Chapter 2 "A Penny For Your Thoughts"

This wasn’t according to the plan.  No one was supposed to get hurt and Maria would inherit what was left in the estate.  “She’ll find someone else and move on with her life.  And you can get that boat you always wanted.”

Everyone has a price.  Sheriff Carmichael knew how to make someone “disappear” and the sugar-coated rot went down easily with a brand-new fishing boat as a lure.  He looked at the twisted grimace of asphyxiation agony as he forced himself to look at her face. 

“Let’s cut her down, Samuels.  Then dust for prints just for the formality.  We both know the Coroner’s ruling,” he said as he stepped on something that crunched beneath his boot.  A blood-crusted fingernail.  Maria Stevens must have changed her mind, with her legs dancing for a hard surface to stop the choking.

Guilt punched him hard in the gut and almost stopped his own breathing.  Money motivated the Sheriff to take a step over the ethical line.  Since he was already there, what’s a little justice.  Unlike the chair Maria could not right, Carmichael would right this wrong if it took his own life.

“I’m thinking of going on a vacation.  To Mexico,” he said to Deputy Samuels as he laid her petite body gingerly on the sofa.  An American loaded with dough and booze would be as easy to track as a hemoraghing elephant.  A white elephant; no longer good for anything to anyone. 

“And call their son John.  He may be a rich man, but losing both parents in a year has no price,” he said to Samuels as he walked out to his truck.  He slid in behind the seat and started the trek back to the office.  A little research needed to be done.  He pulled out the small folded newspaper obituary and stared at the photo of a smiling Martin Stevens.  Yeah, Marty---or whatever he called himself now---was about to have an end to his little selfish jaunt in paradise with that twenty-something.  Maria would love to see him. And Sheriff Carmichael owed her one.

You can't kill a dead man.