Tearstone by David L Day

Author:David L Day [Day, David L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Manta Press, Ltd.

27

Cassy

* * *

Cassy escorted Charlie to a basement cell and locked him in. He sat down on the cot, pathetic and lost, and some small part of her wanted to let him go so he could be with his daughter. She unlocked the door again, a small compromise for her conscience.

She returned to the office and found Monterey right where she left him—at his desk, shuffling papers, a man expecting bad news at any moment. No matter how uneasy she felt, the sheriff needed to hear what she had to say. “You know, Davie called his buddy Burke while I was in the diner, and he spilled the news about the library to the crowd. I’m surprised your phone’s not going crazy. People think—”

“Don’t care what people think right now.” He pulled a fresh notepad out and centered it on the desk. “We’ll plan out a course of action when Paul gets back. These murders are sad and tragic, but they’re over. There’s no real threat anymore.”

“Over? What about the bodies in the flats? You think old Elana slipped down there before her bit at the library? You already think the poor old woman was crazy. Was she crazy enough to make that hike and kill those boys, too?” Cassy was unable to stop herself. There was a time for thought and a time for action. This wasn’t the time to sit and work out some detailed plan. They had to do something, and they had to do it now.

Monterey looked up from the mess of paperwork generated by the events of the morning, one eye twitching. “You have to calm down. We have to stay in control, because no one else will be.”

“At least we can call for help, right? Maybe we should get the State guys involved.” Wasn’t it about time the sheriff realized this was more than he could handle? Five murders—maybe seven or eight—were more than any of them could handle.

Monterey rubbed his eye, soothing away the small spasms. “I said no. This is my town, and this is my show. We do this my way. We may not see stuff like this every day—hell, the last time we had a mess like this was when your cousin disappeared, and there was no body then—but we are the law here and we will deal with our own problems, damn it.” He swept papers from his desk and glared.

She backed away. She had never seen the sheriff act this way before. Was he catching crazy too? Was there something drifting through the town, some invisible malignancy touching people? Or something in the water? Maybe she should go home and curl up, hide out like the rest of the town, and wait for whatever storm brewed on the horizon to blow over.

Monterey must have seen the fear on her face. He pushed back from the desk and rubbed his neck. “Oh hell, I’m sorry. Look, we need to think of this as a challenge, not as a problem. Let’s wait for Paul and we’ll sort this out, okay? Why don’t you get started on your reports.

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