Ordinary Grace by Krueger William Kent

Author:Krueger, William Kent [Krueger, William Kent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical, Adult
ISBN: 9781451645859
Google: NbHsAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1451645856
Barnesnoble: 1451645856
Goodreads: 15803059
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2013-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

19

At home we found Gus with my mother which was odd. Though she tolerated his presence my mother didn’t care much for Gus. She often told my father that his friend was crude and vulgar and an influence on us boys that we would all come to regret. My father acknowledged the truth of much of what she said but in the end always defended Gus. I owe him my life, Ruth, he would say but I never heard him say why.

They sat at the kitchen table both of them smoking and when we walked in my mother stood and looked with hope toward my father. He shook his head. “We didn’t find anything,” he said.

“They’re looking for Morris Engdahl,” I said.

“Engdahl?” Gus swung around and eyed me. “Why Engdahl?”

“I told him about the quarry and about Luther Park.”

My mother put a hand to her mouth and spoke from behind her fingers. “You think he might have done something to Ariel?”

“We don’t know anything,” my father said. “They just want to talk to the boy.”

We ate. Cold cereal with slices of banana chewed and swallowed in an awful silence. Near the end the telephone in the living room rang and my father leaped to answer.

“Oh,” he said. “Hello, Hector.” He bowed his head and closed his eyes and listened, then said, “We have a situation here, Hector, and I can’t make the meeting. Whatever the group decides is fine with me.” He hung up and came back to the kitchen. “Hector Padilla,” he said. “There’s a meeting this morning to talk about the migrant worker shelter.”

The phone rang again and this time it was Deacon Griswold calling to say he’d heard about Ariel and if there was anything he could do just let him know. And it rang again a few minutes later and it was Gladys Rheingold saying that if Ruth wanted company she’d be happy to come over. And it rang and rang after that with offers from townspeople and neighbors who’d heard about Ariel and wanted to know if they could help. And finally it was the sheriff saying he had Morris Engdahl at his office and would Dad and we boys come down there.

“Mind if I tag along?” Gus said.

“I don’t suppose it’ll do any harm,” my father replied. Then to my mother he said, “Would you like me to call Gladys?”

“No,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

But it was clear to me that she wasn’t fine. She looked sick, her face drawn and ashen, and she was smoking one cigarette after another and drumming her fingers on the table.

“All right,” my father said. “Frank, Jake, let’s go.”

We left, all of us except my mother, who sat staring at the kitchen cupboard with cigarette smoke above her head as thick as if she herself was on fire.

• • •

The sheriff sat with his arms folded on the table. Engdahl sat across from him slumped in a chair in a manner that was clearly meant to communicate his disrespect.

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