An Ice cold Grave Page 0,86

health-care professionals, though from different aspects of the field. That minister got elected to the board last year, the one that conducted the memorial service. They've tried to get matching grants, federal money, private money, worked on fund drives, that kind of thing. Knott County really does need a new hospital, as you may have noticed."

All roads seemed to lead to the hospital. No matter what direction I started out in, I ended up at the front doors of Knott County Memorial.

"Has the boy spoken yet?" I asked, aware that pretty soon Stuart and Klavin would decide not to answer any more questions, just because.

"Not yet."

"And I know you've got him under very heavy, very careful guard?"

Klavin said, "You can believe that. Nothing will happen to that boy."

"His family come forward?"

"Oh, yes, they'd reported him missing the night before. And we found his car on the side of the road about a mile from the Almand house. He had a flat tire, and no spare."

"Well, that explains that. Considering the weather, he'd be glad to get a ride, no matter how nervous he was."

"Kids never think anything can happen to them," Stuart said grimly.

He'd found out different. He'd never be the same.

"Would you consider putting a guard on Manfred Bernardo?" I asked.

"He's older than the other boys," Stuart said.

"But he's part of the case."

"He's an adult, and he's in the hospital with plenty of people watching him," Klavin said gruffly. "Our budget's shot to hell."

"It's been interesting talking to you," I said. "Thanks."

"Did you know they were there?" Tolliver asked as we drove back to Doraville.

"No, I had no idea. I just wanted to look at the site again when it was clean."

"Clean?"

"No bodies. Just dirt and trees."

We drove in silence for a few minutes. Then I said, "Tolliver, if you knew you were going to be accused of murder in the next, say, three or four days - you weren't sure when, but you knew it was coming - what would you do?"

"I'd run," Tolliver said.

"What if you weren't quite sure?"

"If I thought there was a chance I wouldn't be picked out of the lineup, or whatever?"

I nodded.

"If I thought there was a chance I could hold on to my life, I think I'd try to stay around," Tolliver said, deep in thought. "Running is getting harder and harder with the rise of computers and the use of debit and credit cards. Cash isn't common, and people who use it are remembered. You have to show your driver's license for almost everything. It's hard to stay invisible in the United States, and it's hard to cross a border without a passport. If you're not a career criminal, it would be almost impossible to do either one."

"I don't think we're dealing with a career criminal here. I think we're dealing with an enthusiastic amateur."

Tolliver said, "Let's get out of here."

He was at the end of indulging me.

We'd had fights before, but they'd never had this element of the personal. But now we were more than manager and talent, more than brother and sister, more than survivors of a common hell.

And he was right. We had no business doing what the police were supposed to do, and God knows there were police enough to do it. But every time I thought of Chuck Almand, dead at thirteen because he wanted to lead me to discover what his life had been like, living with a man who tortured other boys for a pastime.... Then I told myself, He succeeded. He got you there, and all the law enforcement people, which was what he surely intended. Let them take the weight of this now.

"All right," I said. "Let's go."

Tolliver's shoulders relaxed. Up to that moment I hadn't realized how tense he'd been.

He was right.

We had to go to the police station to give our statements, and since there were still plenty of news crews around, we phoned ahead on the cell and asked if we could come in the back. We were denied permission. "It's already too crowded back there," the dispatcher said. "The state boys all have cars there, and a couple of the forensic guys, plus we have deputies working extra shifts. Park in the front, and we'll have someone watching out for you."

We had to park down the street from the station because of all the media, and we walked briskly through them, looking neither to the right nor the left. Luckily, we'd almost made it to the door by