Widow Town (25 page)

“The mayor called twice.”

“Great. What did you tell him?”

“That you were out on a call. He wants you to come by his office the first chance you get.”

“Wonderful.”

“He sounded angry.”

“Good.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing that didn’t need doing. If you could phone him back and let him know I’ll be there directly, I’d appreciate it. Also
, can you start putting the files for all the recent cases in my shared drop box so I can access it from home?”

“I sure can, but why?”

“Just in case I’m no longer welcome at the office.”

“Sheriff, what do you mean?”

“I’ll talk to you later, Mary Jo, and if Ruthers calls in, please let me know.”

“I will do.”

“Thank you.”

Gray checked the vacant road behind him, stretching away into a hill that joined the sky. The thought of spinning the cruiser around and just driving away floated through his mind. He could drive and see if the sky ever did touch the earth like it appeared to.
And if it didn’t, he could keep going.

Instead he pulled back onto the highway and headed toward town.

City hall was
as cool as his office was hot.

Black marble
veined with twisting lines of green made up the floors and half the walls. The ceilings were high, the white banistered stairways and landings open to the third floor where he stood, waiting with his back to the Mayor’s secretary.

“He’ll see you now,
Sheriff,” the woman said at the desk without raising her eyes from the computer screen in front of her.

“Obliged.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

He moved past her to the mahogany door and stepped inside the office. The mayor sat behind his desk, a wireless tucked inside his ear. His face was red above a blue tie that was the color of the sky, his bald pate shining. Gray shut the door behind him and waited, meeting the other man’s eyes.

“Come sit down, Mac.”

Gray came closer but only rested his hands on the back of a chair.

“Think I’ll stand
if you don’t mind.”

The mayor studied him for a moment and then shook his head, looki
ng out the window instead.

“You a damn mystery
, Mac, a true enigma embodied.”

“Here I thought I was cut and dried.”

“I was unaware until recently that you hold certain beliefs. I’m disappointed.”

“I’m s
orry that I’m not sorry, John.”

“
For God’s sake, Mac, you hit my district attorney in the mouth for God’s sake!”

“
You just told me I was a mystery but I’d say that’s pretty straight forward.”

The mayor launched to his feet and planted his hands on the desk.

“Damn it, Mac! What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” He lowered his voice to a hiss. “Mark told me about your insinuations concerning the Line.”

“Open your eyes, John there’s something going on here that’s beyond
the Line, beyond what we understand.”

“Hudson is dead, those cases are closed.”

“Hudson didn’t kill those people, he didn’t kill anyone. The man was a ruse, nothing more. The ones that are responsible for this are still out there.”

The mayor threw his hands up in the air and let out a breath that sou
nded like an overheated boiler.

“Do you hear yourself? You’re unstable, Mac. All of the evidence show
s that Hudson was responsible.”

“What about the bodies in the field? You’re telling me Hudson killed them too? Drove half an hour from where he tortured those people and then buried them all in the same spot? And what about the fire at Siri Godfry’s? Two other
murder scenes had the same MO.”

“First of all
, the Olsons were never confirmed as murder victims. Secondly, there’s no proof that Siri’s been murdered either.”

Gray leaned forward, putting his full weight on the back of the chair, his fin
gers digging into the material.

“Then where the hell is she,
mayor? And where is my deputy?”

“That’s actually s
omething I’d like to know too.”

Gray turned toward the new voice coming from the doorway to find Mitchel
Enson standing there with Mark Sheldon a step behind him. Mark’s lips were purple and crusted with dried blood. He glared at Gray for a moment before motioning to the mayor’s secretary who stood from her desk and walked briskly down the hall and out of sight. The neighboring sheriff and the DA moved into the room and shut the door behind them.

“What is this?” Gray said, eyeing the newcomers before returning his
attention to the mayor.

“Mitchel here has had a new development and wanted to ask you some questions,” the mayor said, slowly seating his
bulk into his protesting chair.

“About what?” Gray said, glancing at Mitchel who moved to the right side of the mayor’s desk and propped himself upon it like a giant toad squatting on a stone
.

“Have you had any contact with Joseph Ruthers today?” Mitchel asked.

“No, why?”

“Well, it just so happens that we had several witnesses say they saw Miss Godfry and Ruthe
rs at a late movie last night.”

“My God, Mitchel, you’ve finally found your calling. You are Sherlock Holmes in spirit if not in stature. Joseph told everyone that would listen that he was taking Siri to t
hat movie, it wasn’t a secret.”

Mitchel sneered but there wa
s an evil triumph to his smile.

“Then maybe you can explain how his bl
ood got on her front stoop?”

A silence fell ove
r the office and the room became a cold tomb of granite.

“You found his blood there? How? You didn’t eve
n have forensics on the scene.”

Mitchel frowned. “Come now,
Sheriff. It’s standard procedure to have a basic forensics sweep of any fire where the cause isn’t apparent.”

Gray huffed laughter and shook his head once as Mark sidled up to the windows and leaned casually against them.

“You’re something, Mitchel, I’ll give you that. I’m guessing someone else spotted the blood and you stepped in to take credit.”

“It doesn’t matter who discovered it, the fact is we have DNA evidence putting your deputy at a crime scene,” Mark said, his word
s somewhat slurred due to the swelling of his lips.

“Now it’s a crime scene?” Gray said.

“A large amount of gasoline was the accelerant used in the fire,” Mitchel said.

“So what are you implying here? That Joseph started dating Siri just so he could kidna
p her and burn her house down?”

“I don’t pretend to understand all the
motivations of violent criminals, I just catch them,” Mitchel said.

Gray l
aughed again, louder this time.

