Whom Dog Hath Joined Read Online Free Page A

agree
with her policies.”
    Edith waved at a tall, cadaverous-looking man with stringy
white hair down to his shoulders. “That’s Eben Hosford,” she said to me. “He’s
been the most vocal opponent to the Meeting House renovation. I’m surprised to
see him here.”
    “Looks like an old hippie,” I said. He wore faded jeans torn
at the knees and a plaid long-sleeved shirt that was too big for his skeletal
frame. Around his neck was some kind of Native American dream catcher, all
feathers and leather strips.
    Edith left me to walk over to him. Rick returned with a
utility belt wrapped around his waist and toting a flashlight, more of the bright
blue plastic gloves, and one of those life-saver tools you can use to cut a
seat belt or smash out a windshield.
    He nodded as he walked past. I noticed that Lili had moved
away from the Meeting House, and was taking candid shots of the Harvest
Festival. I leaned against the trunk of a red maple, Rochester sprawled at my
feet, and watched the passing traffic -- a couple of high school band members
on break, a plump Indian woman in a red and gold sari, a smattering of suburban
parents and kids, and a tall black woman with a regal posture and massive gold
hoop earrings. An interesting mix of the Stewart’s Crossing I remembered and
the new world order.
    I looked back at the dark blue high-top sneaker, visible in
the gap between clapboard and foundation. It was a Converse Chuck Taylor; I owned
several pairs like it when I was a kid. The white sole was smudged with dirt,
as was the canvas, but I could see the round logo with Converse All-Stars in red wrapped around a blue star.
    It was adult size, probably belonging to a teenage boy or a
young man. It was covered with a sheen of dust, so looked like it had been
there behind the wall for a long time. How could that be? Had the Friends never
noticed the smell of a dead body? Was it in some long-ignored closet?
    Who had worn it? A Stewart’s Crossing kid like me? But how
had his body ended up behind a wall in the Friends’ Meeting House? And when? I
felt the tingling of curiosity and I was excited, but worried too. I knew the
kind of trouble my curiosity had gotten me into in the past.
    3 – False Wall
    Lili returned, her camera back around her neck, and
Rochester hopped up. “I stopped by Gail’s table. Her mother is there, and she’s
doing fine. Rick show up yet?”
    “He’s inside,” I said, as he emerged from the double doors.
The crowd was still clustered around the corner of the building where Rochester
had discovered the sneaker, so when Rick waved, Lili, the dog and I walked over
to him.
    “Afternoon, Lili,” he said. “Can you hold onto Rochester for
a couple of minutes? I need Joe Hardy here to walk inside with me.”
    I’d helped Rick out a couple of times with cases by then,
and I’d graduated in his estimation from Nancy Drew – who worked on her own—to
Joe Hardy, the younger of the two Hardy Boys. I had grudgingly accepted that
since he had the badge he got to be older brother, Frank.
    “What do you need?” I asked.
    “There’s a false wall at the back of a closet, right on the
corner of the building where the shoe is. I don’t want to knock through the
wall until I know what’s back there, so I want to climb up through an access
panel in the ceiling and see if I can look down. There’s a ladder I can use,
but I need somebody to hold it. I’d pull a uniform, but you know we’re a small
department, and we’re already stretched thin between crowd control here and
traffic duty out on Main Street.”
    “Sure.” I handed Rochester’s leash to Lili, but as I started
to walk away he pulled to go along with me. “You stay here, boy,” I said. He
barked a couple of times then sat on his butt with a disappointed look on his
face. He wasn’t happy to be left out.
    On our way in, Rick was buttonholed by Hannah Palmer. A few
strands of blonde hair had come loose, and she looked harried. “You