Free Mercy Street by Mariah Stewart

her voice, but she did so now. “We had no guns in the house. Ryan had no gun. Courtney had no gun. No. Gun.”
    Father Burch reached across the table to pat her hands. “Shhhh, Mary. We’re not back at the parish hall in your office.”
    “I have to ask,” Mallory said softly, hoping to calm Mary down a bit. “You have to understand, if I’m going to work with you, there are certain questions I have to ask.”
    Mary nodded, her head down. She was about to speak when the waitress arrived with their order, sandwiches for Mary and Father Burch, coffee for Mallory. After they’d been served, Mallory looked up at Mary.
    “Tell me about Shelby, Ryan’s girlfriend.”
    “She’s lovely. Wants to be a nurse. She’s upset about Ryan graduating and going off to college. She’s afraid he’ll forget about her.” Mary shrugged. “It happens. Maybe he will, I tell her, maybe not. They’re both too young to worry about such things.”
    “Do you know her family?”
    “Joe and Shirl, sure. I’ve known them forever. Even before Shelby was born, before Ryan came to live with me. They’re great people. They’re trying to stand behind Ryan now, and I know it’s hard for them, with all the publicity and everything.”
    “And Courtney, she has a boyfriend?”
    “She had been going out with someone, but I think that was sort of casual. I only met him a few times.”
    “Do you know his name?” Mallory sipped her coffee, but found it too hot to drink. She added some ice from her water glass and tried again.
    “Joe something. He didn’t go to school here. But Linda would know. Courtney’s mother. Or Misty, her sister.”
    “How about Jamey and Adam? Did they have steady girlfriends?”
    Mary shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
    “If I wanted to talk to someone at their school, who would I want to see?” Mallory asked.
    “Stop in the principal’s office tomorrow after school—around four or so—and I’ll have everyone available to you that I think you’ll need to talk to. To start, anyway,” Father Burch told her.
    “Thanks,” Mallory said. “How about extracurricular activities?”
    “Ryan played football, you probably saw that in the papers. That terrible headline.” Mary shivered, and Mallory recalled the article referred to. The one that started out, FOOTBALL STAR SUSPECT IN DOUBLE SHOOTING. “That and film club were the only things he really was involved in. He had a lot of AP classes. He worked really hard, got straight A’s…”
    Mary held half her sandwich in her right hand, but hadn’t taken a bite.
    “And Courtney…” Mary’s eyes filled with tears again. “She didn’t have time for a lot of extracurriculars. She’s worked part-time at Hazel’s for the past couple of years.”
    “Hazel’s Market, the mom-and-pop over on Appleton?” Mallory asked.
    “Right. She’s been saving for college. She’ll be the first in her family to go.”
    She placed her sandwich back on her plate. “You know this city, Mallory, you’ve worked here for how many years?”
    “Nine.”
    “You know about the mills closing, about how everything in town sort of went downhill. Things have gotten a little better with that new mall between here and Toby Falls. That town has money, always has. A lot of people from Conroy have found work in those stores. They sure can’t afford to shop there. Conroy’s strictly blue collar these days.” She smiled ruefully. “Some might say we’re lucky to have any collar at all. But I guess you know that.”
    Mallory nodded. She’d seen with her own eyes how, block by block, downtown Conroy’s shops had been boarded up as one small family-owned business after another found itself unable to compete with the big chain stores and closed its doors. Nights found more and more kids gathering on the dark corners. When she’d worked patrol, she’d hauled in her share of underage drinkers, many of whom later were picked up on drug charges, sales as well as possession. The