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I ran out of the barn and vo in stopped to check on me, and I just waved my arm to indicate the interior of the barn

After a fewwood, wishing I were anywhere but here

"He killed himself so you’d find him," Tolliver said "So you’d find out what his father was doing"

"So I’d have a corpse to find," I said "Oh, Jesus, he took such a chance What if I hadn’t come back?"

"What if Manfred hadn’t decided he had to check the barn again?"

"Do you think Tom Almand’s knohere Chuck was all this tiuess he didn’t have a chance to co to see Chuck " Tolliver shuddered "I never want to see anything like that again"

"He sacrificed hiether "And it was alood," Tolliver said in a massive understatement "And he was just thirteen"

The stretchers went by, Manfred’s first, his face white as death and his eyes open and blank

"Manfred!" I called, just wanting him to know that someone who knew him was near, knehat he had done But his face didn’t change

Toe sood are on the arood, and I wondered if Sheriff Rockwell had been truly trying to hit his ar moment, but then, that hat law enforceht?

Maybe the arm was best Maybe the people he’d wounded the et so out of his trial and conviction Surely he’d be tried and convicted, wouldn’t he? We could follow it in the national news Thetried is gay or straight, black or white or brown There’s no discri crazy, and I also realized we had no place here But the two SBI agents were running across the back lane like the barn was on fire with a baby inside, and they weren’t about to let us go Stuart and Klavin weren’t out of breath, because they were fit agents, and they stood right in front of us "You’re here again," Agent Stuart said He had on proper gloves and an LL Bean heavy outdoor-guy coat, and glea boots that went halfway up his calves If he didn’t look like the little mountaineer! Klavin was a bit more downscale, with a battered waterproof coat that had seen several years of use and a knit cap that had earflaps

"He killed hiht Stuart was going to shake

"Chuck Alun"

Klavin said, "Who was in the ambulance?"

"Tom Almand and Manfred Bernardo," Tolliver said

They looked at each other blankly "The kid’s dad and the psychic’s grandson," Tolliver said

"She died last night," Stuart said

"Yes, she did And her grandson almost died today," I said

"The last victim is alive," I said, and they were in the barn so fast you couldn’t see theht hiave up He didn’t want to go in that barn again, and neither did I

"Maybe they can’t get him unlocked," I said Tolliver nodded That seemed reasonable

"Wonder who he is," Tolliver said after a long ht beout there, and we had nothing to do

I turned to Tolliver and hugged hiht cold day, clinging to each other "We’ll find out," I said, ainst his neck "It’ll be in the papers, or on the news" The tortured body, sluainst the wall, the bloodstains everywhere The poor dead boy on the floor of that miserable pit Jesus, God This is not what you intended people for

I hadn’t thought in Christian ter ti in them now And I hadn’t rebelled, either, hadn’t had the "Why, God?" thoughts Those were bad, those were pointless Of course, I’d never found such atrocities, so closely linked, in adjacent graves

"Chuck saved that boy’s life," I said numbly "He provided a dead body for me to find"

"Do you think he really cut up those ani Chuck would follow in his own footsteps Maybe To he’d be less likely to report his dad"

"Xylda seemed pretty sure Chuck did it"

"I’d hate to think she rong in her last big reading"

"Me, too" Tolliver sounded gri of hi up this way? I ust, such dislike? And his dad acting right along with them When he knew better, and the boy knew that"

"Chuck was a hero He survived living with a father that killed boys for fun"

"But he didn’t tell anyone"

"Maybe he didn’t know, until the ani up Maybe then he realized his dad was the one killing the boys, or maybe Tom told him then Like, ’Everyone thinks you’re evil and sick now, so I’ll show you so really evil and sick! Like it?’"

"Or ," Tolliver said, more realistically "Maybe he kept silent because he loved his dad, or was scared of his dad, or because he kind of liked torturing the animals and felt he and Tom were two of a kind Maybe he even helped, with the boys There must have been times it would have been handy to have an extra pair of hands So, and heavy Football players Adolescents who’d gotten their growth Frankly, soed it"

"But Chuck put a stop to it" I buried hcare to avoid the shaved spot on the left side of

Finally they brought the last victi already, and he was strapped to the gurney His eyes were closed, and tears were leaking down his filthy face