people who talk. The Blackwater gang comes back to get them. Every
one knows that's how they do things. In all my days I've never heard
of men who are so pure evil. I read a while back that they robbed a
bank in Texas and killed a woman and her little girl. The baby wasn't
even three years old.'
'She was four, ' Ryan said.
Loreen's head snapped up. 'Then it's true.' His voice was soft,
chilling. 'Yes, it's true.'
'Dear God, why would they want to hurt such an innocent little lamb?
She couldn't have told anything. She was too little. }^ Cole's
appetite vanished. They were dealing with monsters, and all he wanted
to think about was catching them.
Loreen put her bony hand on her hip and shook her head. 'I know you're
trying to do your best. You boys take all the time you need. Business
is suffering anyway because of the influenza spreading through town.
Even the strangers who come to gawk at the falls are getting sicktat
least most of them are, according to the doc. He says the sickness
isn't contagious, but I say it is. Have you talked to that poor woman
who saw the murders? ' Lost in their own thoughts, the marshals were
jarred by her question.
Cole asked her to repeat it.
'I asked you if you talked to the poor woman who saw the murders, ' she
said. 'I heard you suspect that one of the three women who were in the
bank during the afternoon saw everything while it was happening. If
she isn't too scared, she might tell you what she saw, and if she is
too scared, well then, maybe you could persuade her to talk. I'm not
trying to tell you how to run your investigation, ' she hastily
added.
'But since you suspect . . . ' 'We don't suspect anyone, ' Cole
interjected.
Lorene didn't pay any attention to his comment. 'It has to be true
because I read about it in the paper. We had us a special edition this
afternoon. Sheriff Sloan was interviewed by the reporter, and he told
him that he got under the desk himself and looked, and sure enough, he
could see the lobby through the cracks in the wood. He said a woman
was hiding there, all right.'
'Ma'am, the sheriff didn't get under the desk, ' Cole argued.
'It says in the paper that he did, ' she countered. 'You know, I could
