Free In Shadows by Chandler McGrew Page B

cover her. Sometimes it’s a signature, other times it’s just something the guy feels like doing. But Albert was sitting up.”
    “So no signature there,” said Virgil.
    “They were both beaten,” said Jake.
    “Yeah.” Virgil grimaced. “But the girl was nothing like Albert. In fact it looked like she might have done a lot of the damage to herself, running through the woods.”
    “It would be odd for a second victim to be less brutalized than the first, though,” mused Cramer. “Usually a killer
progresses.”
    Virgil studied both Jake and Cramer. “I’m heading for the autopsy from here,” he said, frowning. “My boys will be going door to door in the valley and up and down the highway again tomorrow. If anyone saw anything, we’ll hear about it.”
    “Good luck,” said Jake as Virgil headed out the door. “Nice seeing you again.”
    Virgil didn’t look back.
    Cramer glanced at Jake. “What’s going on?”
    Jake frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “Why the bad feelings between you and the sheriff?”
    Jake shrugged.
    Cramer shook his head, glancing back at the crowd. “Guess I’m supposed to find out the old-fashioned way, eh?”
    “Pierce wasn’t born with a limp,” said Pam, handing Jake a cup of punch and a sandwich.
    “What happened?”
    “Mandi thinks Rich did it, but that Pierce’s afraid to tell. But Rich claims he’s innocent and Claude, Rich’s cousin, swears that Rich was with him at the time. So there were never any charges.”
    “Rich and Mandi had already split?”
    “They separated when Pierce was only three. But Rich kept . . . going back. Until Mandi finally got a restraining order.”
    “Where’s Rich now?”
    “He lives up along the old Burnout road in a trailer with your second cousin Carly.”
    “Carly and Rich?”
    “Carly comes from the really rotten side of the Crowley family, that’s for sure.”
    “That’s not a Christian attitude, is it?” said Jake, smiling.
    “A slut’s a slut,” said Pam, shaking her head and looking quickly around the church. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. You know, you look at Mandi just the way you did fourteen years ago. It breaks my heart to see the two of you so close and yet apart.”
    Jake stared into his punch, but there was no escape in the paper cup. “Mandi and I just didn’t work out.”
    “You mean because you had to get out of the valley.”
    He nodded.
    “You know, Jake, family and friends are to
share
troubles, not to hide them from.”
    “What about protecting family and friends?”
    She shrugged. “Sometimes we don’t want to be protected.”
    “Mandi and I were a long time ago.”
    “I guess old girlfriends are trouble,” said Pam, eyeing him.
    “You’re trouble,” said Jake.
    Pierce pretended to pay attention to Pastor Ernie as he spelled out silly questions.
    How’s things been going?
    Good.
    What you been reading?
    Lord of the Rings.
    But Pierce was preoccupied with the vibration of the crowd walking, the movement of the air around him, and more than that by the feeling that the
presence
he had sensed in front of his window was close by. Finally Ernie let him go, and Pierce sniffed the air.
    Many people he recognized by their smell. Occasionallysomeone would place their hand on his shoulder, and he’d grip it. Others he’d pull toward him until he could run his fingers over their face. Then he’d smile, take their hand under his, and slowly spell out their names in their palms by way of greeting. His mother must have noticed that something was still wrong because she tried to divert him by taking his hand and signing for other people as they came up to say hi. But he didn’t want to be distracted. He shook her hand hard to accent his need.
    I don’t know what’s happening, honey
, she signed back.
Maybe we should see the doctor.
    Pierce shrugged. Dr. Burton was okay, but what was she going to know about something he was
hearing
inside his head? Because that was what it was,