It's Murder at the Buy-Right

3

 "An inside job."

That was what Deputy Richmond Eades kept saying.

"Looks like he may be right," said Monroe Willis.

Monroe wore a goofy grin on his face. He sure didn't look like the brightest bulb in the box, but he wore the uniform just like Richmond.

The two were a contrast in male physiques.

Eades was a slight man with a long, thin face. His eyes were black and close set and perpetually covered with silver reflective sunglasses.

He had a long hooked nose, crimped at the bridge and slightly bent to the left, and his voice was deep and raspy, like it originated from the bottom of a very dark, slimy well whose waters were murky and full of foul tasting sulfur.

His uniform was immaculate, the creases in his trousers razor sharp. His black shoes were so shiny that the glare from either one could blind you on a sunny day.

His hands were long and thin like a pianist's. And he held his mechanical pencil like a scalpel as he scratched his notes in a small notebook. The wooden toothpick poked from the side of his thin lips, moving up and down as he spoke.

Monroe had played football in high school. Beneath his tan shirt, you just knew a beautiful six-pack rippled and bulged.

He was a good six inches taller than Eades. Dark, wavy hair. Dark eyes. Straight, white teeth.

"Yep. Definitely an inside job," Eades said for the sixth time.

Monroe Willis had just finished checking out all the locks in the store. The youngest son of Deke's younger sister, Monroe had taken after Deke's father side of the family.

"Nothing's been jimmied," Monroe reported to Eades. "Looks like no one tried to force their way in that I can tell."

"You threw the snake away," Eades said.

"Yeah," said Deke. "I thought it was just a prank. You know. Kids. Besides, I hate snakes."

"Yeah. It probably is," Eades said.

"Kept the glass eye, though," Deke said. "Daisy Ann? Where'd you stash that thing?"

"I got it right here in the register drawer," she said, springing the drawer to hand it to Deke.

"Here Monroe, you're the hunter in the family. What kind does it look like to you?"

"Wait a minute," said Monroe, his head twisted to the right as he stared out the large plate glass windows of the grocery store. "Does that look like a drug deal about to go down to you, Eades?"

Monroe bolted out of the store, racing into the parking lot. Two young teenagers with skateboards were talking.

"Hey, you two! Stop right there!"

Eades followed Monroe out of the store.

"Drug deal!" said Daisy Ann. "Deke, I feel like we're living the middle of a big city ghetto. Since when did our backwoods to Nowhere become Sin City?"

"I dunno," Deke said. "I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on outside. You think one of them handed off some weed to the other one?"

"Wax my magnolia blossoms! In broad daylight? In the parking lot of the Buy-Right with two county sheriff cars sitting as pretty as a picture out front?

"Some kids love the thrill of taking chances, I guess."

Both deputies stood between the front glass of the grocery store and the two skateboarders, so it was just about impossible to witness what went down next.