Page 65 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
The fingers were also fat, but that could have been from swelling, but she didn’t think so.He also looked shorter than Edwin, his pant legs sagging at the bottom.Bloating wouldn’t have made him shrink in height.That was impossible.
She shook her head while looking at him.“That’s not him.”
The undertaker tilted his head again.“Looks like him.”
She huffed out a short laugh.“How can you tell?Half his face is missing.”
He shrugged.“The men who brought him in said he was found in the mercantile, behind the counter.”He turned to a table nearby and shuffled through a few times.“These are the things he had on him.Someone recognized the pocket watch.Said it belonged to Edwin’s pa before he died.I have no other reason to believe it’s not him.”
Violet glanced at the watch.She recognized it, too.She’d seen him look at it in Silver Falls but just because this man had a watch similar to Edwin’s didn’t mean it was him.
She glanced at the mangled face of the man on the table again before looking away.That wasn’t Edwin, and she had to prove it.“How long before you close up his coffin?”
“Not long, why?”
“Because that’s not Edwin Wright, and I have to prove it.”
“Well, I suggest you hurry doing it.He’ll start to smell before too long and I’d rather not start collecting flies if I don’t have to.”
She had to find that preacher.As far as she knew, he was Edwin’s only friend in this town, so he was her only chance to prove the man on the undertaker's table wasn’t Edwin.
Violet stopped near the hotel and stared down the street.She could see nearly everything from here.The doctor's office, Edwin’s mercantile, the jail, and further down the road, the saloon.She could also see the whores on the small balcony on the second floor, some of them hanging over the rail talking to the men on the street.
Did Edwin visit them?Did the preacher?
Only one way to find out.
She started that way but adjusted course and headed to the doctor's office first.Walking into a saloon wasn’t something women did.Some establishments even forbid it, so she needed another way in.
She told Bonnie what she was doing on their way down the street.Bonnie listened and nodded and fluffed her breasts, making them nearly hang out of her dress, but it worked.Stepping into the saloon, the bartender barely even glanced their way.
They headed upstairs.Bonnie seemed to know where she was going and followed close behind her.When they found the girls not working, it was obvious Bonnie did know some of them.
They were led into a room at the end of the hall.There wasn’t a bed, only a large round table with chairs sitting around it.Several chests and dressers lined the walls with frilly, lacy things hanging out of every drawer.
“So,” a tall brunette with graying hair said.“What can we do for you?”
Bonnie gave her a nod of her head.Violet gripped the back of one of the chairs and said, “Do any of you know Edwin Wright?The mercantile owner?”
The girls glanced at one another before turning their gazes back to her.
“You his girlfriend or something?”one of the girls asked.
“No.He’s dead, and my husband has been accused of killing him, and I have to prove he didn’t.”
The chatter exploded at the news Edwin was dead.Seemed as if all of them knew him.
“Good riddance,” one of the girls said.“He was a cruel bastard on a good day.”
“Yeah,” another said.“When you find out who offed him, bring him by.I’ll give him a blow job as payment for ridding us all of him.”
The laughter that followed that statement was loud.Violet didn’t know what a “blow job” was, but made a mental note to ask Bonnie later.
Apparently, Edwin took pleasure in sadistic acts.He liked to tie girls up and spank them hard enough to bruise.He’d been known to bind and gag them, and leave his mark on as many of them as he could.When his bondage play got too rough, most of them refused his money, which only angered him more.
Violet had to sit down as she listened to them talk.She had a hard time believing they were talking about Edwin Wright.He seemed so—boring.To hear them talk, he was a borderline sadistic monster, and she hated to admit, it was probably for the best the man was gone.
When the tales were all told, the room grew silent.She looked up then and realized they were all looking at her.“What?”
