Gingerbread Man

concerned. He'd seen it in action. They knew things before there was a clear reason to know them. He saw that moment happen in Val Stevens's eyes.
    "Oh, shit, no," he muttered.
    That was just about the time Bethany's mother started screaming.
    * * *
    "HOLLY? HOLLY? DID they catch him yet?" Doris asked of the woman who sat beside her hospital bed.
    Jen Cantrell leaned closer, stroking Doris's forehead, smoothing her hair. "It's all right, hon. It's okay, it's me, it's Jen. I'm right here."
    Doris opened her eyes, blinking them slowly. She squinted as if it were hard to see, then tried to sit up. "Jenny?"
    "Yes, sis, I'm right here."
    "Poor Ivy," Doris moaned. "She's not at peace. She can't be at peace."
    Jenny Cantrell closed her eyes tight at that old, familiar shaft of pain. Poor Doris. "Honey, listen to me. It's been years since we lost Ivy. And she is at peace. She's in heaven, she's fine. You know that, right? You're here, in Dilmun. Holly will be here soon to say good night."
    "No. No, Jenny, you don't understand."
    Jen managed to get her to lie back. She poured water from a pitcher, and held it to her sister's lips, got her to drink a little, and tried to keep her own voice soothing and level. "You're very agitated. I'll call the nurse."
    "Did Holly tell you what she and Vince found out? Did she?"
    "No, sweetie. But you just rest now. I'll just get the nurse and then—"
    Doris's hand grabbed hers as she turned to go. "That evil man lied. He's not the killer. He's not. The man who took my Ivy is still running free." She shook her head back and forth, back and forth. "How can I live, how can I bear it?"
    Jen went still. She didn't turn, didn't look, just stood there, going cold all over. "Hubey Welles confessed, Doris. Honey, don't you remember?"
    "He was going to get the death penalty. By confessing to other crimes, he got life instead. That's why he said he did it."
    Jen swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. "Doris, honey, how do you know all of this?"
    "Vince and Holly spoke to him. They went to see him in prison. Holly remembered about the eyes being different, and Vince figured it out."
    Turning slowly, Jen examined her younger sister's face, searching it for signs of dementia or delusion. Surely this couldn't be true. "Are you saying the man who killed Ivy is still running around free somewhere?"
    "I'll find him. I swear, Jenny, I'll kill him myself. All this time, I thought... and he was—how can I bear it?"
    Jen's heart seemed to turn to liquid in her chest. "Oh, Doris. Oh, sweetie, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She sank onto the edge of the bed, stroking her sister's hair. It reminded her of when they were girls together. Doris would come home all upset over some trivial thing, and cry. God, she'd always been so sensitive. It was always Jen who would hold her, comfort her, just the way she was doing now.
    Jen held her tight, whispering and trying to comfort while depressing the call button with a free hand. Images of her sweet, angelic niece played through her mind, and tears choked her, as her own deepest fears came back to haunt her, just as surely as her sister's had.
    * * *
    IT WAS AS if the world slowed down. Holly watched through a thick, distorted glass, heard as if listening from the farthest end of a tunnel. Panic. Mothers, gripping their children so hard their nails dug into the vinyl shoulders of their store-bought costumes. Val Stevens was running from room to room, shouting for Bethany over and over again. The chief hadn't gone six steps from the house when he heard the commotion and came tearing back. He, Jerry, and Vince spoke rapidly to one another before springing into action. The chief yanked the radio from his belt and spoke to Ray out by the gate. Jerry grabbed a phone and punched numbers. Vince started organizing men to search.
    Reginald was white as a sheet, and trying to catch up with Val, to calm her. Everyone was in motion. Everyone was moving, shouting, talking, searching, doing something.
    Everyone except for Holly. And one other person.
    Amanda.
    She sat stone still near the fireplace in the rocking chair her uncle had occupied moments before, her expression blank, eyes vacant. She looked the way Holly felt Stunned. Shocked. Paralyzed. And for just one moment their eyes met, and Holly knew they were experiencing this in very similar ways.
    "Snap out of it, Red." Vince's voice was firm, his hands tight on her forearms. "There's no time for this. Come on, focus. I need your