Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [495]
Lillian rolled her eyes just as she noticed her brother watching her. Despite his partner’s abuse, Wally remained perched at his side by the coffee counter, with a stupid, lopsided grin.
“Our own coffee house entertainment,” Rosie said, coming up beside Lillian and pulling out a couple of paperbacks from the shelf behind them.
“Should we ask them to leave?” Lillian asked, then felt her stomach flip when she realized Rosie might ask her to do it.
“Nah, don’t bother. People are hungry for details. Look at them.” She pointed to the growing crowd around Calvin and Wally. “Not such a bad thing for our little bookstore to be the place to come to for the latest gruesome details. It doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“No, of course not. But won’t Henry mind?”
“It’s not Henry’s store,” Rosie said abruptly, and Lillian knew she shouldn’t have said it. “Besides, maybe if they have someplace to go for information, they’ll stop hounding Henry.”
Lillian decided not to mention that it might be false or fabricated information from Calvin Vargus. She saw Rosie’s face suddenly soften into a smile. The concern of the last twenty-four hours had already started to show in new lines around her friend’s mouth and in her forehead. Whenever Lillian studied her partner’s face, she was immediately reminded of how beautiful the woman had been. She could see the remnants of the high school prom queen. Rosie was still an attractive woman—even the lines made her face interesting, not marred.
Then Lillian realized what had softened her partner’s expression. Her big, strapping, good-looking John Wayne of a husband had walked in the door. All the attention shifted to Henry as he fielded questions while trying to make his way to the coffee bar.
“I better go rescue him,” Rosie said with a smile.
As she watched Rosie greet her husband, Lillian noticed her brother, Wally, sneaking out the bookstore’s back entrance. And he hadn’t even had his daily bear claw and glass of milk.
CHAPTER 17
Henry shoved his way past the cameras and yelling re porters. The pretty, little one with the thick glasses had been following him everywhere. Earlier she had been at the bookstore, waiting for him as if she knew that he stopped by there every morning. Except now she had a camera guy with her and the camera was rolling. He could tell, because her thick, Coke-bottle glasses came off as soon as the camera went on. He wondered how the hell she had gotten into broadcast journalism with those things.
“Sheriff Watermeier, is it true there may be more than a hundred bodies buried in the quarry?”
“A hundred bodies?” He laughed. Not an appropriate response, but this was ridiculous. “Let’s hope not.”
“What about the rumors that some of the victims have been cannibalized? Can you elaborate on that, Sheriff?”
This time Henry avoided rolling his eyes. “We’ll try to answer some of your questions later today when we know more.”
He kept walking, not looking back, despite the questions that continued and despite the clicks of shutters and the hum of video cameras. He knew he would need to address the media, and soon. Earlier he had gotten a call from Randal Graham, the assistant to the governor, and good ole Randal advised him that he needed to somehow calm things down a notch. According to Randal, the governor was tremendously concerned about the national media calling these the worst serial killings in Connecticut’s history. Henry wanted to tell that weasel Graham that those reports were probably accurate, and if he wanted things toned down a notch maybe he should get his ass down here and tone them down himself. But, instead, he told the governor’s assistant that he had things under control. So, in other words, he had lied.
The tall grass was slick with dew, glittering in the morning sun.