Read Online Mercy Street by Mariah Stewart - Free Book Online Page B

in red, and the dark circles beneath them were a likely testament to the many sleepless nights she’d spent since Ryan went missing.
    After they ordered, Mary tapped on the table with an index finger to get Mallory’s attention.
    “My grandson is innocent, Mallory. He could not have done this thing.” Mary removed a stack of photographs from her purse and started to place them on the table. “Does this look like a murderer? Look, here he is at his prom…”
    Mallory didn’t have the heart to tell the worried grandmother that murderers don’t have any particular look.
    “He’s very handsome, Mary.” Mallory took the photo of tall, good-looking Ryan in a tuxedo next to a pretty blond girl in a pale pink gown on the front steps of what appeared to be a red-brick twin home. “And Courtney is a very pretty girl.”
    “Oh, that’s not Courtney,” Mary told her. “That’s Ryan’s girlfriend.”
    “Courtney isn’t his girlfriend?”
    “No, no. See, that’s another thing the police got wrong and even though I told them—and Courtney’s mother told them, too—they’re making this big thing, like these two kids are Bonnie and Clyde.” She shook her head. “Ryan’s been going out with Shelby for almost two years now.”
    “Shelby Keeler,” Father Burch supplied the last name. “She’s a junior at Our Lady of Angels.”
    “The newspeople make it sound like Ryan and Courtney have some big romance going on, but they’re just good friends. Have been since kindergarten.” Mary passed several other pictures to Mallory. “Same with these boys, Adam and Jamey. The four were pretty much inseparable most of their lives. There is no way either Ryan or Courtney could have hurt Adam or Jamey.
    “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking,” she went on, searching her purse for a tissue. “You’re thinking,
Of course she has to say that, this is her flesh and blood.
” She blew her nose softly. “I want you to understand that this isn’t Ryan’s grandmother blindly defending her grandson. This is God’s truth. Ryan could never have pulled a gun, pulled the trigger, on either of his friends. Or on anyone else, for that matter. It isn’t in him.”
    “Mary, do you know why the kids went to the park that night?”
    “Courtney was bothered about something or other, something she wanted to talk to the boys about.”
    “Did Ryan tell you what it was?”
    “No.” Mary shook her head. “He just said she needed to talk about something important and they were going to get together at the park. It was something they’d done a lot over the years, just got together to talk from time to time. I didn’t think anything of it.”
    “Did they always meet in that park?”
    “Pretty much, yes. It was where they used to play when they were little, you know? It used to be so much nicer than it is now, but they never got out of the habit of meeting there. I used to ask Ryan, ‘Can’t you find another place to hang out?’ It’s maybe not so nice there after dark anymore, but he always just said it was their place.”
    “Did you see Courtney that night, Mary?”
    Mary nodded. “She came to the house and went upstairs to get Ryan. They were up there for a while, then they left to meet up with Adam and Jamey.” Mary looked down at the napkin she’d been shredding. “Maybe I should have talked to her. Asked her what was bothering her. Maybe I could have helped. Then maybe they wouldn’t have gone to the park at all that night.”
    Mary began to weep.
    “Mary, is there a gun in your house?”
    “No.”
    “Was there? Ever?”
    “No, I just told you…” Mary dropped her hands to the table and stared at Mallory.
    “Ever? At any time, did you have…”
    “No. No. No. You’re not listening to me.” Mary’s voice rose slightly in obvious frustration, and she slapped a palm on the table, surprising even herself. Mallory guessed that Mary Corcoran was not a woman who generally made a scene or raised