Nothing To Fear ....

Council Of War

       Everyone digested this information for a few seconds , and then Jenny prompted , "What about the others ?"

       "Edna Gruber was an eighty - three year old retired telephone operator who played the organ at the Methodist church on Sundays . That's most likely how he got to her , since his granddaddy was the preacher there , and she'd known him since he was in diapers ." , the retired officer told them . "That was bad enough , but the one that really got us was Judy Everett ."

       "Who was she , sir ?" , Crane quieried .

       "Judy Everett was a thirteen - year - old girl who went missing on her way to a Girl Scout meeting . This whole town , and people from every town around , searched for that little girl for three days before a couple of high - school boys nigh about tripped on her out in Wiley Cuthbert's cornfield . I still remember ..." , he said , his voice becoming thick and choked .

       Everyone sat quietly , giving the old man a chance to compose himself , before Potter gently took his hand and said , "Uncle Bert , please tell us what you remember . Maybe there's something that will help us find this guy ."

       He swallowed several times , then said , "I remember me and Harvey havin' to stand there and hold back our friend , to keep him from seein' his baby girl all torn up , and bloated from bein' out in the sun for all that time . You know as well as I do , Charlie - girl , that you kind of get used to seeing things like that . You never get comfortable with it , but you learn to deal with it . But no matter how long you're on the job , you should never have to see one of your own that way ."

       "Are you saying that her dad was a cop ?" , Ashley asked him .

       "Harry Everett was my partner ." , he said , his voice completely flat . "That little girl was my goddaughter . I woke my Susie every night for the next month screaming from what I saw , so there was no way on God's green earth I was gonna let that be Harry's last memory of his baby ."

       After several more seconds of silence , Faith softly asked , "Who was the fifth ? The diary only mentions four ."

       "That's because Vic Dudley didn't die 'til two days after this last entry ." , Bert responded . "He was another troublemaker , a friend of Billy and Homer's . If it'd just been those three , folks might've almost understood , but Judy and Edna never did any harm to anybody ."

       "What precisely do you mean , sir , when you say that people might have understood ?" , Crane inquired .

      "Because those three boys had been tormenting Greg for years . Most of the kids were pretty unpleasant to him , but those three were the worst of the lot ." , Bert explained . "You see , Eli's son Tom was Greg's daddy , and when Greg was eleven years old , the family was coming back from a camping trip when the car was hit by a train at a crossing with no signal . Tom , his wife Ellen , and Greg's little brother David were all killed , and Greg was in the hospital for almost two months . He survived , and came to live with Eli , but the accident messed up his leg , so he walked with a limp , and his face was pretty scarred up ."

       "And since kids can be such little assholes to each other ..." , Alex said .

       "They marked him as an easy target ." , the old man continued . "Calling the poor kid 'Frankenstein' , or worse , trying to trip him up in the halls , knocking him around on his way home from school , basically just being little bastards . That went on until they graduated high school , so you can almost sympathize with the boy wanting to get a little of his own back on them ."

       "Unfortunately , though , the method he picked cost him just about as much as it did the other five people ." , Jenny said .

       "Let me tell you , missy , I've never considered that number accurate !" , Bert informed her . "He may have directly killed those five , or six if we assume he killed Frank , too , but if we count him , I make it nine ."