Free Every Fear by Rick Mofina

corners of her eyes. “It’s just so awful. How could anyone do this? Do the police have any idea who did it?”
    “I’m not sure. There’s going to be a news conference.” Jason opened his notebook. “Maria worked here, as a cashier?”
    Both women nodded.
    “She was on mat leave,” Pam said. “Used some parental leave and banked vacation time to stretch it out. She has the seniority because she’s been working at BPS—cripes, since she graduated from high school.”
    “She worked, like, right up until her time,” Candice added. “I used to tease her about reaching the till.”
    “Quickly”—Jason checked his watch as he wrote—“what can you tell me about Maria and Lee?”
    “High-school sweethearts. They both went to Lincoln,” Pam said. “He’s a good-looking, hardworking man devoted to her. She’s so cute. They’re in love. The real deal. He’d do anything for her.”
    “For the longest time, Maria wanted to marry Lee, have babies, have the white-picket dream,” Candice said. “Having babies was all she ever talked about.”
    Pam nodded, dragging on her cigarette. “Yeah, Maria was desperate to have kids. Really. Seems that’s all she lived for. She was baby crazy.”
    “Baby crazy?”
    Candice rummaged through her bag and produced asnapshot. Candice, Pam, and several other smiling women were bunched around Maria Colson, whose face glowed in the light shining from the candles of the cake in front of her.
    “We threw a shower for her. Look how happy she is.”
    “Can I borrow this to use this in the Mirror? ”
    Candice looked at Pam.
    “It’s your photo, your property, right?” Jason said. “The more attention on the story, the better the chances of it helping.”
    Candice nodded. “Take it.”
    “I’ll talk to Chip in the deli,” Pam said, “about taking up a collection with the chain and he can call Lee’s guys at the towing shop to join in, for a reward. There’s talk about a community search team to help pass out fliers and look for stuff. And we’ll go see Maria as soon as we get off.”
    Before they returned to work, Jason got their full names, contact numbers, and their promise to call him with any new information.
    “Hold it,” he said, glancing at his watch before they left. “One thing, a neighbor I talked to said something odd. Hold on.”
    Jason looked through his notes.
    “Like that what happened today sort of followed another bad thing that happened to the Colsons. Here’s what she said: ‘Why Lee and Maria? They’ve been through so much. And now this.’” Jason looked up from his notebook. “Do you know what that might mean?”
    Pam and Candice looked at each, then shrugged.
    “Not really,” Pam said.
    “Well, was there some kind of other tragedy in their lives, maybe?”
    Candice shook her head, then nodded to Mitch Decoli, who was watching them from the other side of the supermarket’s front window and tapping his watch. Pam sneered and took a final pull from her cigarette before crushing the butt under her foot.
    “I know she had a hell of a time getting pregnant and that used to get her down. I think one time a doctor told her that she couldn’t have kids, or would have a hard time, or something like that.”
    “Really?” Jason jotted some notes. “But she had Dylan?”
    The women nodded.
    “I mean”—Jason flipped over the baby shower picture—“it’s pretty obvious she’s pregnant here.”
    “Pam, we have to go,” Candice said.

12
    F our hours after Maria Colson left her home pushing Dylan’s stroller to Kim’s Corner Store, FBI agents were setting up a video monitor beside a table and folding chairs in her driveway.
    Preparations for the news conference.
    For Lee Colson to plead for his son’s life.
    “Have your IDs ready,” Special Agent Ron Foley said as he approached the yellow tape keeping reporters and neighbors on the street. “Only accredited press will be let onto the property to set up for the news briefing.