Scar Tissue by William G. Tapply Read Free Book Online Page A

out, I guess. They were together all the time.”
    â€œDid you know that they’d packed some clothes?”
    â€œI heard that, yes.”
    â€œThen what—?”
    â€œHow should I know?” she said quickly. “Look, mister. You’ve got no right to come here and bother us and—and interrogate us.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Why don’t you just leave us alone?”
    I nodded. “I’m sorry.” I took out my wallet and fished out two of my business cards. “Here,” I said. “Give one to Mikki. If you hear anything or think of anything, I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a call.”

    â€œLike what? What could we tell you?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “Take them anyway. Maybe you’ll think of something.”
    She shrugged, took the cards, glanced at them, then stuffed them into her pocket.
    I held out my hand to her. “I’m sorry I bothered you,” I said.
    She started to reach for my hand, and then her eyes darted past me.
    I turned. A black-and-white police Explorer had pulled in behind my car, and Chief Sprague and Officer McCaffrey had gotten out. Sprague looked in my direction with his hand shielding his eyes. Then he turned and said something to McCaffrey, who shrugged and got back into the cruiser.
    Sprague waved and came toward us. When he got to where we were standing, he said, “Well, Mr. Coyne. I see you’ve met my friends.”
    â€œYes,” I said. “We tossed daisies into the river.”
    He smiled quickly at me, then turned to Sandy. “You okay, kiddo?”
    She shook her head, then went to him and hugged him. He patted her shoulder. Then Mikki came over, and they had a three-way hug, with their arms across each other’s shoulders and their heads close together.
    I turned and started for my car.
    â€œMr. Coyne,” called Sprague. “Hang on.”
    I stopped. Sprague spoke earnestly to the two girls for a minute. Then Sandy held out her bunch of daisies to him. Sprague plucked out two of them, tossed them into the water one at a time, then stood there with his head bowed.
    After a minute, he turned, gave each of the girls another hug, and came to where I was standing. He was shaking his head. “It’s going to take a long time for this town to heal,” he said.
    â€œIt’ll be forever for Jake and Sharon,” I said, “unless they find Brian’s body.”

    â€œMan, you got that right.” He waved at the river. “They dove all through this deep water here, and they broke the ice and searched for almost a mile down below before they quit. I’m going to do everything I can to get them to come back. Mr. Nash, our DA, he’s pulling some strings. Brian’s body is stuck somewhere under the ice down there, and the idea of not finding him until the river breaks up in the spring is just intolerable.”
    â€œSo the state police have given up the search?” I said.
    â€œMr. Nash and I are working on it,” he said. “But you know the staties. They’ve got their priorities, and little Reddington isn’t one of them.”
    We started back to our vehicles. “What did the kids have to say?” he asked.
    I shook my head. “Nothing. They’re sad. They seem like good kids.”
    â€œThey are,” said Sprague. “Jenny and Brian were, too. I believe in kids, Mr. Coyne. I believe that all kids start out as good kids. A big part of my job is keeping them that way.”
    â€œThat’s admirable,” I said.
    â€œAdmirable?” He shook his head. “It’s just common sense.” He cocked his head at me. “Oh. You were being sarcastic, huh?”
    â€œNot at all,” I said. We stopped at Sprague’s cruiser. Inside, Officer McCaffrey was talking on the radio. “Yesterday,” I said to Sprague, “you told me the kids had packed some clothes, as if