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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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- Schneider 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 thought
she 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
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Night of shades 22
Lauren knew she shouldn’t have yelled at her mother like that. Mom was the revenging type. She was probably downstairs thinking up every possible thing she could take away from Lauren—her allowance, her telephone privileges,her television time.No more meetings under the ghost tree. No more riding her bike wherever she wanted to go.But Lauren had been biting her tongue for days, suppressing her irritation at Mom’s constant nagging. When they were sitting there at the table and she asked Mom about magic, Mom had given her that slightly superior look that she always gave when she thought Lauren asked a stupid question.And it had just been the last straw.But it wouldn’t have happened at all if Mom had just left her alone the way she’d asked her to.
Night of shades 23
Lauren fully expected her mom to flip out over her behavior the night before, and that might have happened if she hadn’t needed her mom’s assistance finding the sanitary pads.Mom had taken one look at Lauren’s red face and the clean pair of underwear clutched in her hand and said, “Well, that explains a few things.” Then she went into her clothes closet and pulled down a box of Stayfree maxi pads. She handed the box to Lauren. There was a woman walking on a beach in a white dress. Her dark hair blew in the wind and she looked unreasonably happy for a person who presumably had her period, Lauren thought. Across the bottom corner of the box it said Beltless.“Do you need any help?” Mom asked.“Uh, no. I think I can figure it out,” Lauren said.&ld
Night of shades 24
Alex really was not in the mood for the fair. The captain decided that Alex and Miller would rotate shifts with Hendricks and Pantaleo and that there would be at least one pair patrolling at the fair at all times from open to close—which wasfrom eleven to eight every day, and until ten p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The chief tried to soften the blow with the promise of overtime pay (“already authorized by the mayor, who’s grateful for our presence”), but Alex didn’t care about the money.He cared about the hours he was going to spend walking in the heat, dealing with out-of-towners who lost their kids in the crowd or got their pockets picked by teenagers. And when he wasn’t dealing with petty theft and children distracted by the sight of balloon vendors, he’d be gi
Night of shades 25
Lauren went out after lunch, leaving her bike at home. She could cut into the woods from the cul-de-sac at the end of the road. Mrs. Schneider, of course, never let anyone through her yard—not even a raccoon—but pretty much everyoneelse expected the neighborhood kids to use their yards as access points and didn’t mind.She only needed her bike if she was going straight to the ghost tree, and she didn’t want to start at the ghost tree today.Lauren had a small green canvas duffel bag that used to belong to her father slung over her shoulder. She had carefully packed this bag with all the things she thought she would need if she actually came across the crime scene.It was easier for her to think of it that way, to consider it in a distant and scientific manner. If she di
Night of shades 26
Jesus, I think one of my eardrums is bleeding,” Jake said, holding his hand to his right ear. “What are you doing here?” Lauren asked.Her voice sounded shrill to her own ears. Her hands shook and she’d dropped the duffel bag when she’d spun around.She felt ready to dash away at the slightest provocation, a trembling little rabbit in sight of a fox.Jake reached back and rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish gesture. He’d gotten his hair cut, Lauren noticed now.It was short in the back and a little longer on top.Kind of like Matt Dillon in The Outsiders, she thought, and wondered if Miranda would agree.But Jake’s new haircut was not the point. The point was that he was standing there in her woods (my woods???) very close to a m
Night of shades 27
The last person Miranda expected to see in that part of the woods was Lauren. She hid behind an old oak wide enough to keep her body out of sight and peeked around the edge. Lauren and Jake Hanson were walking back in the direction ofLauren’s neighborhood, carrying large plastic bags. Were they out here picking up trash?Miranda snorted to herself. Real romantic, Lauren. Why don’t you take him down to the pharmacy and ride the mechanical pony for a dime while you’re at it?But the sight of them together, and this deep in the woods, annoyed her. She and Lauren almost always stayed near the ghost tree, and she hadn’t imagined that Lauren would even enter the forest without her. She was such a little mouse.Miranda thought that without her friend, Lauren would sit
Night of shades 28
Alex found his opportunity to sneak down to the archives late in the afternoon. Hendricks and Pantaleo were out patrolling. Christie was in a meeting with the mayor about the security preparations for the fair. About two hours afterlunch Miller fell asleep in his chair, his head lolling forward onto his chest. Miller had his legs up on his desk at the time. Alex wondered if he would stay in that position or if the rolling wheels of Miller’s chair would slowly creep away until his feet crashed to the ground.Would he wake up if that happened? Possibly not.Once Alex and Miller had been out on the county road with the speed gun and Miller had conked out in the passenger seat. When an out-of-towner in a yellow Mustang went by doing a cool eighty-five miles per hour Alex had flipped on the lights and sirens and
Night of shades 29
Lauren and Jake emerged from the woods the same way that Lauren had gone in—through the Arakawas’ yard. Mrs.Arakawa’s white Mazda 626 wasn’t in the driveway and Lauren was glad. She didn’t want to answer any questions right now about what they’d found in the woods, or why she’d gone in alone but returned with Jake.From the Arakawa house there was a fairly commanding view of the cul-de-sac and the houses on the street beyond. Lauren saw Jake’s bright orange Gremlin in his driveway six houses away from the cul-de-sac. A few houses past that was Lauren’s home.There was a police car parked in front of her house, and she saw her mother standing by the mailbox talking to Officer Hendricks.Her first thought was Great, I can hand these bags
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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
