“But all they see is this goddamned cane.”
Dodds was silent as Will thought about his father’s full-dress funeral. That day it had rained.
His call sign came over the radio.
“Meet t
he officers, Spring Grove Cemetery.”
He told the dispatcher he was on special assignment. To Dodds, “Is this some PIO shit work for me?”
Dodds shrugged.
“Break away from that,” the female voice came back immediately. “Respond code three.”
“You coming?”
“Why not?” Dodds said. “Hey, isn’t that your boy?”
Sure enough, John was walking up Plum Street, wearing a dark suit. He didn’t see Will and walked quickly up the steps into the cathedral.
“It is.” Will was thankful that Dodds didn’t ask more. He started the car, made a U-turn, and rolled away from the curb, only hitting the siren when he was a block away.
***
Allison Schultz was the student Cheryl Beth worried about. Her bookwork was perfect and she was competent clinically. But she was so shy, so unsure of herself. It meant she had a difficult time communicating with patients. She wouldn’t have the confidence to push back on a doctor, question a dosage, or find a mistake. Now she was slowly walking toward Cheryl Beth.
“Do you mind if I talk to you?”
“Walk with me,” Cheryl Beth said, and they started out toward the street.
“Are you all right?” Allison asked.
“I’m tired.”
“They think Noah killed Lauren and Holly.”
“That’s right.”
“They’re not going to let him come back, are they?”
“I think it’s unlikely, Allison. I really can’t discuss this with you.”
“He’s got his whole life aimed at becoming an R.N.” She mustered more assertiveness than Cheryl Beth had ever seen her show. She started to say that class and his career were the least of his troubles, that Hank Brooks wanted him on death row. But she walked on.
“He saw things in the wars, you know,” Allison said. “He was deployed five times. He has nightmares. Sudden loud noises make him afraid. But he’s a good man. I don’t care what they think they know, there’s no way he could have done this.”
Cheryl Beth remembered the way Noah had reacted when the police were trying to run him down in the grass. It was a classic post-traumatic stress disorder response. But how did Allison know any of this?
“He was my boyfriend,” she said simply.
Cheryl Beth stopped and looked at the ordinary, slightly chubby, pale brunette with out-of-style eyeglasses and a ponytail standing beside her. Noah and Allison? Lauren and Holly were young thoroughbreds. Allison was like a doorknob next to their polished jewels.
“I’m sorry.” Cheryl Beth sighed heavily. “Have you told this to Detective Brooks?”
“I was afraid,” she said. “And I was angry. That he would be with Lauren and Holly. They could have their pick of any guy, why take mine? I called him Saturday night and he never called me back. But, then, he was with them, wasn’t he? He did this to me, cheated. I was sick about it, and I was so mad at him. He betrayed me! I thought he could rot in jail and think about the damage he did. But then I calmed down. I knew he was innocent of murder…”
“So maybe you didn’t know him as well as you thought. Maybe he could also be a killer. There are PTSD incidents like that all the time. Soldiers come home and kill their families.”