Page 8 of The Souls of Lost Lake
Reentering the building was like jumping into a hot oven. Theroom was stifling with body heat, hot tempers, fear, and a very thin thread of control. Officer Larson had his hands up in the air demanding attention, while Chuck and his cronies shoved Ava forward until she was smack-dab in the middle of the gathering of concerned citizens. She searched the crowd for Ned. She could see the top of his head in the back of the room. For the first time, Ava would have run away with him if given half a chance. Ned was safer than anyone here, even if he couldn’t actually save her.
“Enough!” Councilman Pitford shouted.
Chuck released Ava with another shove. She stumbled over her own feet and held her arm to her chest, rubbing it where the man’s heavy grip had nigh on near bruised it permanently. She glared at him with a ferocity she felt but knew she couldn’t possibly back up with any sort of action. Didn’t they realize the only thing she’d ever killed was a wasp, or from time to time, a wolf spider in the outhouse?
“She’s gotta be locked up!” Chuck demanded, waving his arm in a wild sweep.
The group nodded and cried out their agreement.
“Murder us all in our beds, she will!” Chuck shouted. “Wood Nymph wielding her ax—we all know what that means.”
“People, I say—” Officer Larson was interrupted again.
Mr. Sanderson released an ear-piercing whistle. “Let Larson speak! For the sake of all that’s holy!” His face was flushed. His pretty, thin-lipped wife was not. She eyed Ava with such condescension that Ava suddenly wondered if it’d be better if Officer Larson hauled her off to jail. At least then she’d be safe behind iron bars. She hoped anyway.
“Thank you.” Larson cast Mr. Sanderson an exasperated nod. “Now listen here. We can’t just go locking away Miss Coons with no proof or evidence that she had anything to do with Matthew’s murder.”
“Murder!” A woman gasped as though it was the first time she’d realized axes didn’t embed themselves into skulls by accident.
“Shush now!” Sanderson barked.
Larson nodded. “Yes. No different’n I can’t lock any one of you up either.”
“She did it! It’s in her blood!” Chuck spit.
Larson narrowed his eyes at the man. “On what grounds? That we found her as a young woman with an ax in hand? As if a girl could slaughter anyone with a logger’s ax! Use reason, man. No one ever found no dead bodies anyway. It’s all speculation.”
“Speculation? That she killed her entire family?” Mrs. Sanderson’s chilly modulated voice cut through the air. Her blue eyes flashed, and she ignored the light touch of her husband’s fingertips. “We all know she’s orphaned. For the last six years we have hypothesized upon it, so let us not mince our words now. The Coons family was never seen after we found Ava. They vanished. Barely a young woman, and covered in their blood? It stands to reason she played a part, doesn’t it?”
“Theory—that’s all it is! You were barely a woman yourself then, so how would you know?” Ned hollered from the back of the room. “You ever seen a gal, or a full-grown female, heft a logger’s ax over her head? Let alone chop her family to bits and pieces?”
Athudsounded, and one of the women landed in a pile on the floor. The woman’s husband kneeled beside her.
“Someone get her some water!” Councilman Pitford didn’t even have the courtesy to hide the exasperated roll of his eyes.
“Take the Coons gal into custody, Larson. The town demands it. Leastways till all this gets sorted out.” Chuck’s mean glare bored into Ava. She glared back until she couldn’t anymore. Ave dropped her gaze to the floor.
“I cannot keep the girl locked up!” Larson protested.
“Then someone’s gotta keep watch on her!” Chuck said. “Day and night! Twenty-four hours!”
One of Chuck’s pals added to the advice, “Put her in the icehouse and have somebody stand guard.”
“I can’tdothat!” Larson cried. “She’ll freeze to death—and we’ve no proof of her guilt! Are none of you listening?”
“Frisk? You up for it?” Chuck ignored the lawman, apparently betting on the fact that majority rule would override law and order.
Jipsy gave a curt shake of her head.
Widower Frisk grunted and cussed.
Chuck’s laugh was downright mean. “Figured. Take care of her while she’s worth somethin’ to ya. Cheap maid service an’ who knows what else, that’s what.” His lewd insinuation didn’t miss its mark.
Ava instantly wrapped her arms around herself and shrank back against the wall. She wished shedidhave enough guts and glory to ram an ax into Chuck. He didn’t know the many nights she’d listened for Frisk’s footsteps outside her tiny room. How many nights she heard Jipsy in the hallway intervene, until Jipsy put a lock on the door for Ava. She wasn’t Frisk’s plaything, no matter what Frisk had wanted. The idea the town even thought that ... well, it’d never crossed her mind, and now it slammed into her with a vengeance.
“That’s enough!” Officer Larson tried to put an end to the growing frenzy.
Widower Frisk was glowering, his fists balled at his sides.
