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    No Signal
    No Signal
    No Signal
    Ebook61 pages54 minutes

    No Signal

    By Ryan Bright

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Small town rural life is supposed to be simple, peaceful, and anything but tragic. The death of a local dairy farmer brings many questions. Was it purely accidental? Or was it the result of foul play? Private Eye John Steele searches for clues and a good cell phone signal as he tries to solve the case.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRyan Bright
    Release dateJun 3, 2013
    ISBN9781301032051
    No Signal
    Author

    Ryan Bright

    Just a small dairy farmer with an overactive imagination making wholesome nutritious milk..

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      Book preview

      No Signal - Ryan Bright

      No Signal

      By Ryan A. Bright

      Copyright 2013 Ryan Bright

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the

      copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for

      commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage

      your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also

      discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support

      Thanks for encouragement and help:

      Margaret, Frannie,

      and Mr. White.

      Chapter 1

      The sun burned high in the sky and heat waves radiated off the pavement. I had a good view of both directions from the shoulder where I was parked with a flat tire. A spare sat safely in the trunk with no worry of me getting it out because the jack handle was currently being held as Exhibit B by the district attorney. A jack handle makes a good defensive weapon when your clip is empty, but it also makes a strong case for assault and battery. Hopefully not strong enough in this case, especially when the accuser’s rap sheet is as long as a poor kid’s letter to Santa. It takes brains and brawn to be a p.i. and so far I’ve had just enough of both to get by on.

      I didn’t have to be a detective to know how well my cell phone was going to work in this part of the county and yet I held it up in the air to read No Signal on the display anyway. When I went over the last ridge I also went back in time at least thirty years as far as the scenery goes. No cell towers to mar the bucolic surroundings. I counted at least four dozen black and white dairy cows grazing under the shade of a fencerow lined with trees on my left. None offered to help me out of my predicament. I’m not sure that any actually looked my way.

      The field on the other side of the road was long and flat with no fence except by the road. Rows and rows of thick, green, freshly mowed hay dried in the afternoon sun. The earthy, wet smell reminded me of my grandfather. Like his father and grandfather before him he had been the sheriff of Canton County and they all worked the farm in between catching crooks. I remember the summer day vividly when I insisted on helping him haul hay without wearing gloves. The rough twine that held the small square bales together rubbed raw marks on my hands that took a week to heal.

      How are you going to hold a gun or capture a criminal with those hands? Gramps had questioned me sternly. I’m not sure why my grandfather expected a twelve year old to be fighting crime, but he made his point. Don’t do stupid stuff when you know better. I learned many lessons on the summers I spent here.

      A familiar sound echoed from over the ridge. Blue lights and a wailing siren accompanied one, two, three police cars as they flew down the hill barely holding it in the road as they wound around the curve at the bottom. An ambulance topped the ridge seconds later. The cows panicked at the noise and raced down the fencerow to the far side of the field. I half expected at least one of them to jump over, but the cows huddled up in a pack in the corner with their ears pointed up.

      The lawmen passed me and my flat by without so much as a wave of the hand or the finger. I wasn’t expecting much from them. The current sheriff and I don’t always get along, and when his sister is your ex-wife, well, let's just say life gets complicated fast.

      I watched the flashing lights continue down to the bottom of the hill towards the silos and barns that made up the Thompson dairy farm. The police cars careened into the farm’s driveway throwing gravels and slid to a stop in front of the barn. It looked like a good place for me to go and borrow a jack, and if I happened upon an investigation then so be it. I wiped a drop of sweat off the lens of my sunglasses and started walking.

      ###

      Son, it looks to me like an accident and that’s all it was. Sheriff Brookshire was summing

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