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"I was Archie Cotton’s cook," she said She sfor my first decade, but after that h blue collar and down below, so you could say I was a s Twyla Cotton had gone the better way, the rags-to-riches way
"And then he ot married Have a seat, hon," she said to Tolliver, and she pointed at a chair forround table was positioned in a bayat one end of the kitchen, and the chairs ide, coazines, a little pile of bills, handy to the most convenient chair Tolliver and I both knew not to pick that one "Can I get you-all a cup of coffee? Some coffee cake?" our hostess asked
"I’d like some coffee, if it’s already made," Tolliver said
"Me, too, please," I said I sank into a chair and rolled up under the table
In short order, we had ar close to hand It was very good coffee Theirown and gone," Twyla said "They didn’t come around as much after his wife died He was lonely, and I’d been working for his from his children?" Tolliver asked
"He gave ’em some money, quieted them down," Twyla said "He laid it out to theet what, in front of tyers Got ’e they wouldn’t contest the will, if I survived hiood bit of cash, plus a lot of stock Archie Junior and Bitsy got their fair shake They don’t exactly love me, but they don’t hate me, either"
"So why did you want us here, Mrs Cotton?"
"I’ve got a friend you helped a couple of years ago Linda Barnard, in Kentucky? Wanted to knohat had happened to her little grandbaby, the one as found a mile away froht about calling you in, and Sandra researched you-all Talked to sorandson Is he your son’s son? He’s sixteen?" Tolliver asked, trying to lead Twyla to the subject we’d coh almost everyone we looked for turned out to be dead, Tolliver and I had learned a long ti person in the present tense It just sounded more respectful and more optimistic
"He was sixteen He was the older boy ofthe past tense She read the question in our faces
"I know he’s dead," Twyla said, her round face rigid with grief "He would never run away, like the police say He would never go this long without letting us hear"
"He’s been gone three h about Jeff McGraw, but I felt it would be indecent not to ask
"Since October twentieth"
"No one’s heard from him" I knew the answer, but I had to ask
"No, and he had no reason to go He was already playing varsity football; he had a little girlfriend; he and his ood Parker - Parker McGraw, that was my last name before I married Archie - Parker loved that boy so much He and Bethalynn have Carson, who’s twelve But you can’t replace any child, much less your firstborn They’re all broken up"
"You understand," I began carefully, then paused to try to find so what I needed to say "You understand, I need soht wander around this town forever without getting a location The sheriff said she had an idea where we should start" A, until you’re looking for so the size of a corpse
"Tell reat to meet someone so matter-of-fact about it
"If you have an area you think isaround," I said "It may take time It may take a lot of time I may never be successful"
She brushed that aside "Hoill you know it’s him?"
"Oh, I’ll know And I’ve seen his picture The probleh thehtful ain, not the reaction I was used to
"If he’s in any of the areas you pick for me to search, I’ll find hi to lie to you - Ihis whereabouts down?"
"His cell phone It was found on the Madison road I can show you the exact spot" She showed me Jeff’s picture anyway It wasn’t the same one I’d seen at the police station It was a posed studio picture of Jeff and his whole farande of them alive, cradled in the arister the features, hoping I’ll see theain, even if they’re just scattered bones Because that’s how Iin Doraville felt different Ti with the dead They’re not going to go anywhere It’s the living who are urgent But in this case, ti with a serial killer who ht snatch another boy at any moment His pattern didn’t include winter, but who’s to say his pattern wouldn’t change, that he wouldn’t take advantage of this slushy time between snows; plan a final spree before a hard freeze
I foundboys, then so about the location or as buried with them, would lead to the discovery of their killer I know better than anyone that death co, because they rob the world of a life that still held potential This doesn’t really make sense, I know; even a dissolute alcoholic seventy-five-year-old can push a woe a bit of the world forever But the death of children always carries its own particular horror
Chapter 3
TWYLA Cotton had a Cadillac, only a year or two old "I like a big car," she said
We nodded We liked it, too We were bundled up for the weather, and Twyla looked like a ball of fudge in her dark brown coat