An Ice cold Grave Page 0,35

He was such a pleasant-looking man, the kind of guy who'd be glad to accept your UPS package from the carrier or to feed your cat while you were out of town. "So what will we need to do?" His voice caught on the words as though his mouth were dry.

"There'll be a hearing with the judge. We'll work it all out. What would help is you getting Chuck into some counseling - that should be easy, huh? - even before the hearing. And you gotta keep a watch on your kid."

Sheriff Rockwell looked down at the boy, so I did, too. For God's sake, he had freckles. There'd never been an Andy Griffith episode called "Opie Skins a Cat."

Chuck was looking at me with almost equal fascination. I don't know why most young men are so interested in me. I don't mean guys my own age, I mean younger. I sure don't intend to attract them. And I don't look like anybody's mom.

"Chuck, you look at me," the sheriff said.

The boy did look toward Rockwell, with eyes as blue and clear as a mountain lake. "Yes'm."

"Chuck, you've been having bad thoughts and doing bad things."

He looked down hastily.

"Did any of your friends help you, or was this all your doing?"

There was a long pause while Chuck Almand tried to work out which answer would give him some advantage.

"It was just me, Sheriff," Chuck said. "I just felt so bad after my mom..."

He paused artistically, as if he could not speak the word.

Tolliver and I knew lying when we heard it. We had lied convincingly to everyone in the school system in Texarkana to keep our family together as our parents circled the drain. We knew this boy was not telling the truth. I was ashamed of him hiding behind his mother's death. At least she'd died of something honorable. She hadn't wanted to leave her family.

The boy made the mistake of glancing back at me. He probably thought he could pull any adult female under with that little hitch in his voice. When my eyes met his, he twitched - not quite a flinch, but close.

"Maybe the psychic could tell us more," Sheriff Rockwell suggested. "Such as whether he's telling the truth about working alone or not." I don't think she meant it; I think she was looking for a reaction from the boy that would tell her what she wanted to know. But of course, the psychic in question took her quite seriously.

Xylda said from behind me, "I'm not going within a yard of the little bastard," and Tom Almand said desperately, "This is my son. My child." He put his arm around the boy, who made a visible effort not to throw it off.

I turned to look at the old psychic. Xylda and I exchanged a long gaze. Manfred looked down at his grandmother and shook his head. "You don't have to, Grandmother," he said. "They wouldn't believe you anyway. Not the law."

"I know." She looked sadder and older in that moment.

"Lady," said Chuck Almand. His voice was very young and very urgent, and I found he was talking to me. "It's true that you can find bodies?"

"Yes."

"They have to be dead?"

"Yes."

He nodded, as if confirming a suspicion. "Thanks for telling me," he said, and then his father drew him away to talk to a few more people.

After that, the day was out of our hands. After a lot of chatter right out of our range of hearing, Sheriff Rockwell told us that Twyla had said we could use her lake house.

"It's at Pine Landing Lake," Sandra Rockwell said. "Parker, Twyla's son, is coming to lead you there."

It was a huge relief to have a place to stay, though if no one had supplied a bed, they would simply have had to let us leave town. I was definitely feeling just like a person who'd been released from the hospital that morning; not seriously ill, but tired and a little shaky. The police were digging for the animal corpses, I suppose to make sure there weren't any human remains mixed in. We were shunted over to the side of the barn where the earth was clearly undisturbed. Tolliver and I, Manfred, and Xylda stood in a silent row. Every now and then someone in uniform would dart a curious glance in our direction.

By the time Parker McGraw got there to take us to his mother's lake house, the media had discovered the police were at the old