Кэти Дэйли - The Curse Of Hollister House

Surprisingly, no one did as I’d expected. Maybe Billy was one of those kids everyone was afraid of.

“Is there a problem here?” a man who looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t place him, stepped up to the front of the line.

“I’m afraid this young man has cut the line and is holding up everything,” I answered, figuring the man, who looked to be about forty, was one of the parents.

“Let’s move along, shall we?” he said to Billy.

Billy nodded and walked away. I was about to thank the man when he walked away as well. It was then I noticed the prosthetic hand.

Oh my God, I thought to myself. The man I was more and more sure had killed two children was here at the festival, where there were hundreds of children to prey on.

“I need to take a break,” I announced to the line. I jumped over the barrier, creating a chorus of protests, and then followed the man toward the parking area. When I saw him climb into an old pickup—white truck, brown camper—I knew that the man we first suspected of killing Tracy was the one who actually had.

“Pick up, pick up,” I said after dialing Cass’s cell.

“Hey, Callie. I’m kind of busy; can I call you back?”

“The man who has been hanging around the middle school is here. Or at least he was.”

“Here where?”

“The Harvest Festival, where I am supposed to be volunteering.”

“I see. Is there a problem?”

“I found a photo in Gracie’s attic. The same man was at the middle school when Stella died. He has to be the killer.”

“Both Stella and Tracy were strangled, and Craig Grainger has a prosthetic hand. There is no way he strangled anyone.”

“I know about the hand, but the guy just left here in a truck. A white truck with a brown camper.”

Cass paused. “Okay. I need to finish up here, then I’ll come to meet you. Give me thirty minutes. Meet me by the snack bar.”

Thirty minutes might not seem like a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but when you were certain that you’d just seen a serial killer drive away, it seemed like an eternity.

I used the time to find Hope to let her know that I’d had to abandon the game. I headed back into the festival crowd. I was pretty sure Hope would be at the entrance, where a volunteers’ check-in table was set up, so I went in that direction. When I arrived, I pulled her aside to fill her in on the situation. She assured me that meeting with Cass was a lot more important if doing so would help him find Tracy’s killer, and that she’d find someone else to cover the ring toss.

By the time I’d explained things to Hope, Cass had arrived, and I followed him out toward the parking area, where I’d last seen the white truck with the brown camper.

“Okay, exactly what happened?” Cass asked.

“I was working the ring toss when this brat cut the line. I told him to go to the end of the line, but he wouldn’t. We ended up in a battle of wills that seemed as if it was never going to find a resolution when a man walked up. He asked what the problem was, and thinking he was another volunteer or a parent, I explained, he told the kid to move on, and he did just as he was asked. I was going to thank the guy for helping me out, but he walked away too quickly. It was then I noticed he had a prosthetic hand. I followed him out to the parking lot and saw him get into an old white truck with a brown camper.” I took a breath. “And there’s more. I was looking through some old photo albums I’d left up in Gracie’s attic this morning and found one from when Stella and I had just started middle school. I took a photo of her on her first day of volleyball practice, and the truck I saw this man get into was in the background. I am sure that was the same man Naomi described for us, the man she’d seen in the woods, and I suspect he is the same man Anna told Paisley about.”

Cass blew out a breath. “Okay. I still don’t see how Craig Grainger could have done what was done to Stella and Tracy with only one hand, but I’ll talk to him again.”

“Can I come with you?”

He hesitated.

“Please. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“You can ride along, but only if you agree to wait in the car.”

I’d hoped that Cass would let me listen in on their conversation, but waiting in the car was better than nothing, so I agreed to his terms. He suggested that I leave my car at the festival and come back for it later. I supposed I should call both Gracie and Paisley to let them know I might not make it to the pumpkin patch as we’d planned, although I hated to disappoint Paisley. I decided to see how Cass’s interview went and take it from there.

Chapter 24

“So you are telling me that this man with the truck was seen lurking around the middle school twenty years ago when Stella disappeared and then again recently when Tracy went missing, but Cass is sure that he is not the killer?” Gracie asked later in the day as we walked around the pumpkin patch. Paisley was walking ahead of us with Tom, who was pulling a wagon to carry the pumpkins she picked out.

“That’s what he said. He spoke to the man, who admitted that he likes to watch kids. That in and of itself seems creepy to me, but Cass said there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the man has ever harmed any of the kids he watches sexually or otherwise, and a perusal of the police reports surrounding Hillary’s death in Rivers Bend did not mention a white truck with a brown camper or a creepy man hanging around the school.”

“Can’t Cass arrest him for hanging around the school? It doesn’t seem right.”

“He can’t arrest him because he hasn’t actually done anything wrong, but Cass talked to him again today about finding another place to hang out. According to Cass, the man was in a car accident when he was in middle school. I guess he was pretty banged up and not only did he lose a hand, but he suffered injury to his brain as well. Cass seems to think the man’s fascination with kids in this age group is due to that brain injury. He is going to keep an eye on him and is going to keep strongly encouraging him to hang out somewhere else, but not a single student that Cass has talked to has reported any wrongdoing on the man’s part. He hangs back and watches, and some of the kids go over to talk to him, but that seems to be the extent of it.”

“I take it he doesn’t work?”

“Cass said he is on disability.”

“And when Naomi saw him in the woods?” Gracie asked.

“Cass suspects the guy was just lurking then too and didn’t mean to scare her or mean her any harm.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“None of us do. Still, it really doesn’t look like the guy is the killer, so Cass is basically back to square one. At least with Stella and Tracy’s cases. He said he is making progress with Patricia Long’s death, but he declined to fill me in at this point.”

“How about this one?” Paisley held up a large pumpkin.

“I like it,” I called back. “It’s round and big enough to carve. Now we just need to find three more like it.”

“I see one over there.” Paisley put the pumpkin in the wagon and took off running.

I couldn’t help but smile. It had been a long time since I’d felt that much enthusiasm for anything, but there had been a time when I too could barely contain my happiness. As I watched Paisley run from one pumpkin to another, I had to wonder what had happened to that girl. I guess there comes a time when we leave the wonder of childhood behind, only to replace it with the responsibility of adulthood, but what I wouldn’t give to feel that happy again if only for a day.

“Should we carve them when we get home?” Paisley asked when the wagon was full.

“I think that would be a wonderful idea,” I said. I looked at Aunt Gracie. “As long as it is okay with you.”