Read Richfield & Rivers Mystery Series 1 - Combust the Sun for Free Online

late twenties, spread-eagle
against the hood of a blue Buick. I recognized the jacket as belonging to the
man in the motel lobby. Someone was going to a lot of trouble to try to kill
me, and I had no idea why. I could have told the Amarillo police, but having
been a cop, I knew that when the whole interrogation was over,
"Raider" would end up knowing more about me than I would about him.

Chapter
Four
    I drove
into Tulsa around five thirty Sunday evening. For a town that annually endured
bone-chilling winters, stifling summers, and the often-carried-out threat of
tornadoes, Tulsa always managed to look as pristine as a Southern belle after a
twelve-hour train ride, not a hair out of place. I had to admit, it was comforting
coming home to a place where no one had ever heard of a three-step deal and
where a "power breakfast" was prunes.
    Maneuvering
the Jeep past upscale malls and state-of-the-art medical facilities, I passed
the sixty-foot bronze statue of praying hands, a humorous source of collegiate
speculation about the size of the rest of the bronze man's anatomy, which
remained mercifully underground.
    I
turned off Lewis into a neighborhood with neatly kept wood-frame houses and
yards filled with ancient oaks. The branches overhanging the street rustled
gently in greeting, creating a cool, sun-filtered canopy. I let out an audible
sigh, releasing the tension I'd held inside for two days, and swung into the
driveway of a house with a long front porch. I was home. Safe.
    My
parents popped out on the lawn as if spring-loaded. Mother, the size of a wiry
sparrow, pulled us from the car and kissed us hello. Dad made one lap around
the car's exterior and said, "What happened to your car? You should get
those dents in the rear fixed."
    "Is
that all you can say to your daughter, Ben?" Mother chastised.
    "Hi,
sugar." He gave me a chipper kiss on the cheek.
    "Elmo,
precious, has your mommy endangered your life by driving all alone across the
country?" Mother asked the exhausted hound, who looked as if he might go
into a drool state from sheer fatigue. She towed Elmo up the steps. "Now,
none of us wants to miss tonight's news about Frank Anthony! He was set on
fire!" Mom nearly shouted.
    "Is
that a euphemism for 'found God'?" I smiled at her.
    "He
was torched!" Mother regurgitated the word being used by a reporter.
"He was shot once in the head and once in the chest, then set on
fire!"
    "Once
in the head and once in the chest usually means we'd prefer this little
incident go un-discussed," my dad said with a dark humor I had grown to
appreciate more and more with time.
    "You
should see if Mrs. Anthony will let you make a movie out of it. Frank Anthony
was a wonderfully kind man," Mother continued.
    "Studios
don't want stories about wonderfully kind men. They want tits, ass, action, and
murder," I replied.
    "Well,
maybe there's some of that too. Call Mrs. Anthony and talk to her," Mom
instructed me.
    Maybe
she s right, I thought. Focusing
on someone else s murderer beats the hell out of focusing on the guy who tried
to be mine. "I'll check it out," I said.
    Dad
resumed his dinner, slamming down two hamburgers with four strips of bacon in
under five minutes, confirming my suspicion that I was descended from a pack of
wild dogs, and then he turned on the evening news. Deaf from a lifetime of oil
derricks and high-powered rifles, he cranked the volume up to atom-splitting
levels to hear the latest police bulletin. The police sergeant being
interviewed was none other than my old buddy Wade Garner, who looked
appropriately serious and competent as he told a reporter that the police now
believed Frank Anthony was killed by professional assassins. Police were asking
for the public's help in locating a dark green Lincoln Town Car with two men
inside. The broadcaster then noted that Mr. Anthony was an international
businessman with ties to many organizations, including Celluloid Partners, one
of the principal investors in some of Hollywood's