Prairie Gothic by J.M. Hayes Read Free Book Online

to admit light. Viewing the place had been known to induce nausea—just like when a test (essay, multiple choice, or of character) loomed behind its doors. The sheriff still couldn’t approach it without the queasy feeling that he was about to be hit with a pop quiz for which he’d neglected to prepare.
    Like most public buildings in Benteen County, you entered through two sets of doors. The design feature was meant to act as a heat or cold trap, keeping out whichever you didn’t want. They held back wind and dust, too, at least hypothetically. At school, both doors tended to stay open and defeat the design when assaulted by crowds of kids hurrying to or from the line of yellow buses that gathered them from the far corners of the school district.
    The sheriff joined one such crowd, along with a frigid cold front that swept through the main doors and down the corridor within. The kids peeled off toward the lockers that lined the halls. The sheriff made for the offices.
    â€œGood morning, Sheriff English.” The student secretary was blond and cute. “You here about the horrible Heathers or has the vice principal called you into her office again?” She grinned to make it clear she was teasing, but the humor didn’t extend to her eyes. She was a year older than his daughters, “the horrible Heathers,” and ran with the rich kids, a very different crowd.
    â€œHey, Englishman!” The sheriff’s wife stuck her head around the corner of a door labeled JUDY ENGLISH, VICE PRINCIPAL . “I’ve got to get to a meeting. We’re about to decide to turn the kids around and stick them back on the buses and send them home. The weatherman says scattered snow showers, but it’s getting nasty out there. Come on in. I can spare a couple of minutes.”
    She greeted him with a warm, but appropriate, kiss as he entered her office and closed the door behind them. The space within gave new meaning to the word cramped. The sheriff felt NBA-sized in here.
    As the door clicked shut she came out of the embrace, took him by the arms, and pushed him back to look at his face. Not that far back. Arm’s length would have required her to slam one of them against a wall or her desk.
    â€œWhat’s this about a baby?”
    â€œYou know?”
    â€œThe whole school knows, and is actively involved in speculations. Is it true? What can you tell me?”
    â€œYeah, it’s true, and not much. It was a newborn. Doc’s got it now. He’ll let me know whatever else he can find out about it. Him, actually, it’s a boy. Looked Caucasian to me, which shouldn’t be surprising in Benteen County. Do you know about Tommie Irons?”
    Judy backed away and sat on the edge of her desk. The sheriff took the only full-sized chair on his side of the room, then tried to figure out where to put his feet.
    â€œTommie died last night. I guess Mad Dog had been filling him with stories about afterlife in the happy hunting grounds. He stole Tommie’s body from the Towers to dispose of it ‘properly’ sometime before dawn. Some of the residents helped smuggle Mad Dog in and Tommie out. Then they went for a walk…” He shook his head. “When they came back, one of them had a real baby instead of the doll she usually carries to calm her.”
    â€œAlice Burton.” Judy echoed his disbelief with a shake of the head, though hers was more dramatic because of her shoulder-length auburn curls. “And you don’t have any idea whose it is?”
    â€œNot yet. Nor where it came from. Wynn was going to take a quick look before he clocked out, and Mrs. Kraus is calling around to find me a deputy to give me some backup. You know how short-handed we are.”
    Judy knew. It was a topic he brought home for complaint about as regularly as she did the county’s teacher shortage and the lack of competent substitutes. “So what do you want from me, the names