Free Black Christmas by Lee Hays

breathing heavily, a sound that was almost deafening. The breathing was interspersed with shrieks of rage as though the person to whom the voice belonged was going to attack and destroy the entire attic.
    Mrs. Mac’s body hung lifelessly until it was suddenly smashed aside, arcing broadly across the room.
    It was as though there were a ferocious, trapped animal in the cage of the attic, clawing and screaming to get out.
    The animal slammed up against a wall and, careening through the cramped attic space with an agonized wail, knocked over a chair and broke the rocking horse with almost super-human strength. It crashed viciously into a corner and there was the sound of breaking glass followed by gagging, retching, hissing and then growls. Its body shook on the floor and the growls turned to whimpers and finally to the simple sound of a man crying.
    The beams of the powerful snowmobile headlights flared off of the crisp, white snow. Between them, a long line of people trudged wearily forward across the park. The air was bitter and many of the people looked up from time to time, envious of the warmth and comfort seemingly offered from the lights of the houses that dotted the periphery of the search area.
    Jess crossed past several of the searchers and found Chris Hayden. She said to him, “Hey, I’m going to have to split.” Phyl, who was on the far side of Chris, asked her why and she answered, “Peter’s coming over to the house and I can’t miss him. I’m late already. Besides, there’s more people here than are needed. We were tripping over each other over in my section.”
    Mr. Harrison saw the three young people whom he knew and joined them. “My God,” he said, “it’s cold.”
    “Yeah, I’ll be going home very soon, too. Jess was just saying she had an appointment, Mr. Harrison.”
    “I’m sorry,” Jess said to him but he held up his hand.
    “No need to apologize. I appreciate your concern.”
    “I’m freezing,” Phyllis said. “But I’ll stay with Chris and Mr. Harrison.”
    “We’ll let you know if anything happens,” Chris said to Jess.
    She said goodbye to all of them and then broke away from the group and ran off toward the snowmobile and the street nearby, her ears echoing to the sound of unknown voices calling out “Janice! Clare.”
    Not long after Jess had left, a jarring scream pierced the frosty air of the park. As two boys ran up a horrified girl stood staring at the ground. One of the boys started running hysterically through the woods calling for Lieutenant Fuller while the other, more collected, stayed beside the trembling girl and called out, “Hey! Get someone over here!”
    He looked down again and that was his undoing. Quickly he turned away from the girl and retched behind a tree as others began to arrive. One by one they looked down and then in sickening disgust looked away.
    Standing in front of his car drinking coffee, Mr. Harrison heard the boy’s voice and the excited responses from the crowd. He gave those near him a hopeful look and ran off into the park following the clamor.
    Phyl and Chris were not too far from the noise so that they arrived at the scene among the first. “Don’t look, Phyl,” Chris said to her but it was too late.
    Still sitting in the back seat of the squad car, Mrs. Quaife saw people running past toward the park area. Hearing the shouting she looked around in alarm and then hastily climbed out of the car. Outside, one of the policemen took her by the arm and tried to get her to go back into the car.
    “It’s all right, Mrs. Quaife. Why don’t you just wait here? We’ll let you know if there’s something—”
    Hysterically she pulled away from him. “No! Let me alone. Don’t try to stop me!” Free of him she started to move in the direction of the crowd calling out, “They found Janice! Didn’t they? They found my baby! I know it!”
    He got hold of her arm again but her strength was too much for him.
    “Let me go, do you hear!