“You couldn’t catch the clap from
a five dollar hooker, Mitchel.”

“Gentlemen, this has gone far enough,” the mayor said from behind his desk. “The matter remains to be seen if
Deputy Ruthers is fully involved in Miss Godfry’s disappearance or if there is another explanation.”

“Yeah, there’s another explanation; you bastards are all blind to wha
t’s happening here. There are at least two if not more violent sociopaths at work in our community right now, and one of them has been active for more than two decades. They’ve been here, killing and kidnapping, and torturing people right under your noses and you’re turning your collective back to it because of this.”

Gray yanked up the sleeve of his dark
T-shirt exposing the line of orange dots.

“This is not an assurance of safety, this is a mockery of nature. We live our lives in an age of guarantees brought about by our egotistical intelligence, but this is not one of them. The Line has failed and if you don’
t open your eyes, so have you.”

Gray dropped his sleeve and stared around at the other men. Mark watched him coldly while Mitchel shook his head and slowly stood from the desk. The mayor merely twirled a pen in his fingers and gazed blankly at him.

“I’m afraid the events in your recent past have clouded your judgment, Mac. We’re all very sorry for your loss, but the community needs and demands a competent sheriff. I’m relieving you of duty until the board can convene.”

“This has nothing to do with losing my da
ughter, John, and you know it.”

“
You can drop off the cruiser tomorrow but I’m going to need your badge and your gun now,” the mayor said in a quiet voice. “Otherwise Mark has said he’ll press charges for battery.”

Gray looked at all three men again and then pulled his wallet out to reveal the iridescent, digital card displaying a rotating gold star along with his name and picture as well as an ID number.
He then pulled the badge from his chest and slapped them both down on the mayor’s desk, making a Mars rock jump from its place as a paperweight. The digital display on the card winked out.

“You can have your badge back but this gun was my father’s and his father’s before him. I’ll lie dead on the floor before you take it from me.”

He turned from the desk and walked toward the door, metering his steps, each stride stoking the anger within him like a bellows.

“Get a grip on yourself, Gray, you’re lo
sing it,” Mark said behind him.

“With all due respect, get fucked, Mark,” Gray said without slowing.

“Lots of people lose kids, you’re not special in the least.”

Gray froze as he pushed the door open, his eyes meeting Lynn’s who stood several feet beyond the threshold. Her mouth began to work as her hand came to her throat. Gray closed his eyes and turned back to face the DA.

“You’re right, I’m not special. But she was.”

He left the room, walking past Lynn without another look. A second passed and then footsteps followed his
own toward the stairway.

“Ma
c, wait.”

He stopped at the head of the stairs. Lynn’s hand slid beneath his ar
m as she turned him toward her.

“What happened?”

“They fired me, I’m done.”

“For what?”

“For telling the truth.”

The door to the mayor’s office opened and Mark strode out, his eyes first latching onto Lynn and then the point where her h
and still rested on Gray’s arm.

“Lynn, let’s go.”

“I’m not going to dinner, Mark,” Lynn said without looking at him. “Come on, Mac.”

Without a look back they went down the stairs, their footsteps the only sound in the
quiet building. They pushed through the front doors and into the heat. A breeze was blowing, throwing dust up in its wake, an arid breath from an unseen and forgotten god.

“Where’d you park?” she asked as they walked into the smoldering lot. He motioned to the opposite side of the building and they made their way to his cruiser, climbing
inside before he looked at her.

“What were you doing up there?” he asked.

“Meeting Mark for dinner.”

Gray nodded and looked the opposite wa
y out of the window.

“I was going to end it with him, Mac.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“I thought you needed space.”

“I did, just not from the person I intended.”

Gray smiled a little. “Darlin’, you jumped from one sinking ship onto another.”

“I don’t care if yo
u’re not sheriff anymore, Mac.”

“It’s not about that.” The edge in his voice made her f
linch. “People are dying.” He held her gaze for a moment and then shifted it to the darkened dashboard. “Joseph’s dead.”

“What? How?”

“They must have got him when they took Siri, just like they took Joslyn and Rachel.”

“Who?”

“The women that disappeared from Widow Town.”

“They were taken?”

“Yes.”

“W
hy?”

Gray shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”

“How do you know?” Lynn asked.

“I just do. Vincent Barder’s youngest boy is missing and the other two know something, but they’re either scared or in on it somehow.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Number one because Darrin was itching to grab the butter knife that was on the table between us while I was asking him and Adam questions. I don’t know if he was scared of me or wanted to gut me. And number two because I spoke to Ryan the other day in the park and I asked him if the farm was a lot of work. He told me they barely did anything, most of the labor was hired out. When I asked Darrin and Adam the same question, Darrin told me they were working constantly. Ryan seemed harried every time I spoke with him. It was almost like he wanted to tell me something but couldn’t.” Gray frowned. “Adam was banged up too, his hand was bandaged and someone had scratched his eye. Now either someone is threatening them, or they were the ones that ran into Joseph and had a go-around with him.”

“But if that pit of bones up north is tied into this, they couldn’t be involved,
those people were killed a long time ago, way before those boys would’ve been old enough, right?”

“That’s because there’s someone else, someone older than them that’s behind all this. He’s a puppet master pulling strings, slipping in and
out of the light. He’s responsible for everything; the murders, the disappearances, even Miles’s death.” Gray said, finally turning on the vehicle. Cool air rushed out of the vents, chilling the sweat on his skin. “The problem is, it could be anyone.”

“Are you sure about all this, Mac? Couldn’t this be coincidences upon coincidences? Couldn’t Siri and Jose
ph be somewhere safe together?”