Towry glanced up the street, then back to her. “I guess you heard about the murders last night?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe it. Here in Tanner’s Crossroads?” He sighed. “I guess big city problems are everywhere.”
Marla nodded but said nothing.
“The rumor is that it was some drug deal.”
Marla felt a knot expand in her stomach. “Why would you think that?”
“I hear that’s what Chief Crowe thinks. Tommy apparently dealt drugs. Something I never knew.” He sighed. “Sometimes I feel like I’m clueless. Anyway, they think that the killing of his family was related to some drug thing.” He gave a head shake. “And then Wilbert Shaffer being murdered this morning. Unbelievable.”
“What?” Marla asked. “Mr. Shaffer?”
“Yep. Apparently his place was robbed and he got himself killed in the process. From what I hear, apparently that missing doctor is part of all this. Don’t know how, but that’s the rumor.”
For some reason, put that way, it hit her hard. Sure she had guessed that Tommy might have drawn some evil to his home, but Mr. Shaffer? What the hell was going on? Tommy dealt drugs. Shaffer sold them. She used them. If this was a series of drug world—her world—killings, was she safe? Would whoever it was come for her? Why would they?
Because she saw Dr. Buck’s kidnapping. She dealt with Tommy almost daily. Did the killers know that?
The blood seemed to drain from her head and a warm flush filled her chest, followed by a wave of dizziness and a graying at the edges of her vision. Towry’s voice sounded tinny and flat.
“Are you okay?” He stepped forward and grabbed her arm.
His voice seemed to waver and crackle, like a distant radio signal shouldering its way through bad weather.
“Here.” He led her to the wooden bench that snugged up against the front of his store.
She sat and bent forward, her head hanging between her knees.
“You okay?” he asked again.
She took a deep breath, then another, before straightening and looking into his face. Lines of concern settled in the corners of his eyes.
“Tommy was my friend,” Marla said. “One of the few I had left.”
“That’s right. You two went to school together.”
Tears blurred her vision. Her mind struggled to find some order in the thoughts that warred inside. Tommy was her friend. They had known each other since the first grade. She knew his sister, his parents. Now they were all gone.
But, Tommy wasn’t just a friend, he was her connection. To pile even more bad luck on her plate that role now fell to Jason. Jason…. Jesus. A wave of guilt settled over her. What was wrong with her? A family killed, a nice man robbed and murdered, and all she could think of was where she’d get her next fix. How sick was that?
She stood. “I have to go.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
She swiped the back of one hand across her nose and sniffed back her tears. “I’m fine.” She looked up and down the street. “I just have to move.”
He said something but she wasn’t listening. She could barely feel her feet as she walked down the sidewalk. Her backpack now felt as if it was filled with rocks. She needed to get well. She needed to find Jason and then go back to Reverend John’s and crawl in bed. Pull the covers over her head and hide from all of this.
CHAPTER 28
Cain and Harper walked out into the pharmacy’s rear parking lot, leaving Cassie and Hack to their work: Cassie on the phone gathering the troops to begin the search for the SUV and plotting a strategy for canvasing the myriad houses and cabins where the killers might have landed; Hack rechecking the inventory of stolen items. They climbed in The Rig. The sunshine hadn’t lasted long and now misty rain fogged the windshield.
“Hopefully, the rain doesn’t dissuade Jason from doing business,” Harper said.
“I doubt it will,” Cain replied. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night halts free enterprise.”
“Nor postal carriers.”
“Them, too.” Cain reached for the ignition key but hesitated. “Let’s call Dr. Buckner before we head over,” Cain said. “Bring him up to date.”
“He won’t be happy with what we know. Or suspect.”
“At least it bodes well for his son still being alive.”
“Assuming the wounded bad guy didn’t die.” Harper pulled out her iPhone and dialed Buckner’s number. She placed it on speaker. Buckner answered after a single ring. “Dr. Buckner?”
“Yes.”
“Harper McCoy. Bobby Cain is here, too.”
“Please tell me you have good news.” His voice sounded strained, thickened with fatigue and fear. “I haven’t slept a wink.”
“The news is mixed,” Cain said.
A deep sigh. “Give it to me straight. Okay? No hedging or sugar-coating.”
“The good news is that we have a witness,” Harper said. “Someone who saw the abduction.”
“Who? What?”
“The what, is that he was taken outside the hospital,” Cain said. “The ER parking lot. Two guys in a black SUV.”
“I know that. Any idea who?”
“Not yet. The problem is that the witness is a drug addict. She had just used so her story was a bit fuzzy.”
“But, I sense you believe her,” Buckner said.
“We do,” Harper said. “She gave us a vague description of the two bad guys but a pretty good one of their vehicle.”
“I see.”
“We’ve already made inroads with the police here. The chief, Cassie Crowe, seems pretty sharp. She has her staff rolling, looking for the SUV right now. We’re trying to track down someone who just might be another witness.”
“Who?”
“Drug dealer,” Cain said. “He had just sold to our witness in a park across from the hospital. She said he had already left but he still might’ve been in the area.”
“Sounds sketchy,” Buckner said.
“It is. But hopefully it’ll pan out.”
“You said the news was mixed. What’s the rest of it?”
Buckner had said he wanted it straight, no sugar-coating, so Cain laid it out. The murders of the Finley’s and Wilbert Shaffer. The finding of Buck’s wallet at the pharmacy scene. His thoughts that
