Thunder at Dawn by Jill Gregory

Author:Jill Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780440335498
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2005-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

“I HEARD DEPUTY KEENE QUESTIONED OWEN Carey for the third time yesterday.” Patti set down her half-empty coffee cup in Bessie’s Diner and looked across the booth at Faith with worried eyes. “What do you think that’s all about?”

“I wish I knew.” Faith shook her head. “It’s not as if Owen would ever hurt Candy. Even Keene must know that. It’s probably just routine,” she added quickly, seeing the concern on Patti’s face. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Across from her, seated beside Patti, Bessie Templeton snorted. “Routine? I’m not so sure, Faith, honey. They questioned Owen for nearly four hours. Now, I’ve known that young man all his life—he’s no more a murderer than I am.”

It was the afternoon lull in the diner and Bessie had taken a break, sinking her small spry frame into the booth with them to sip tea and nibble at a slice of one of the strawberry rhubarb pies her granddaughter Katy had whisked from the oven this morning.

Candy Merck’s funeral had been yesterday—a grim affair attended by nearly the entire town. No one could talk of anything else.

In a town this small and close-knit, every death was like a death in the family. But the murder of a young woman, one of Thunder Creek’s own? No one could imagine any of their friends or neighbors committing such a crime. It had to have been a stranger, a madman, a monster. And everyone in town drew protectively closer together at the common threat to their tranquil community.

Poor Ned Merck, Candy’s widowed father, who owned Merck’s Hardware, was walking around in a grief-stricken fog at the loss of his only child. Silently he endured the sympathy of friends, nodding woodenly, his face the color of dead gray leaves, but he seemed unable to shed a single tear.

“Bob saw Owen at the gas station after he was questioned this last time and he said Owen looked pretty shaken up.” Patti stirred sugar into her decaf. “Keene was really curious why Owen had Candy’s car keys, and why, if Candy had gone out for air, Owen didn’t call the police when she didn’t come back. I guess he kept hammering away at that, over and over.”

“Well, did Owen tell him what he told me?” Bessie asked, frowning. “He looked all over for her in that parking lot and finally he concluded she’d gotten a ride home with someone else. He was just hanging onto those keys until she wanted them back.”

“Well, I don’t think Keene was buying it,” Patti muttered. “It sounds to me like he has Owen in his sights. And one of the waitresses at the Tumbleweed told me they only questioned Elam once—and nowhere near as long as they questioned Owen.”

“Owen was with Candy most of that night, and he’s probably one of the last people to see her alive,” Faith pointed out quietly. “Keene may not consider him a suspect at all. He might just be hoping Owen will remember something Candy said or did that night that might be significant in finding the killer.

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