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After seeing some of Jeff Daniels' auto restoration handiwork, Joa
Less than three minutes after leaving the restaurant, Joa
Wrestling with probable-cause issues, Joa
"It's okay if you wan'ta come on in," Belle called back to her.
Joa
"So are you coming or not?" Belle urged.
Shrugging, Joa
"'That's the other thing about Clyde," Belle said. "His mama never taught him about cleanliness bein' next to godliness and all that, and he never did learn how to pick up after hisself, either. As you can see, once't I quit doing for him, the whole place went to hell in a handbasket. Hang on," she added. "If you think it's bad out here, you sure as heck don't want to see the bedroom. He allus sleeps in just his birthday suit with hardly any covers."
Joa
Belle lumbered toward a short hallway. Beneath filthy, chipped linoleum, the aged plank floor groaned in protest with each passing step.
" Clyde?" Belle said tentatively, tapping on a dingy gray door that might once have been painted white. "You in there? It's me-Belle. There's somebody here to see you. A lady, so don't you come wanderin' out with no clothes on, you hear?"
There was no reply. In the answering stillness of the house, there was only a faint but insistent mechanical sound that Joa
Belle knocked on the door again. " Clyde?" she said insistently. "Listen here, you gotta wake up now. It's late. After three, but if you're very nice to me, I might consider whipping you up an omelet just because. Okay?"
Again there was no answer. Belle glanced apologetically over her shoulder in Joa
With that Belle opened the bedroom door. As soon as she did so, a chilly draft filtered into the room, carrying with it an evil-smelling vapor, one that totally obliterated all other odors. That putrid smell was one Sheriff Joa
" Clyde?" she said again. "Wake up, will you?"
Then, after a moment of silence with only the air conditioner humming in the background, the whole house was rent by a terrible, heart-wrenching, wordless shriek. Hearing it, Joa
With her cigarette still in her mouth, Belle had crossed the room to where a male figure lay on an old-fashioned metal-framed bed with a sagging single mattress and no box springs. Just as she had predicted, the man was naked. Above him swirled a cloud of flies.
As Joa
Seeing the way the head flopped back and forth, there was no question in Joa
"You gotta wake up, Clyde," Belle Philips was sobbing am she shook the body back and forth. "Don't joke with me now. It's not fu
Fighting to control her gag reflexes, Joa
Still holding her dead husband in a sitting position, Belle Philips swung around and glared at Joa
After a second or two, Belle seemed to lose interest in Joa
Watching from a few feet away, Joa
Almost a minute went by before the dust cleared enough for Joa
Gingerly, Joa
"Belle?" Joa
No answer.
Joa