Secret Prey

while.’’
    ‘‘You didn’t take any tissue samples?’’
    ‘‘If we’d taken tissue samples, and sent them to a lab, then the fat would be in the fire,’’ Landis said. ‘‘Other people would know about it . . .’’
    ‘‘You didn’t want other people to know?’’ Sherrill asked. The sheriff took off his hat, smoothed his hair back, and said, ‘‘My daughter went to high school with the Lamb girls. And the older Lamb girl had a reputation as knowing way too much about sex for a girl her age. Then, a couple of months before George died . . .’’
    Landis picked it up. ‘‘The mother brought in the older girl, Audrey, to the clinic. Said she’d been fooling around with one of the boys at school, wanted me to keep it quiet, but wanted her tested to see if she was pregnant. She wasn’t. But I gave her a little standard lecture that I gave back then, about staying out of trouble, about saying no to boys, about using some protection . . . She sort of went along with the lecture until she got tired of it, then she got up and left,’’ Landis said. ‘‘As she was going out the door, she turned and looked at me. The look was like ninety-five percent hate and fear. And she said, ‘That’s all fine and good, but not relevant in my case.’ ’’
    ‘‘Not relevant in my case,’’ the sheriff quoted. ‘‘Hell of a line for a kid that age. The fact is, George had been f—’’ He glanced at Sherrill. ‘‘Having sex with her.’’
    ‘‘When I told you that his wife had some bruises,’’ Landis said, ‘‘I was telling you the truth. But not all of it. The woman had been beaten from head to foot.’’
    ‘‘The whole goddamn house was a reign of terror,’’ the sheriff said. ‘‘Steve told me what he thought was going on. I talked to the sheriff at the time, Johnny James, and he told me that there was nothing to do, unless somebody complained. So I caught up with George on his mail route one day and said if I ever heard of him screwing that little girl, I’d kill him.’’
    ‘‘Did he believe you?’’
    ‘‘I don’t know, but he should of, ’cause I would of,’’ the sheriff said. ‘‘But it never came up, because he dropped dead.’’
    ‘‘He was lying there on the floor, looking okay, except for this rash,’’ Landis said. ‘‘We knew he’d been screwing at least the older girl, and maybe the younger one too; we knew he’d been beating the bejesus out of his wife. So the question was, do we do tissue samples? Didn’t have to. No requirement.’’
    ‘‘Steve came and talked to me, and we said screw it. Leave it alone. And we did. Shipped George off to the funeral home. And that was the end of it, until you showed up this morning.’’
    They all thought about that for a moment; then Lucas rubbed his chin and changed the subject: ‘‘That fat kid I beat up,’’ he said to the sheriff. ‘‘He’s gonna be nothing but a pain in the ass for you. He’s gonna be in trouble for the rest of his career.’’
    ‘‘He’s had a couple problems,’’ the sheriff said.
    ‘‘You oughta get rid of him before it’s too late. And this guy,’’ Lucas said, nodding at the lanky man. ‘‘He rode along a little too easily. He’s gotta learn to stand up. He wanted to stop the whole thing, but he couldn’t get the job done.’’
    ‘‘I learned something,’’ the lanky man said.
    ‘‘I hope the hell you have,’’ the sheriff said. To Lucas: ‘‘What do you think?’’
    ‘‘I think if you recast exactly what you told me here tonight, you’d have a perfectly good story if you ever had to go to court to testify. You know, that you thought it was a heart attack at the time—still think it was possible—but sometime later worked out that it might have been a poisoning. But by then it was too late, the body had been cremated. That kind of thing happens all the time. That’s why we have exhumations.’’
    ‘‘You think we might have to testify?’’
    Lucas stood up, yawned, stretched. ‘‘We’re putting together a circumstantial case. So you might have to. But we’ve got a way to go, before we get anything together.’’
    ‘‘But her husband . . . The papers say he was beating her, just like her father beat her mother. It seems to me there might be some justification.’’
    ‘‘We’re looking at eight murders and several ag assaults over the last ten years, including a couple of out-and-out executions of absolutely innocent