Read Stranger At My Door (A Murder In Texas) for Free Online Page B

Gaps where shingles had blown away dotted the sloping roof where it extended past the dormers. Buffalo grass sprang from the front lawn’s hard-packed dirt. Why had she come back?
    El Royo’s other police cruiser rolled past Rafe and parked at the curb. Swope poked his skinny head out the window.
    “Heard you call in the Pittman place and thought maybe you could use some help.” He grinned at Rafe. His teeth looked buttercup yellow in the sunlight.
    “Just conducting routine interviews concerning Teke Cruz’s death, Swope. Don’t need any assistance.”
    “Think she offed him?”
    “I just started the investigation. It’s too early for conclusions.”
    Swope glanced up at the house. “Is she in there?”
    “Why?”
    “Told you this morning. I plan on getting me some of that. Have you seen her in those jeans? That’s some fine ass.” He flashed another yellowy grin.
    Jamey’s ladder clattered to the ground.
    “Get back to the business district, Swope. Before dispatch starts looking for you.”
    The cruiser door swung open, and Swope got out. He hitched up his pants and adjusted his gun belt. “How about you help a buddy out, Morales? You take the business district. Let me interview her. I swear I’ll have her singing like a canary before we get down to personal business.” He winked at Rafe.
    “Fuck this.” Jamey muttered the words as he launched himself at Swope.
    Rafe managed to grab his shirt collar and pull him back.
    Swope raised his hands in the air and feigned shock. “Whoa, whoa. You just threatened a police officer.”
    “I’m defending a great human being and a good friend.”
    Swope stepped back. “Hey, I’m just looking for a little action, Brenner. I bet there’s plenty of her to go around.”
    Jamey strained against Rafe’s hand. “Let me go. I don’t c-c-care if I go to jail.”
    “Get back in your cruiser, Swope, and get out of here.”
    Swope’s eyes swept past Rafe to Jamey’s flushed face, then up at the bungalow. “Maybe I’ll come back tonight after my shift. Lonely gal like that will be glad for some male company.” He slid into the cruiser. “I’ll let you all know how it goes.”
    Jamey tried to shake off Rafe. “He has no right to talk about her that way.”
    The cruiser pulled away from the curb, and Jamey turned on Rafe. Anger stained his cheeks, and his eyes blazed. “I thought you were a decent guy, Morales. What kind of man lets another man talk that way about a lady?”
    Was Dinah a lady? He didn’t recall any loose talk about her except for the naked dive into the quarry, but it was hardly the behavior of a modest, traditional girl. The kind he was going to marry. Someday.
    Lady or not, it was a free country, and Jamey better get used to hearing Dinah’s name being slung around because there were a lot more guys like Swope in El Royo. “Come on, Jamey, he was baiting us. He’s a jerk. And you took the bait. He could have thrown you in jail for threatening a police officer. Is that what you want?”
    “I want people to stop hurting Dinah and-and-and all the girls around here just because they’re-they’re… Forget it.” He straightened his glasses and picked up the ladder.
    What was Jamey’s problem? He probably hadn’t seen Dinah in years. Maybe… “Did you and Dinah, uh, date in high school?”
    Jamey spun on him. “Why is everything about sex?”
    “I didn’t say—”
    “You implied it, Rafe. For your information, Dinah is my friend, or at least, was my friend.”
    “Look, I’m sorry. I wasn’t around when all the shit went down with Dinah and her family, but it must have been hell for her.”
    Jamey nodded. “It was.” Looking past Rafe, he added, “She wasn’t the only girl who went through hell that summer.”
    He was talking about Rafe’s sister. Esme had been raped a few weeks after Dinah’s dive. “Esme’s doing okay. At least better than Dinah.”
    “Yeah?”
    “She’s still living at the hacienda with the family,