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Tolliver came in, his face pinched with cold He dropped a twenty into the slot He was surprised to find me seated by Twyla, but he leaned over to shake her hand and to tell her how sorry he was "We appreciate the use of your cabin," he said "Ita place to stay" I hadn’t even thought of thanking her, and I was angry with ot hurt," Twyla said, and I felt better when I realized I wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten tofairly major "I hope they catch who did it, and I’m sure it was the saot," she said, pressing a check into my hands I nodded and slid it into Tolliver’s chest pocket We started down the aisle to find a place to sit

We paused by a peith some free space in the middle, and when the pew’s settlers saw h to all shift down to let us sit on the end I said "Thank you" several tiood to settle down on the padded pew shoulder to shoulder with Tolliver We were far enough away frousts of cold air with each entrance

Gradually the murmurs died down and the crowd became silent The doors didn’t open and close any youthful and so but sweet, or peaceful, as he read the scriptures he’d selected for the occasion He’d picked a passage froan, "To everything there is a season"

Everyone around h of course Tolliver and I didn’t recognize the scripture We listened with great attention Was he saying that it had been time for the boys to die? No, maybe his emphasis was on "a tis were froh therity in a world bereft of it And they were eerily appropriate

There was no point in saying the ation had to accept philosophically There was no point in saying the people of Doraville had to turn the other cheek; it wasn’t the community’s cheek that had been struck Its children had been stolen There would be no offering up of other children to be killed, no matter how much scripture was quoted

No, Doak Garland was s the people of Doraville that they had to endure and trust in God to get them past the bad time, that God would help thee Not here, not tonight Not with those faces at the front of the congregation, staring back As I watched, a deputy ceremoniously added two more easels, but these were left blank The two boys ere strangers I felt touched

"These are the children of our coestured to the faces Then he pointed to the two blank easels "And these are soht along with ours, and we must pray for them, too"

One picture was the stern one boys always take for their high school football picture The scowling boy, looking so very toughI’d seen hirave, beaten and cut, tortured beyond his endurance, every vestige of edy of it seemed unbearable, and as Doak Garland’s voice rose in his sermon, tears flowed out of my eyes Tolliver fished some Kleenex from his pocket and patted my face He looked a little bewildered I’d never reacted like this to a previous case, noand loud, and one woman fainted and was helped out into the vestibule I floated through the service on a cloud of painwith the emotion that could not be contained When the usher - the hospital administrator, Barney Simpson - came by with the plate to pass for further donations toward the burials, a hbor the collection plate, and I saw to my aht his son with hi The counselor should have stayed ho under such a terrible burden, he shouldn’t be in a place where the atrief and horror Or did he need to be reminded that other problems orse than his? I was no counselor Maybe his dad knew best

I reached across ood hand He looked at ly He was restless, and I could tell he wanted to be anywhere but here I noddedthe croith a blank face, Tolliver gave nificant look to let azes, Alht he would look disgusted, or angry, or anguished What does the father of such a child feel? I didn’t have a clue, but I was fairly sure it would be a painful mixture of emotions

Tonized me

Okay, that was freaky I would have added forty more dollars to the collection plate if I could have heard what Al

"Huh," Tolliver said, which put it in a nutshell

Then the collection was over, and everyone settled back into receptive silence But a stir went through the crohen a stubby man in a bad suit rose from the front pew and went to the lectern

"Those of you don’t know me, I’m Abe Madden," he said, and there was another little ripple ofsooner that those boys were being killed Maybe, like soet in the way of what I should I wanted those boys to be okay, just out sowing a feild oats I should have been looking harder for the harder questions Soht have been looking at the current sheriff when he said that "Soht Well, we knoas wrong, and I ask your forgiveness for a great mistake I made I was your servant while I was in office, and I let you down" And he went back to his seat

I’d never heard anything like that before What it must have cost the ine Tolliver was less iiveness," he whispered "Can’t anyone point fingers at him anymore; he’s paid his debt"

A th, but I heard very little fire and briiven the nature of the er was directed at the rape, not at the sexual preference of the rapist Only two faeance, and then only in ter the responsible party There was no lynch talk, no fist shaking Grief and relief

The last speaker said, "At least noe know this is at an end No more of our sons will die" At that, I saw a suddenXylda by the arry and urgent But after a few seconds, she subsided