Beneath the Bones by Tim Waggoner

Author:Tim Waggoner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781440553219
Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2012-08-05T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It was spitting rain by the time Joanne drove up to Sanctity’s main entrance. From the weather reports she’d seen, it was only going to get worse. Rain often hit harder north of Cross County before moving southward. Ronnie was probably already driving through a good-sized rainstorm on his way to Columbus. If she was lucky, Lenora’s questioning wouldn’t take too long, and she’d be on the way home before the heavy staff started coming down. She loved lying in bed with the lights off and listening to rain pattering on the roof. It relaxed her like nothing else, not even the attentions of the good Doctor Birch. She’d hate to miss even a minute of it.

Joanne had never been to Sanctity before. She’d driven past the gated driveway entrance hundreds of times, but there were so many trees on the Crosses’ property that even in wintertime when the foliage was gone, Sanctity itself remained barely visible. Joanne had served as sheriff of Cross County soon after she’d graduated from college with a degree in criminal justice six years ago. Not a long time, maybe, but long enough to settle into the role. She’d dealt with Crosses before, most often with Marshall, and she didn’t hold them in the same sort of awe that so many country residents did. As she herself had as a child. But now, driving up to the black wrought-iron gate in her cruiser, she was surprised by how nervous she felt. She experienced an impulse to speed past the driveway and keep going. But she slowed and pulled up to the gate. She thought maybe she’d see Dale’s Jeep parked alongside the road, her friend sitting inside and waiting for her. But Dale wasn’t there. Odd. It wasn’t like him to be late.

She rolled down her window and looked for an intercom of some sort to let them know she’d arrived, but she saw none. She didn’t see a security camera, either. What was she supposed to do — honk? But before she could do anything, the gate began to swing inward. Smoothly, silently. No ratcheting gears, no electronic hum. She thought of how gates like this always opened on their own in cheap horror movies, a not-so-subtle hint that malevolent forces were at work. It was a ridiculous thought. The Crosses had more than enough money to install a silent opener for their front gate. Nothing particularly malevolent about that, right?

She rolled her window up, and when the gate had opened all the way, she drove through. She didn’t look in her rearview mirror to watch the gate close behind her, though. The winding driveway inclined gently upward, and as she drove, her nervousness began to fade, replaced by a faint sense of disappointment. The driveway was paved with blacktop, the grounds, though neatly kept, looked like any other well-to-do homeowner’s yard. Trees lining the driveway, grounds covered with lush, healthy grass. It was all so … normal. The Crosses might be rich and well connected, but it seemed that they were only human after all.

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