Broken Promise Read Online Free Page A

stop himself from ordering a soft, doughy circle of heaven. But Finley would hear his exchange at the speaker, and even though the former mayor did not know he’d embarked on a diet, Barry didn’t want anyone gaining insight into his dietary indiscretions.
    So he kept on driving.
    “Where are you?” Finley asked. “You in your car?”
    “I’m on my way in.”
    “Swing by Clampett Park. South end. By the path.”
    “Why would I want to do that?”
    “There’s something here you should see.”
    “Randy, maybe, if you were still mayor, I’d be at your beck and call, and I wouldn’t mind you having my private cell phone number, but you’re not the mayor. You haven’t been for some time. So if there’s something going on, just call it in the way everybody else does.”
    “They’re probably going to send you out here anyway,” Finley said. “Saves you going into the station and then back out again.”
    Barry Duckworth sighed. “Fine.”
    “I’ll meet you at the park entrance. I got my dog with me. That’s how I came across it. I was taking her for a walk.”
    “It?”
    “Just get over here.”
    The trip took Duckworth to the other side of town, where he knew Finley and his long-suffering wife, Jane, still lived. Randall Finley was standing with his dog, a small gray-haired schnauzer. The dog was straining at the leash, wanting to head back into the park, which bordered a forested area and beyond that, to the north, Thackeray College.
    “Took you long enough,” Finley said as Barry got out of his unmarked cruiser.
    “I don’t work for you,” he said.
    “Sure you do. I’m a taxpayer.” Finley was dressed in a pair of comfort-fit jeans, running shoes, and a light jacket that he’d zipped up to his neck. It was a cool May morning. The fourth, to be exact, and the ground was still blanketed with dead leaves from the previous fall that had, up until six weeks ago, been hidden by snow.
    “What did you find?”
    “It’s this way. I could just let Bipsie off the lead and we could follow her.”
    “No,” Duckworth said. “Whatever you’ve found I don’t want Bipsie messing with.”
    “Oh, yeah, of course,” Finley said. “So, how ya been?”
    “Fine.”
    When Duckworth did not ask Finley how he was, the ex-mayor waited a beat, and said, “I’m having a good year. We’re expanding at the plant. Hiring another couple of people.” He smiled. “You might have heard about one of them.”
    “I haven’t. What are you talking about?”
    “Never mind,” Finley said.
    They followed a path that led along the edge of the woods, which was separated from the park by a black chain-link fence about four feet high.
    “You lost weight?” Finley asked. “You’re looking good. Tell me your secret, ’cause I could stand to lose a few pounds myself.” He patted his stomach with his free hand.
    Duckworth had lost all of two pounds in the last two weeks, and was smart enough to know it didn’t show.
    “What’d you find, Randy?”
    “You just have to see it, is all. It must have happened overnight, because I walk along here with Bipsie a couple times a day—early in the morning, and before I go to bed. Now, it was getting dark when I came by last night, so it might have been there then and I didn’t notice, but I don’t think so. I might not have even noticed it this morning, but the dog made a beeline for the fence when she caught a whiff of it.”
    Duckworth decided not to bother asking Finley anymore what it was he wanted to show him, but he steeled himself. He’d seen a few dead people over the years, and figured he’d see plenty more before he retired. Now that he had twenty years in, he was better than halfway there. But you never really got used to it. Not in Promise Falls, anyway. Duckworth had investigated several homicides over the years, most of them straightforward domestics or bar fights, but also a few that had garnered national attention.
    None had been what you’d call a good