The Night Killer

says Slick attacked her,” said Conrad. “What about it, Slick? Did you attack her?”
    “Now, Travis, you know that ain’t true,” said Slick. “I was trying to help the woman. A tree fell on her ride here and she was all shook up.” He chuckled. “All shook up. Anyways, when I tried to see if she needed help, she slugged me and ran—and stole my flashlight, damn it. She stole my flashlight.”
    “Slick tried to find her with the dogs,” said Tammy. “I told him not to bother. If the bitch was so stupid as to run into the woods in a thunderstorm, then she deserves to get her ass drowned.” She waved her hand in the air, holding the cigarette between her fingers. “But you know Slick—what a tender heart he has. He had to go out in the rain and try to find her. Got soakin’ wet. I’ll bet he catches his death.”
    “What’s goin’ on? Is somethin’ goin’ on?” A high-pitched, plaintive voice came from the porch.
    Diane looked over and saw a woman with a walker standing backlit in the doorway of the run-down house.
    “Nothing you need to worry about, Norma, honey. You just go back in and I’ll make you some hot cocoa when I come in. Go back in. You don’t need to be out here after a storm. The air’s too wet.”
    They all watched as the woman disappeared from the doorway. Tammy stood with one arm across her midriff and the other holding her cigarette up near her face. She flicked ashes off the end of the cigarette and resumed her stance.
    “That’s my cousin Norma, visiting from Indiana. Poor thing’s not in good health. She came down here to try and recuperate. She don’t need this kind of excitement.” Tammy took another puff on her cigarette. This time she blew the smoke out the corner of her mouth.
    “Miss Fallon says a skeleton landed on the hood of her vehicle,” said Deputy Conrad. He was leaning against the fender of Diane’s SUV, touching the top where it had been bent by the falling tree. “What do you have to say ’bout that?”
    “Ain’t true,” said Slick. “Sho’ ’nuff ain’t true.”
    “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,” answered Tammy. “I’ll show you what she saw.”
    Tammy marched them over to the side of the road where they had pulled the tree. Among the branches was a crude plastic skeleton.
    “We hung it in that old tree last Halloween. Forgot about it. That’s what she saw. That’s what she got hysterical over,” said Tammy, grinning.
    “I don’t get hysterical over skeletons,” said Diane. “I’m fascinated by them. I’m a forensic anthropologist. I analyze skeletons for a living. I can tell bones from plastic.”
    “Well, ain’t you fuckin’ special,” said Tammy. “Looky here, Slick, we got ourselves a fuckin’ forensic anthropologist. Well, I’ll bet you’re real embarrassed about thinking ol’ bloody bones here was real. Yeah, real embarrassed.” She took a puff on her cigarette and smirked at Diane. “Your word against ours, doll. Out here you don’t mean squat.”
    “Tammy,” said Deputy Conrad, shaking his head.
    “It’s true,” Tammy said. “Do you see real bones here?”
    “Unfortunately,” said Travis Conrad, “with no body, so to speak, there’s nothing I can do.”
    Tammy’s smirk grew broader. Diane focused on the memory of the skull. Well-closed sutures, angular orbits, narrowish face, small triangular nasal opening, slight jawline, graceful brow ridge, bad teeth. Diane looked at the tree and detritus around it. Of course, it was hollow and had been cemented up. The body was inside the tree. Completely skeletonized. This was Georgia. Even in the mountains, bodies could skeletonize quickly. It was held together when it fell, but broke apart easily. Held together by what tendons it had left. Then there was the healed fracture. Diane was surprised her memory was so good at this point. Must have been the water and candy bar that Travis gave her.
    “Of course,” Diane said to the deputy. “I understand. However, if a report comes across your desk of a white adult woman who’s been missing from about three to twelve months ago, who has bad teeth, and has been beaten about the face or been in a car accident that broke her cheek and nasal area—then you need to come back and take a look around.”
    Diane watched Tammy and Slick as she spoke. Slick kept his face still, too still. There was a flash of something in Tammy’s face as she dropped her smirk and picked it up again.
    “Well,