She went through her own back gate, ran up the yard and in through her back door. She closed it, locked it, then hurried into Hanna’s bedroom. From the window she saw Leigh’s house, with the angle wide enough for a partial view of the front drive. The two police cars pulled up and came to a stop.
She saw Brennan Little, one of the sheriff’s deputies, get out of one car and walk up the side of the house, shining his flashlight into the dead bushes and along the window casings, his gun drawn. She saw Sheriff Maynard Fulton get out of the second car and walk to the front of the house, quickly disappearing from view behind the carport.
“Mom?” Hanna called from the top of the stairs.
Glenda left Hanna’s bedroom and went into the kitchen. Flashing police lights now partially illuminated the inside of the house.
“Go back downstairs.”
“Is Leigh dead?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Go downstairs. The police are here.”
The new logic: The police are here. Hide.
Glenda followed her downstairs, and the police lights strobed throughout the basement. Jake had taken advantage of the unexpected light to find an old toy, an alien action figure, only this alien was nothing like the aliens up in the TMS. It wore medieval armor and had a big laser gun, and everybody knew real aliens didn’t wear medieval armor and shoot laser guns.
She sat there with her children for a few minutes, Jake playing alien, Hanna starting to wheeze despite the nursing home medication. Too much of the damp basement for her. Glenda heard the muffled chatter of the police radio through the cheap Duratex windows.
A few minutes turned into ten. She thought Fulton might go away. Maybe she wouldn’t have to look into those eyes of his—those mocking blue eyes that constantly undressed her. She hoped that he would simply take what he wanted from Leigh’s house, add it to whatever hoard he was building—because it was all about the building of hoards these days—and never come back.
But…
The knock came at last…
A loud knock.
The knock seemed to squeeze her heart so that the passage of blood through her chest felt painful. The knock came again. She thought she might will Fulton to go away, but knew her own footprints were in the blood, and knew that Fulton wouldn’t go away no matter how hard she willed him to.
“You two stay here.”
She went upstairs, answered the door, and saw Fulton standing there in the dark. He wore his uniform jacket and hat, and he looked cold. The snow behind him was stopping.
“You heard the noise next door?” he said.
He always tried to trap her with his questions, she knew that, but as she didn’t see a trap in this particular question, she answered truthfully.
“I heard it.”
His mistrust deepened. “And you didn’t call? Some local calls are still going through.”
“I’ve been hiding in the basement all this time.”
He shone his flashlight at her shoes. “Is that so?”
She looked down and saw Leigh’s blood. Damn. Trapped. Even though it was snowing outside, her face felt hot. “I went over there to check things out after his killers left.” Because there was no denying it now.
Fulton’s face settled and he contemplated Glenda for close to five seconds. “You see his basement?”
Another trap, because her footprints were on the stairs as well. “I saw it.” She wasn’t going to fall for this one.
He lifted his chin. “What do you suppose he had on all those shelves?”
“Is that a serious question, Maynard?”
He shook his head. “Always the tone, Glenda. In case you didn’t know, I’m here to serve and protect.”
“That’s what your mouth says. But your eyes tell a different story. Please stop looking at me like that.”
He shook his head a second time, but he was grinning, as if he were enjoying this. “And after all the help I gave you with your husband.”
“Leigh didn’t tell me anything, if that’s what you want to know.”
“So you have no idea who his killers are?”
She brushed the hair from her forehead and felt her expression sink, not in fear but in anger, and had the damnedest impulse to order Fulton off her property and tell him never to come back. “Jamie, Lars, and
Perry. Work buddies. That’s all I know.”
“No last names?”
“No.”
“Found your footprints in that basement room, Glenda. Were you looking for food?”
She went all innocent. “Was that what he had in there?”
“Old Leigh wasn’t going to let you starve. Everybody knows about you and Leigh.”
She frowned. “Why don’t you act like a sheriff for a change, Maynard?”
“Leigh didn’t give you any food? Because it looks like he had a lot down there. Then all those vegetables he was growing. He was planning for the long haul, wasn’t he?”
“He never gave us any food.”
His eyes widened. “Is that so?” He shone his flashlight past her shoulder. “Do you mind if I come in and look around?”
He tried to get around her, but she blocked his way.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”
“I think I better,” he said.
“Maynard, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.”
“Seems to me you should be glad to have me around, Glenda, now that Gerry’s gone and run off on you.”
“Gerry hasn’t run off on me.”
“What do you suppose he’s doing up there on the Moon right now?”
“I told you, he doesn’t drink anymore.”
“Glenda, I’ve got to take a look around. Police business.”
“Then show me a warrant.”
“Ever since the…restructuring, we don’t need warrants. We’re streamlining our jurisprudence as we go along, on account of the courts being closed.”
He used his great physical size to push past her.
“Maynard, stay out of my house!”
“Sorry, ma’am, but I’m investigating a murder.”
He walked into the living room, got down on one knee, and looked under the couch. He then went into the dining room and opened the cupboards under the china cabinet.
“You’re looking for food, Maynard. Leigh’s murder has nothing to do with it.”
“Ma’am, if you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to cuff you.”
She followed him around the house, knowing she was powerless to stop him.
He went into the kitchen and opened the cupboards. He walked to the fridge, even though it wasn’t working, and shone his flashlight in there. He shut the door and shone his flashlight directly in her face.
“Where are you hiding it all, Glenda?”
“Will you stop shining that thing in my face?”
“You got it all in the basement, like Leigh did?”
“Got what?”
“Your food cache.”
“Maynard, I don’t have a food cache.”
“You’ve already lied to me once.”
“And you said you were investigating a murder, not looking for food.”
He shook his head. “You’re too smart for your own good, you know that?”
He walked across the kitchen to the cellar door.
“My kids are down there. Please don’t scare them.”
“I’m the sheriff. Why would they be scared of me?”
She followed Fulton down the stairs. “Kids,” she cried. “It’s just the sheriff. He’s coming down. No need to be afraid.”
Fulton got to the bottom and shone his flashlight at all the boxes of junk in the middle, then at the tool bench, then at the washer and dryer, and finally at Jake and Hanna.
Glenda’s rifle leaned against the wall next to Jake.
“You’ve got a rifle?” said Fulton.