Free A Shiver of Wonder by Daniel Kelley Page A

strange little girl with a freaky nutjob of a
guardian had apparently told her that she should do so. And just as
when Clair had stated so forthrightly that she liked Genevieve’s
name, or that she didn’t like Detective Ormsby, David felt
disoriented, out of his depth. As though he was unknowingly on a
precipice, directly above something that was far beyond either his
powers of observation or understanding to decipher.
    “Hey ya. Ya headed out?” David blinked, and
found himself facing Bill Lopes, halfway down the walkway to Piston
Avenue.
    “Yeah. Uh, yeah.” He shifted his backpack as
Bill reached down to rub Johnson’s head. “Going to Genevieve’s for
dinner.”
    “Oh. Guess I’m gonna have to finish all
these by myself, then.” Bill grinned, and raised the paper bag he
was carrying a few inches. David heard the tinny clunks of a pair
of six-packs nudging against one another.
    “Yeah. Wish I could. It’s been a crappy
afternoon.” Which wasn’t quite true. It had been a fantastic
afternoon until he and Johnson had returned from their walk.
    “Ormsky, eh? Yuh, he was lookin’ for ya.
Asshole.”
    “Did he come after you, too?” David
asked.
    Bill turned, and with precision, shot a
stringy loogie about ten feet, straight into a bare patch between
two geranium bushes. “He had some questions. Nothin’ I couldn’t
handle. He wanted to know ’bout you and Janice. I told ’im ya
barely knew each other, that maybe ya sat and talked a few times
out back. He wanted to know everyone’s schedule for comin’ and
goin’, how many nights a week Heck stayed, if those two thugs that
maybe did ’im in had been ’round before.”
    “And you could answer all that?” David
wasn’t sure if he was aghast or impressed.
    “Hell, no! I just gave him the easy ones,
nothin’ that’d rub up against what anyone else’d say.”
    “Has…” David adjusted the backpack again.
“Has Janice been back? I haven’t run into her since it
happened.”
    Bill lifted his bag to tuck it under an arm.
“Yuh. She’s pretty skittish-like, though. Ducks in, ducks out. I
helped her clean up the mess. Good thing it were in the kitchen,
would’ve been hell if it’d been on the carpet. Finally fixed her
sink, too. She’s been botherin’ me for a couple weeks ’bout it
leakin’ down below.”
    “Is she doing all right? I mean, about
Heck?”
    Bill rolled his eyes. “She feels guilty.
Like it were her fault it happened. I pointed out that if she hadn’t gone to her mother’s, she would’ve been at Bargain
Bin instead. Same result, more trouble with the cops.”
    “Yeah. And Clair told her to go.” David
scratched behind Johnson’s ears; the dog was being patient, knowing
that they were about to take another long walk.
    “Creepy Clair, creepy Clair,” Bill said, but
that was all he had to offer on the subject. He shifted the beer
again. “Might not be able to knock all this down tonight. Feel free
to drop in tomorrah if ya want.”
    David smiled. “I just might do that. Thanks,
Bill.”
    “Yuh. See ya.” Bill headed toward the
lobby.
    Johnson was already several feet beyond
David when the tug of the leash prompted his master to follow.

Chapter Fourteen
    David’s first conversation with Janice had
occurred on a cool Sunday morning, seven months before in October.
He’d been sitting on a bench in the courtyard, reading the
newspaper. Johnson had been chasing a bee. The latch had clicked,
and she’d stepped inside. Johnson had immediately bounded over, and
Janice had knelt, arms opened wide to allow him all the access he
desired.
    “Hi, puppy,” she’d cooed. “Hi, you
beautiful, beautiful dog.”
    Whether it was the words or Janice allowing
herself to be licked everywhere, Johnson had been taken with her.
And this warmth had not diminished with time.
    “Hi,” Janice had said to David when she
eventually rose. “Do you mind if I sit here a bit, too?”
    “Not at all,” David replied. His newspaper
was