that boy,” he said. Some days Tolliver is more country than others.
    â€œDamn straight,” I said.
    We thought about that for