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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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ichard Touhy III was the mayor of Smiths Hollow, like his father Richard before him and his father Richard before
him. In fact, Richard Touhy III could trace an unbroken line of mayors named Touhy all the way back to the first mayor of Smiths Hollow, a man appointed by the Chicago baron who’d either saved the town from ruin or built it from the ground up, depending on who you talked to.
At the moment he very much wished that his father and his father before him had worked at the canned chili factory like everyone else in town. It would be a blessing to worry about nothing more complicated than the mortgage and his union dues and whether his wife was boffing the postman.
He was pretty certain, as a matter of fact, that his wife, Crystal, was boffing someone while he sat in his
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Night of shades ten
Karen watched Lauren scrubbing the glass dish that had held the baked chicken legs they’d eaten for dinner. She felt the criticism rise up in her throat—Lauren wasn’t cleaning the corners very well, and if you didn’t get that off, there wasbuildup—but she swallowed it down again. Lauren was barely speaking to her as it was, after Karen’s outburst that afternoon.The thing was, Karen knew when she was being ridiculous. She knew that half of what she said to Lauren was just nitpicking, that Lauren was basically a good kid and that every time Karen gave her a hard time for no particular reason, she was driving her daughter further and further away.But she would see Lauren doing something that was just a little bit off, or thoughtless—like leaving the water on the fl
Night of shades 11
Miranda toyed with the French fries Tad had left on the table and swallowed the tears that she felt building in her throat. She was not going to cry in a public place, especially not with those bitches looking over at her every fewminutes.She didn’t understand what had gone wrong. Tad ditched Billy at the pizza place, just like Miranda hoped, and when they got in the Camaro he’d kissed her and even did a quick grope of her breasts before grinning and starting the engine.When they arrived at the mall they’d discovered that the next showing of Rambo wasn’t for an hour, so they decided to walk around for a while. Tad had put his hand in the back pocket of Miranda’s jeans while they did so and she did not object, letting him squeeze her ass whenever the impulse oc
Night of shades 12
Lauren didn’t expect to hear from Miranda the next day at all. She assumed her friend would be so irritated at Lauren for ditching her at the Dream Machine that Miranda wouldn’t call for at least a week. So she was surprised when thephone rang right after breakfast and Miranda’s voice said, “Meet me by the old ghost tree.”“I can’t,” Lauren said, which was true. “Mom went shopping in Silver Lake and I’m watching David.” “Lame.” Miranda huffed out an annoyed breath. “After lunch?”“Probably,” Lauren said, although she didn’t particularly want to meet Miranda. She had no desire to get dragged off to the arcade again. “She should be back by then. Listen, we’re not going to the Dream Machine, are we?
Night of shades 13
Alex Lopez sat at his desk and forced himself to think of the girls. Specifically, the girls’ heads talking to him.Because it was a very strange thing. He found that if he didn’t think of that exact moment, didn’t hear their voices and see their mouths moving, his brain would slide away from the memory of the crime scene.Like it was trying to forget that it ever happened.Like something was trying to make Alex forget it ever happened.And when he mentioned the fruitless search that he’d done yesterday for the girls’ car to Van Christie, it had taken the chief a minute to remember what Alex was even talking about.“Oh, right,” Christie said. “The mayor wants us to keep this as quiet as we can. He’s worried about the summer fair.&rdqu
Night of shades 14
Lauren 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 thatmade 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
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
Night 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
Night 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
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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
