Page 84 of Head Room
The younger guy looked past me toward where Tom had been standing, might still be standing.The older one focused on my hand on Shadow’s head.
I swallowed to avoid audibly clearing my throat.“My name’s Elizabeth Margaret Danniher.I work for the Sherman TV station—” No way did they get KWMT’s signal here.“—and we’ve been working to find out why Sergeant Frank Jardos’ cabin burned down last week.I’d like to ask you questions to see if you can help us find out what happened.”
Neither answered.
I know about letting a pause mature.Some might accuse me of letting them mature long enough to develop mold.
On the bright side, mold leads to penicillin, blue cheese, and now research into its ability to fight cancer.
In this case, it led to words.
Pending a cure for cancer, I was happy with that.
“That Shadow?”the older man asked.
I swallowed my surprise that he knew the name.
“Yes.”
“Heard about him.Wary of you at first.Later went after somebody trying to hurt you and they hurt him.You held him, getting to the vet.”
This time I swallowed something other than surprise.Clearly Tom had told him, which eliminated surprise.It was the memory that made me swallow.“Yes.”
The man saw my reaction and relaxed fractionally.
“Good he’s okay.That other family didn’t deserve him.”
“Can’t blame the girl, she loved him—”
My words stopped.Overtaken by the realization that this man knew details of Shadow’s background few others did.“Tom?”I asked him.
“Nah.Hear things.”
I stopped myself from asking,Out here?
Seriously, I knew the Cottonwood County grapevine beat kudzu, bindweed, and the philodendron my grandmother trained twice around her living room, but this still impressed me.
“Imagine you’ve heard all about the sergeant’s cabin burning down.”
A grunt confirmed my not very imaginative imagining.
“And that a body was found in the cabin.”
Grunt two.
“Male.With a bullet hole in the skull.”I deliberately made it direct.
“Dead before the fire,” he said.
I tilted my head forward slowly.He didn’t want to meet my gaze and because he didn’t, he did.His eyes saying,Give it your best shot, girlie.
So I did.
“Don’t you want him to be buried with the recognition of his name, of who he was?Given the military burial he earned?”
“Don’t know it’s the sergeant,” the older man said.The younger one got in on the grunting.
“Not yet.On the other hand, pending the medical examiner’s report, it’s reasonable for authorities to believe it’s him, since no one’s seen him since the fire.Unless you have—”
