Sinking Suspicions

Chapter 19

107 Chapter 19 Cynthia Tanner didn’t want to go back into the trailer. It would never be the same knowing what had happened to Benny there. How could she ever sleep in the same bed where his life had been snuffed out by some deranged person ? Then a scary thought occurred to her—what was stopping that same person from coming back and doing the same thing to her? She didn’t know where she would go, but it would have to be somewhere she could start over. It wouldn’t take long to stuff everything she owned into a few boxes. If she had to, she’d live in her car for a while. She’d lost both Tomas and Benny in one short morning. The craziness of it all engulfed her. As her thoughts wandered to Benny, she realized she knew very little about him. It was by choice, and now she wondered why. She’d always thought the less she knew the better off she was. Now she felt the loss of a man she didn’t even know and wondered why it hurt so badly. She thought about the unknown person, or persons, Benny had been mailing letters to regularly, wondered who they were, and what their reaction would be when the letters stopped coming. Cynthia was glad they would never know about her, about the tumultuous life she and Benny had lived, hoping they would never know how he’d died. She didn’t want anyone to know that she was the reason he’d lost his life. 108 Cynthia wiped her nose with the back of her hand, went inside, and began to throw clothes and shoes into boxes. Everything should fit in the trunk of the car. There wasn’t that much to take. She still had the groceries she’d bought the day before, except for the chicken legs she’d finally tossed into the dumpster behind the grocery store when they began to smell. She would gather as many nonperishables as she could, leaving the food in the refrigerator behind. Climbing on a kitchen chair, she reached on top of the refrigerator, scooped up the plastic bags of morel mushrooms, and tossed them into her box. One bag was missing, and she lamented the thought that it had probably fallen behind the refrigerator , but there wasn’t time to worry about a couple of mushrooms. The old woman who managed the trailer park could have everything else. Once she had packed her things and loaded the car, she returned for one last check. She shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the trailer for the last time. • When Lance and Charlie arrived where the abandoned runaway truck had been found, the only thing left was a badly scarred tree and two young officers walking around carrying large plastic bags. Charlie got out of the car and chuckled. “How’re you boys coming along with roadside trash detail?” Lance winced at Charlie’s comment as he rolled out of his side of the vehicle, hoping the other officers appreciated Charlie’s humor as much as he did. “That’s about all we’ve got is trash,” commented the youngest looking of the two as he used his forearm to wipe sweat out of his eyes. “As you already know, we can tell that the driver escaped from the passenger’s side of the vehicle and, based on the way the grass was beat down, made a beeline to the creek. But that’s all we can find. He must have walked in the creek bed for quite a ways before moving back onto land again. And we can’t find where that was. Sarge says if we don’t find anything by noon, that’s it.” “I thought you found something interesting. None of this sounds too interesting to me,” quipped Charlie. “No, sir. It doesn’t. The only thing we’ve found so far is this baseball glove.” He walked over to his car, popped the trunk, and held up a leather 109 baseball glove encased in one of the large plastic bags. “It’s pretty dirty and looks like it belongs to a kid. I don’t think it has a thing to do with this runner we’re looking for, and Sarge says I can have it if you don’t want it for evidence.” “Let...