The Clouds Roll Away by Sibella Giorello

Author:Sibella Giorello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

chapter twenty-five

The sheriff was leading a woman to the parking lot outside his New Kent office. She was black, late fifties, and kept a handkerchief pressed against her mouth. He opened the door to a red Pontiac, helping the woman into the passenger side. Another woman drove, also black, and the sheriff spoke to her for several moments and then the car backed out.

Both women waved to him.

“Her son’s the boy who died in that car,” the sheriff said when I walked over. “He offered her fifty grand. Compensation.”

“Who?”

“That rapper. He’s being so generous she won’t talk to anybody unless he tells her it’s okay. She talked to Newsweek about her tragedy. But she won’t tell me diddly about what her boy did over there.” His blue eyes flickered. “Maybe she’ll warm up to the FBI.”

My official smile appeared. “There’s a party tonight at Rapland. Are you aware of that?”

“Aware and unprepared. Half my men are on vacation. The other half are sick as dogs.” He turned to me, the wind whipping between us. “You want to level with me, or do we keep playing games? I got guys who still can’t breathe right.”

Judgment calls. It was all judgment calls. One side was Phaup’s leap in logic, all her stereotypes about the South. The other side was the man DeMott described, the man I saw walking that lady to her car.

“Some of it’s mustard gas,” I said, watching his face for reaction.

He looked startled. “Where’s the Klan getting that?”

“If it’s even the Klan.”

He wiggled a finger in his ear, as if he couldn’t hear. “You know, I do have a confession to make. I’m half-hoping somebody makes a move on that place tonight, just so y’all can stop suspecting me and my men.”

“I didn’t—”

“You don’t have to say it.”

“We’re dealing with chemical warfare, Sheriff. That’s a big step up for the Klan.”

“You going out there tonight?”

“Yes, sir. Are you?”

He sighed, looking out the window. It faced the parking lot and Courthouse Road. “He doesn’t want me or my men on his property. We can come beforehand and check for bombs. So that’s what we’ll do.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.