Read The Trap for Free Online Page B

then added almost grudgingly, “Well, with a little help from Luis.”
    I smiled. “When do you usually visit your observatory?”
    “At night, of course, after it’s dark enough to clearly see the stars.”
    “Are you ever there in the daytime?”
    “Sure. Once in a while,” he said. “It’s easier to go over my charts in the daylight than it is at night with the glare of electric lights. Old eyes, you know.”
    “When you’re in your observatory in the daytime, do you ever use your telescope?”
    Gabe nodded. “Once in a rare while. If the day’s clear, I like to guess how far I can see.”
    “How about close at hand? Have you ever seen something unusual around the ranch property?”
    “Unusual? Like what?” He sat up a little, shifting in his chair.
    “I don’t know,” I answered.
    “Well, I sure as shootin’ don’t know either, so what are you getting at?”
    I wasn’t certain how to answer. “I used your telescope this morning,” I said. “I couldn’t believe all the small details I could see. I watched someone working in a flower bed and someone over at the swimming pool.”
    “Yeah,” he said, and smiled. “That’s a great telescope. I decided if I was going to buy one, I might as well get only the best. Wait until you try it at night.”
    Suddenly he twisted to look toward the kitchen. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Now’s a good time to tell me,” he said. “Did you examine the stairs to the observatory? Did you find anything?”
    Sooner or later I’d have to answer. I gulped down the lump of guilt that threatened to stick in my throat, deciding, in spite of how Glenda had cautioned me, to tell him now and get it over with. “Uncle Gabe,” I said, “you asked me to search for something that might have caused your fall. I did. I found two tiny nail holes opposite each other on the supports at the top of the stairs, about four inches above the stair.”
    He frowned, looking puzzled. Then the idea hit him and he said, “Nails? With a string tied between them?”
    “It could be,” I answered. But I quickly added, “There was no sign of the nails themselves or of a string under the stairs. I looked carefully.”
    In spite of the cast on his foot and ankle, Uncle Gabe nearly bounced out of his chair, grabbing for his crutches. He winced and fell back into the chair, then grinned in triumph and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Glenda! Where are you?”
    Glenda came running into the living room, a wooden spoon still in her hand. “What’s the matter?” she cried.
    Uncle Gabe leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. With a smug look on his face, he announced,“Glenda, call Deputy Sheriff Dale Foster. Tell him to get here before it turns dark. Tell him I’ve got proof that my fall wasn’t an accident. Just as I’ve been saying, it looks like someone really did try to get rid of me!”

GLENDA’S FACE TURNED A GREENISH WHITE, AND SHE dropped into the nearest chair as if her legs had turned into Jell-O. She took a couple of deep breaths before she spoke. Scared by what I had unwittingly done to her, I was grateful that color was coming back into her cheeks and her voice was as strong as ever.
    “Before I go making any fool calls that might embarrass us both, you’d better tell me what you’re talking about,” she said.
    Gabe was so proud of himself for being right, he looked like a rooster puffing up to crow. “Julie found two small nail holes across from each other at the top of the stairs. If someone had hammered in a couple of nails and tied a string across them, I would never have noticed them there. I would have tripped and taken a header down the stairs. Which I did.”
    Glenda gave me a hurt, puzzled look as she asked, “Why didn’t you tell
me
about this, Julie?”
    I squirmed. I should have seen this coming. “I—Iwasn’t sure what had happened. I thought I’d better ask Uncle Gabe. I didn’t want to give you anything more to