Read Online The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns - Free Book Online Page B

the whole business. For a few days one saw camera crews hurrying into City Hall. And so Ryan’s affair with Janice, even though she had broken it off the summer before, was considered a problem by everyone except Ryan himself. He had never made a secret of dating Janice. He was single, divorced actually, and they had been seen together, going either to dinner or to the movies. His involvement with Janice made Ryan eager to catch whoever had killed her. To the others, it made him a suspect. And unfortunately the sheriff’s department and the state police often treated small-town policemen with disrespect, if only because town police were paid less. They knew Ryan and perhaps liked him, but in their eyes he wasn’t quite professional.
    Ryan talked to Franklin about this. It was shortly before Michelle died, though everyone thought she would last longer. Sadie was eleven at the time. Ryan went over to Franklin’s house, not the one near me, but the ranch house on Jackson Street. Michelle had a bed in the den. The house had a medicinal smell and was kept warm, about eighty degrees. Toward the end Michelle always felt chilled and kept asking her daughter to turn up the heat.
    The two men had a couple of beers in the kitchen. When healthy, Michelle had been an energetic housewife despite her job as a photographer, but now that she was sick the house was somewhat shabby. Not that Franklin was lazy or didn’t know how to vacuum—he was simply stunned by his wife’s illness and had trouble doing anything other than his newspaper work.
    Ryan hadn’t come to see Franklin because of Janice’s murder but because they were friends and because of his sympathy about Michelle’s illness. Such understandings have few words attached. So their talk mostly concerned the trivial: how well the high school football team was doing and the chances for the Buffalo Bills in some upcoming game. But Franklin understood that Ryan also grieved. Janice had been dead less than a week.
    â€œDid you love her?” asked Franklin.
    Ryan shifted in his chair. “There was a way she could fill your mind.”
    â€œWho broke up with who?”
    â€œShe thought I was getting too attached to her.”
    Franklin waited for Ryan to say more but Ryan was digging at the label on his Budweiser bottle with his thumb.
    â€œDid it make you angry when she broke off with you?”
    â€œSure, but I knew she was right. Are you talking to me as a reporter?” Ryan made an attempt at a grin.
    â€œI just wanted to know how you were feeling.”
    â€œI’d think about her all day long. And when I got to her house in the evening, I hardly said hello. I’d just start touching and kissing her. She’d bite my lip. It was painful. Even a week after she broke off with me, I could feel it. And I didn’t want the feeling to go away.”
    â€œHow long did you see each other?”
    â€œThree months. And she was seeing someone else as well. I didn’t care. She might have been seeing a couple of guys for all I know. More power to her.”
    â€œDo they have any idea who killed her?”
    â€œIn the autopsy, they figured she’d recently had sex with someone. Then they’d have the DNA unless he’d used a condom. But there was no trace of anything. So maybe it was a woman who killed her. A jealous wife or something.”
    â€œWhat about the hand?” asked Franklin.
    â€œThere’s no way to explain it. Crazy, that’s all.”
    â€œAnd you’ve been taken off the case completely?”
    â€œThe state police are conducting the investigation. They think it looks bad if I’m connected with the case. They had to look hard to find guys who
weren’t
involved with her. She’d even been into the sheriff’s department. Of course the state cops won’t admit anything.”
    â€œShe had a healthy appetite.”
    Ryan kept his eyes on the floor. “You