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look of puzzlement to unfurl. The grim set of his jaw seemed to relax. "Merle's probably close to the truth," he acknowledged. "Fact of the matter is, don't make much difference what the truth is. The outcome's the same." |
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"That explains everything but the body of the third woman," Carlos finalized. He looked at Gleason to see if his boss agreed. |
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The sheriff looked at Jeff Freeman, wondering if the hour was too late or if his men were too tired to dredge up the past. "You weren't around these parts a couple of years ago when Bart and Ruthie were doin' their public fussin'. Everybody around these parts knew Ruthie couldn't keep her pants on. Little blonde short thing, kinda foul-mouthed. I always figured she was just feelin' the pressure of the years. Anyway, one day she just came up missin'. She'd done it a couple of times before. Everybody around here just sorta figured she'd gotten another one of her wild hairs up her ass and took off with some guy. She gave everybody a hard time. In the end it was pretty hard to find anybody who had anything decent to say about her." |
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Young Freeman leaned up against the cruiser next to him. "Weird, isn't it? If it hadn't been for the storm, it's not likely her body would have been uncovered for a long, long time, what with it being stashed away under that old plank flooring like that." |
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