Do No Harm by Dawn Eastman

Author:Dawn Eastman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

22

Across town in the police department, Carlson smiled politely and offered Gretchen Lowe more coffee. This would be her third cup, and short of pushing her out the door, he was unsure of how to get her to leave his office. They had been in school together, and when she had shown up at his house, Linda had sent her up to the station where Carlson was trying to take advantage of a quiet office to finish paperwork.

“It’s very kind of you, John,” she said. “But I think I’ve had enough.”

Carlson felt his shoulders relax. Perhaps she was getting tired of quizzing him on every aspect of his protection plan for Eugene. The trouble was, Eugene was an adult who was perfectly within his rights to leave town for the day without telling his mother where he was going. But since he had returned, Gretchen was on a mission to protect him from the “town bullies.” She seemed to think Eugene hadn’t aged a day in his decade in prison. She talked about him as if he had just graduated from high school. Although, as Gretchen had informed him, Eugene had never graduated. He’d been arrested, tried as an adult because he was already eighteen, and sent to prison during his senior year of high school. The GED earned in prison and the remote coursework he had done toward his bachelor’s degree “wasn’t the same” as watching him walk across the stage at Baxter High School.

Carlson stood and held out his hand. “Thank you for stopping by, Gretchen. I’ll do my best to find out who is bothering Eugene.”

She took his hand and shook it. Standing slowly and gathering her purse and jacket, she looked old. The years of her son’s imprisonment had not left her unscathed. Carlson walked her to the front door and held it open for her. She smiled weakly at him and headed up the street face-first into the wind.

Carlson walked back to his office, wondering what else could be done. Despite his assurances to Gretchen Lowe, he was worried about Eugene. Someone or several someones in town didn’t want him there. Carlson wished he had more manpower to protect Eugene, although the man himself had refused any help. He didn’t want a bunch of “cops following him around.” Carlson couldn’t blame him. It seemed all Eugene had wanted was to slip back into his old life unnoticed and unmolested.

He sat at his desk and pulled Eugene’s file out of the stack. Who in town had been harassing him? And had Eugene known more than he said?

The file from the old investigation of Eugene had been unearthed from the basement archives. Carlson flipped it open again and found the spot where he had left off. He had moved past the complaints lodged by Alicia’s father, Franklin Stewart. He flipped to a page that listed everyone who had been interviewed after Heather Knox’s death. He hadn’t noticed the first time through that Heather’s two roommates had eventually married each other.

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