by Bill Crider
“Yeah. This is Lenny Rapinski.”
Rhodes knew the voice immediately. Hack had known, too, no matter what he’d said, and he grinned widely. Rhodes knew why. Lenny?
“Hoss’s brother,” Rapper said, as if Rhodes might not know.
“What can I do for you, Lenny?” Rhodes asked.
“I hear you got the guy who killed my brother.”
“You heard right.”
“That’s good. I give you credit.”
“Thanks,” Rhodes said.
“That doesn’t mean anything’s changed between you and me, though.”
“I never thought it did.”
“You messed up my leg again. It got infected. I can’t hardly walk on it now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, I bet you are.”
“Thinking it over, though, I believe you’re the one who hurt your leg, not me.”
“It was your fault.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
Rapper didn’t say anything.
“Seems like you get hurt every time you come to Blacklin County,” Rhodes said. “Might be best if you stayed away from now on. Sooner or later, I’m going to get you in jail on a charge that will stick. Like some of the assault charges you accumulated on your last trip.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. Anyway, I just wanted to say you did good, and I appreciate it. That’s as far as it goes.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t hurt anybody more seriously.”
Rapper didn’t answer. He’d already ended the call.
“Who was it?” Hack asked.
“You know who it was.”
“Rapper. He’s a sharp one. Never gives anything away.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Now we know his real name.”
“You gonna run a check on him?”
“Sure, but I doubt it’ll do any good. He’s lived off the grid for so long that he might not even have a record as Lenny Rapinski.”
“Prob’ly not. You think he’ll be back?”
Rhodes rapped his knuckles on the top of the desk.
“I think we can count on that,” he said.
ALSO BY BILL CRIDER
SHERIFF DAN RHODES MYSTERIES
Murder in the Air
Murder in Four Parts
Of All Sad Words
Murder Among the O.W.L.S.
A Mammoth Murder
Red, White, and Blue Murder
A Romantic Way to Die
A Ghost of a Chance
Death by Accident
Winning Can Be Murder
Murder Most Fowl
Booked for a Hanging
Evil at the Root
Death on the Move
Cursed to Death
Shotgun Saturday Night
Too Late to Die
PROFESSOR SALLY GOOD MYSTERIES
A Bond with Death
Murder Is an Art
A Knife in the Back
PROFESSOR CARL BURNS MYSTERIES
A Dangerous Thing
Dying Voices
One Dead Dean
OTHERS
The Texas Capitol Murders
Blood Marks
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
THE WILD HOG MURDERS. Copyright © 2011 by Bill Crider. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crider, Bill, 1941–
The wild hog murders : a Dan Rhodes mystery / Bill Crider.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Thomas Dunne book.”
ISBN 978-0-312-64149-8
1. Rhodes, Dan (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Sheriffs—Fiction. 3. Texas—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.R497W54 2011
813'.54—dc22
2011007075
First Edition: July 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8332-7
First Minotaur Books eBook Edition: July 2011