LOGINShare
14
Last Updated:
2021-10-05 01:20:20
|
auren and David’s grandmother called just after their mom got home from her shopping expedition. Lauren put four cans of store-brand green beans on the floor (she was transporting them to the pantry) and picked up the phone. “Hello, Lauren?” Their grandmother didn’t sound like a frail, fluffy old lady. She had the kind of commanding voice that
made everyone in the vicinity stand at attention and obey whether they meant to or not. She never bossed Lauren around, but Lauren bet it wasn’t easy for her mom growing up.
“Hi, Nana,” she said.
Her mom looked up from the paper bag she was unloading and gestured for the phone. “Do you want to talk to Mom?”
“No, not right now,” Nana said. “Lauren, do you think you could come and visit me this afte
Related chapters
Night of shades 15
There was a hill just off the center of town, a lonely and inexplicable hill: a hill that should not be, for it blighted an otherwise perfectly flat and reasonable landscape.The hill—and the house that sat upon it—watched over the people and buildings below, though it was the kind of gaze that left the back of one’s neck prickly and uncomfortable.Without this hill it was just an ordinary Midwestern burg, a town that appeared almost magically when coal was discovered nearby and the rich barons from Chicago needed men to dig it up.But the vein ran dry faster than in other parts of Illinois, and many of the men who came to dig went elsewhere to do their work, and the town became nothing but a dirt strip in between empty storefronts. The few people that remained spoke hopefully of one
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 16
It was a good story, and it was well told. But when Nana got to the end bit, the bit about the man being found in the woods, Lauren felt like her grandmother had struck her. How could Nana use Lauren’s father’s death in this story, like itwas just a dramatic plot point? How could she so callously throw that out there without any regard for Lauren’s feelings?Lauren had been buying it all up until the end. The story of the witch and the man who loved her had struck the perfect tragic note, like an old-fashioned legend. And the notion of a creepy presence in the forest didn’t even seem that farfetched. She liked the idea of a local story that explained so many of the funny things about Smiths Hollow, even if it wasn’t really true.Of course it couldn’t be true. It was just a story
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 17
Miranda walked around the ghost tree for about the billionth time, checked her watch, and found that it was only thirty seconds after the last time she checked. Where was Lauren? She was never this late.Maybe her mom was still out.But if so, then why hadn’t Lauren called before one? They’d set a time. They’d agreed.And Miranda was going to burst open if she didn’t tell somebody about Him. Of course, she couldn’t tell Lauren His real name, because He was technically an adult and if anybody found out about Him and Miranda then He could get in a lot of trouble because she was jailbait.Not that anything had happened last night. But Miranda knew something was going to happen, could just tell from the way He
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 18
George Riley had noticed the cop—some people sitting near Riley had called him “Officer Lopez”—giving him the evil eye at the dump where he’d stopped for a burger. How could he not notice? It was Riley’s job to notice such things. Agood journalist noticed everything. You never knew what might be important.Riley wondered what a Hispanic cop was doing in white-bread Smiths Hollow. The census data indicated that less than five percent of the town’s population was not white and/or descended from Irish, German, or Polish immigrants. It was not unlike most of Chicago in that respect. Riley had learned to speak Polish early in his career because there were still parts of the city that had more Polish than English speakers.The Hispanic cop had assessed Riley, drawn
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 19
The mayor wasn’t completely certain how the man had weaseled his way into the office. Wasn’t Harry supposed to check who was coming into the building and who they were going to see? What was the point of security if they weren’t goingto try at all? He made a mental note to speak to Louie Reynolds, the head of security for the building, about it later. The mayor of Smiths Hollow was supposed to be accessible to the residents of the town, but not that accessible.Rebecca had just stepped out to get a sandwich for both of them, and in the intervening fifteen minutes this stranger had knocked on his door, interrupting an unproductive conversation with Van Christie regarding the still-unidentified girls.Touhy noticed the cassette recorder immediately, its bright red button engaged in th
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 20
Miranda opened the back door carefully, not wanting to slam the screen door and let her mother know she was home.Janice was probably out cold on the sofa in any case. If her mother was still awake she’d be on her fourth or fifth drink by now and wrapped up in Days of Our Lives or Ryan’s Hope or whatever it was she watched in the afternoon. So Janice probably wouldn’t notice the state of Miranda, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Her mother could occasionally be very observant.Miranda wanted to go upstairs and wash her face and change her clothes before her mother got a good look at her. The seat of her shorts and the back of her shirt were stained with dirt and she was sure her face was flushed. She toed out of her sneakers, left them in a heap on the mat, and ran
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 21
Karen didn’t know what had happened between her mother and Lauren that afternoon. She didn’t know because neither of them would tell her, despite the fact that Karen had called her mother and demanded to know what hadcaused her daughter to leave her bike in the backyard instead of putting it away properly and then run upstairs and lock the door of her bedroom.Karen called her mother and Mom had only said, “It’s between me and Lauren,” which left Karen with the same wrenched-stomach feeling that she always had when the two of them put their heads together and left her out.It was ridiculous that she should feel this way, feel like a high school girl who wasn’t allowed to join the cool-girls club, but she always had. Karen had never been close to her mother. She&rsq
Last Updated : 2021-10-05Night of shades 22
MSchneider stood at her kitchen window and stared out at the backyard. The police had, of course, cleared away the abomination that had soiled her property the previous day. But somehow every time she looked outside she thoughtshe could still see it there, like an afterimage burned on her eyes.“Disrespectful,” she muttered. “If someone wanted to murder some worthless girls, then they should have left them somewhere else. Not in my yard.”She could only imagine what Mr. Schneider would have said about this. He’d fenced in the yard so they would be protected from this kind of harassment—from any kind of harassment, really. Mr. Schneider had understood that People Would Impose On You if you didn’t make it clear that under no circumstances whatsoeve
Last Updated : 2021-10-05
Latest chapter
Night of shades 40
Van Christie stood in Jo Gehlinger’s living room, listening to the sound of Miller getting sick outside on the front porch.Miller always gets sick at murder scenes.The day before, Christie would have said there were hardly ever murder scenes in Smiths Hollow, and that was why Miller had so much trouble dealing with them. But last night he’d remembered.He’d remembered all the bodies. He’d remembered all the girls.And he’d remembered that he had covered it up, pretended it didn’t happen, taken their families’ sorrow and stuffed it in a file in the basement, never to be seen again.It didn’t matter that it wasn’t his fault. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten those girls. He’d been responsi
Night of shades 39
The crowd filed out to the backyard. Her lovely, neat backyard that had been sullied by those murdered girls.We’re going to put things right now.No one talked. No one even whispered. There was a sense of understanding all around, a resolve to do what was necessary.Nobody seemed surprised to find the pile of torches stacked neatly beside the porch. She herself was not surprised, though she didn’t remember putting them there.They weren’t the kind everyone had in films—jagged sticks of wood with their ends lit. These were the sort that people used around their patio in the summer so they could feel like they lived in Hawaii or some such place. And next to the torches was a large box of matches.Mrs. Schneider picked up the box and struck the first one.
