Naked Prey

lower leg. Could be Gloria Calb; about the right size.
    “We got another bag underneath it,” Bussard said, leaning on his shovel, looking up at the sheriff. He smelled like old Campbell’s tomato soup. “Looks like a man’s shoe. The boys here think it’s gotta be Gene.”
    Lucas stepped up next to Anderson. “We were gonna come get you, and then go get Singleton. Since he’s your guy, we figured you might want to be there to make the official arrest . . . ”
    Aw, shoot.
    T HEY ALL WENT back to their trucks, Anderson thinking that they’d never have called him, not until they had Singleton trussed up like a Christmas turkey. They were treating him like the village idiot, and if he hadn’t gotten up here in time, everybody in Custer County would have known about it.
    Anderson got in his truck and the radio bleated again, “Sheriff, are you there? Sheriff?”
    He picked up the handset and said, “Yeah, this is me. What do you want?”
    “We got a strange call from Margery Singleton. That’s Loren Singleton’s mother. She said she’s afraid he’s done something awful and that he might hurt some more people. I don’t know, she sounded a little overcooked, but I thought I’d call you . . . ”
    Z AHN WAS LEADING the parade out of the dump, Lucas behind him, Anderson in the third truck, and as they pulled out of the approach road, Anderson began honking his horn and flashing his lights. They all stopped and Anderson ran up beside Lucas’s truck.
    “Loren Singleton’s mom just called in. She said she thinks Loren’s done something awful, and he’s headed up to Broderick and thinks he might hurt some more people. She said he mentioned that Letty kid.”
    “Aw, shit,” Lucas said. He shouted “Tell Ray,” and accelerated away, barely giving Anderson time to jump back from the truck.
    Anderson watched as Lucas swerved around Zahn and out onto the approach road. Zahn had stopped with all the horn honking, and had gotten out of his car when Anderson had gotten out of his. Zahn yelled, “What?”
    “Loren’s on his way to Broderick; he’s after that Letty kid.”
    Zahn didn’t say anything—just got in his car and tore out after Lucas. Anderson got back in his truck and followed, onto the approach road. Then he picked up his handset, called the dispatcher and said, “You gotta get the phone number of that church up in Broderick. Tell them that they’re in danger, that Loren’s coming after them. Tell them to lock their doors.”
    The call was, he thought later, the only good thing he’d done all night—but it was very good.

25
    L OREN S INGLETON HAD just gotten his truck in Calb’s garage when another truck went through town at high speed. He heard it, didn’t see it—but its urgency carried a message. Something had happened north of Broderick, and the only thing north of Broderick for a long distance was the dump.
    In his heart, he knew they’d found something. He sat slumped in his truck, the radio muttering at him, and then, distantly, playing an old Wayne Newton tune, “Danke Schoen.” He turned it up a bit, and the song hit him emotionally, and he began to weep, thinking about Katina, but also about himself. The chances of Mom getting anything together were just about zero, he thought. He was toast.
    He finally wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands, pulled on his gloves, got the .380 out from under the car seat, put on his cop hat, took a deep breath, and headed out to the church.
    R UTH L EWIS HAD finished her calls north. Letty was sleepy from the pain pills, and had given up her book and was watching one of the nuns’ DVD movies, Thelma and Louise, her injured leg up on a pile of pillows. The older woman was in her cubicle, doing her afternoon prayers. Ruth, restless, thought about collecting Letty and walking over to the diner, or getting back in the car and checking at the dump, to see if anything had been found.
    Thelma and Louise was starting to show noise—either that, Ruth thought, or the DVD machine was breaking down. She leaned against the doorway, watching the movie over Letty’s head, when the phone rang in the kitchen. She hurried back, picked it up. The sheriff’s dispatcher, talking all in a rush: “Loren Singleton’s mom says he’s coming up there with a gun he might hurt you and you’re all supposed to get out of there quick, the sheriff’s on his way right now but Loren may be ahead of him . . . ”
    The doorbell rang.
    R UTH DROPPED