Read Online June Bug by Chris Fabry - Free Book Online Page B

kidnapped children and held them hostage in basements before killing them. There were sick people out there and some were close.
    “I never thought this day would come,” she muttered.
    Leason shifted from one foot to the other like his back was giving out on him again, pacing along the freshly mown grass near a small sandy patch where the sheriff had told them to stay. There was already yellow tape on the battered dock where kids fished or watched fireworks on July Fourth. A handful of fishermen were in place on an inlet where the trees leaned out over the lake.
    “There’s nothing that says she’s down there,” Leason said.
    “That’s not what the sheriff thinks,” Mae said.
    Leason’s jaw was set with an uncharacteristic hardness. “Sheriff doesn’t know everything.”
    “He wouldn’t have told us if he didn’t think there was something to this.”
    A young man wearing a tie emerged from the woods, carrying a small notebook and a pen stuck in his shirt pocket. He had the look of innocence combined with an inner tenacity of an attack dog, and Mae guessed where he was from the minute she saw him. It took Leason a while longer to even notice his approach.
    “Morning, folks,” the man said just loud enough to be heard. There were burrs on the bottom of his pants, showing the length he had traveled to avoid the authorities. “You’re Leason and Mae Edwards, right?”
    “What’s that got to do with you?” Leason said. He was usually genial, a man of few words, and allowed his wife to not only make their social calendar but also take the lead in each conversation. The tension of the scene was eating at him, though. His right eye twitched with what looked to Mae like the beginnings of pinkeye.
    “You’re from the Herald-Disgrace, aren’t you?” she said.
    The man smiled, familiar with the pejorative. “Yes, ma’am. Todd Bentley.” He reached out a hand, but both of them stared at him until he took it back. “I was hoping I could ask a couple of questions.”
    “I read your story about the anniversary of Buffalo Creek,” Mae said.
    “Thank you.”
    “There’s no thank-you to it. Looked to me like you were jockeying for some book deal. Some of those stories make you relive all the pain. Yours just made me feel sorry for the people you tracked down.”
    Bentley smiled. “I can assure you, ma’am, I’m not shooting for any book or movie deal. You don’t get too many of those around these parts. Just trying to do my job as well as I can.”
    An emergency worker gave a yell and a diesel engine fired. Black smoke rose through the trees like some evil prayer and drifted toward the valley.
    “How’d you hear about this?” Mae said.
    Bentley moved closer. “I’ve got a friend at the sheriff’s office. We’ve been waiting for a break in this case for a long time.”
    Mae could see the headline: “Seven-Year Mystery Solved.” “This is going to sell you a bunch of papers tomorrow, isn’t it?”
    “With all the cutbacks, we need something. They’ve laid off half the newsroom since I’ve been working there. If you don’t generate some stories of your own, you don’t have a desk.” Bentley took another step closer to Mae. “But really, Mrs. Edwards, there’s a lot of people who have been interested in this story since day one. You’ve seen all the churches that have kept their vigils, their prayer chains. People have held out hope that this day would come and that we’d at least find out what happened to Natalie.”
    Mae recoiled when he spoke her name. As if he knew the girl himself. As if he were on a first-name basis. As if he cared. He had no idea. That girl was full of life with sparkling eyes. Mae still kept the DVD someone had made of the video clips of her birthday and her first pony ride and the trip to Camden Park with Natalie covered in cotton candy—she even had it in her hair. Mae had bathed the child herself that night and marveled at the sticky sweetness of life, and a