Night of shades 38
MSchneider looked around at the circle of expectant faces in her living room. Many people had come when she called—more than she’d thought. There were twenty of them squashed together on her sofa or perched on thearmrests of the chairs(Mr. Schneider would not have liked that, no he would not, he would have thought it rude)and some of the younger ones sitting cross-legged on the floor like they were in kindergarten again.No one was talking. A sense of hushed resolve hung around the room, a feeling that they all knew their purpose and were willing to fulfill it.For the first time in a very long time her mind felt clear. No fog obscured her memories of Janey or of the other girls. If she tried she thought she could name off every one that had died in her lifetime.
Night of shades 37
Miranda looked into the face of her lover, or what she’d thought was her lover. His mouth wasn’t right. It was huge and black and seeping across his face in a way that no human mouth should. The hand across her mouth didn’t feel like ahand anymore. The sharp tips of his fingers dug into her cheek and tore the skin.I want to go home. I want my mommy.Lauren fiddled with the hem of her shirt. It seemed like Jake had been gone a very long time, though looking at the lines for every booth it was probably to be expected. She’d lost si
Night of shades 36
Miranda saw Lauren and Jake Hanson sitting at the picnic table holding hands. They seemed to be having a very intense conversation, looking soulfully into each other’s eyes.He’s probably telling her some bullshit about how he adores her and later he’ll have his hands underneath her undershirt grabbing at her tiny breasts.Tad had already grabbed at Miranda’s much more substantial breasts while they rode the Himalaya. She hadn’t cared so much about that, but his breath had been sour when he put his face close to hers and she turned her head away so he could suck at her neck instead. What she really wanted was to go home. She was tired of pretending that Tad was interesting.After they rode the Himalaya Tad and Billy decided they wanted to try their hand at the shooting gallery
Night of shades 35
Jane, Jane, Janey,” Mrs. Schneider muttered to herself as she stared out the window. “Jane, Jane, Janey.”She’d forgotten all about Janey, but now she remembered. Ever since that nosy reporter came poking his nosy nose around.The Mexicans across the street were all home today except for the police officer. The two women were out front, weeding the flower beds together and laughing. The other man was watering the front lawn with the hose. As Mrs. Schneider watched she saw him turn and spray the women briefly with the hose and laugh. His teeth were very white against his brown face and she thought he looked handsome for a moment.“Like that Ricky Ricardo that Lucy married,” she said. Except he wasn’t Mexican, she recalled. He was Cuban. “Not that it matte
Night of shades 34
ouhy stared at the headline in the Chicago Tribune. His breakfast eggs and bacon lay untouched on his plate and his coffee grew cold as he read the six words over and over.SHOCKING MURDERS STUN SMALL-TOWN POLICE“I’ll have somebody’s head for this,” Touhy said and then read the byline:George Riley, special correspondentTIt was that reporter from Chicago stirring up trouble. And a story like this would make more trouble, would bring more reporters from other places asking questions about things they shouldn’t even know about.Crystal gave him a mildly inquiring glance from
Night of shades 33
Karen waved good-bye to Officer Hendricks—Aaron, he told me to call him Aaron—as he climbed into his patrol car and drove away. She’d been out front watering the flowers when he pulled up at the end of the driveway.It had been a surprise when he stopped, and even more of a surprise when she realized he didn’t have Luke Pantaleo with him. The two of them were always together.At first she thought he might deliver more information about Joe’s death—a witness that had come forward, a suspect in custody. But he said he’d just come by to see “how all of you are doing.”Somehow a simple check-in had turned into almost an hour of conversation. They’d started chatting about books and movies and travel. Karen had never realized before how mu
Night of shades 32
Lauren found herself walking very slowly to her own house. Normally she would rush to Officer Hendricks’s side (God, you really did do that. What a stupid little puppy he must think you are), but she didn’t want to talk to him today.It had something to do with Jake and his declaration, she realized. She felt guilty about accepting his invitation to the fair and then talking to Officer Hendricks, even though she shouldn’t. It wasn’t as if Hendricks was planning on asking her out himself.And you know that you really do like Jake.She liked what she knew of him, she amended. He had been kind to her when they were young, and kind to her when she’d been sick. He was smart—she knew that because he’d graduated from high school early, and he would
