Unraveled by Reavis Z Wortham Page B

him.” He glanced around. “I want everybody back behind that next row of cars over there. Nobody pick anything up, neither.”
    â€œBack y’all, back!” Ike waved his arms as if moving a herd of cattle. “You heard the man.”
    Ned would have grinned if the situation hadn’t been so horrific. He saw a silver Rayovac in John’s hand. “Shine your light around these cars and trucks and see if you can find anything. I’m gonna talk to that feller over there that found Merle.” He rose on popping knees and turned to the carnival owner. “Delmar, you know anything about this?”
    â€œNope. We don’t have trouble inside. I have people watching all the time, and when trouble starts, we come get one of y’all, or whatever deputy is close by. The problems are always past the gate and the lights, where they get to drinking and arguing in the dark. I’ve had folks robbed before, too.”
    â€œWell, this wasn’t a robbery. It was a killin’, and I suspect I know why.”
    â€œUm humm.” John returned with a bloody axe handle ten minutes later. “This was in the bed of that pickup over there. The blood’s still wet.”
    The rough handle was aged by the weather and Ned knew it wouldn’t contain fingerprints. “Hold it for evidence, then.”
    Ike Reader visibly shivered at the sight of John holding the bloody axe handle. “I swan.”
    Delmar seemed unsure of what to do. “What about me?”
    Ned shrugged. “I don’t see no reason you can’t go back inside. There’ll be lots going on out here for a while, ambulances and such.”
    â€œYou want me to shut it down for the night?”
    Ned caught a glimpse of John’s girlfriend, Rachel Lea, standing with her kids near the cars. They were grouped around her like chicks around a hen, but the two oldest, Bubba and Belle, stood a little off. Belle had the toddler on her hip.
    â€œNope. Let them kids have fun.” Ned caught John’s eye. “I need to see you over by the car a minute…alone.”
    They wound their way through the cars and trucks parked in ragged formation. “What is it?”
    Ned’s face was a stone mask when he reached into his pocket. “I found this in the grass by Merle’s body. Thought it was mine, but mine’s in my pocket.”
    It was a chrome Cross pen with the initials C.P. etched into the body.
    They’d seen Sheriff Cody Parker sign with it dozens of times.

Chapter Sixteen
    The Wraith slipped between the thin sheets and with his hands behind his head, stared through darkness at the ceiling. It had been a good night’s work and things were coming together right nice. Of course they should, he’d been planning for years.
    ***
    The dirt and grass parking lot of the Forest Chapel Methodist Church was full by nine-thirty Tuesday morning, a full half hour before Frank Clay’s funeral. The overflow lined up on both shoulders of the two-lane highway, a testimony to the mayor’s reputation.
    Ned and a dozen men visited in the thick shade cast by large burr oaks that were older than the church that was built in 1920. Ned watched groups assemble and dissolve into new clusters. Miss Becky stood nearby with a number of other farm wives.
    Several members of the city council had already filed inside the little white church, joined by representatives from Austin. Highway Patrol cars were scattered up and down the highway, some to help move traffic, others there to pay their respects to a man who’d almost made it to the capital.
    Ike Reader ran a finger around his loose collar, more out of habit than anything else. “Listen, I swear. I didn’t expect this many folks.”
    â€œMost everybody liked old Frank.” Neal Box watched the people file down the highway in twos and threes. His store was closed so he could attend the funeral. “When you’re the mayor and