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saw Carver once, a tall and imposing man, whose nose looked like a clenched fist scattered with purple veins. With eyes set back far into his head beneath heavy brows, he appeared to be squinting out of a permanent shadow. I did not speak to him, nor he to me. He watched me like I could not be trusted, and then turned his back. They stayed in Augusta Falls for three days, then they headed south, made a wide clockwise circuit through the surrounding towns, and then disappeared. We heard no more, and they were never mentioned.
    Later I spoke to Hans Kruger.
    “Boogeyman,” he said. “There’s a boogeyman out there and he comes to eat children.”
    I snorted in contempt. “Who told you that?”
    “Walter,” he said defensively. “Walter told me it was a boogeyman, someone who’s come back from the dead and needs to feed off living people to stay alive.”
    “And you believe that horseshit?”
    Hans hesitated for a moment.
    “And he says these things to Elena?” I asked.
    Hans shook his head. “No, he doesn’t say these things to Elena. I have to tell Elena so she knows—”
    I grabbed him suddenly by the collar of his shirt. He tried to step back but I held on tight. “You don’t say anything to Elena!” I snapped. “You leave Elena alone. She’s frightened enough as it is without you telling her horseshit stories about things that don’t even exist!”
    Walter appeared around the corner of the house. “Hey! What is this here? You boys should not be fighting!”
    Hans ducked away, wrenched himself free of my grip and ran back to the front of the house.
    I stood there feeling ashamed, a little frightened by Walter.
    “What’s happening here?” he asked.
    “I told him not to tell boogeyman stories to Elena,” I said. “I don’t want her to be frightened. Hans said he was going to tell Elena about the boogeyman.”
    Walter laughed suddenly. “He did, did he? Let me sort that out, okay?”
    “Don’t hurt him, Walter.”
    Walter placed his hand on my shoulder. “I won’t hurt him, Joseph. I’ll just teach him a lesson.”
    “It’s not a boogeyman. It’s a person who’s doing these things, a terrible person.”
    Walter smiled understandingly. “I know, Joseph, I know. Let the police take care of it, okay? The police will find out who is doing these things and stop them. You let me take care of Hans and Elena.”
    I said nothing.
    “Okay?” he prompted.
    I nodded. “Okay,” I said, but I did not mean it. Walter was out with his father, working the farm, earning keep for the family. I had decided to look after Elena, and nothing would change my mind.
    “Now go,” he said. “Home with you. I will speak to Hans and make sure he doesn’t frighten his sister.”
    I turned and ran back to my house. I said nothing to my mother. I stood at the window of my bedroom and looked across at the Krugers’ house. I believed that if anything happened to Elena I would never be able to forgive myself.
     
    After the Federal people left, sheriffs from each county—Haynes Dearing, a man in his mid-thirties, already looking older than his years, and Ford Ruby—had a sit-down meeting at the Quinn Cumberland Diner, a respectable and clean establishment on the north side of Augusta Falls owned and run by two widows.
    Haynes Dearing was a Methodist, attended Charlton County Methodist Church. Sheriff Ford Ruby was Protestant Episcopal and frequented the Communion Church of God in Woodbine, but despite their differences regarding John Wesley and scripture interpretation, they considered that the death of a little girl was more important than religious distinctions.
    The death of a second little girl brought them together, and they pooled their resources. There was even talk of a man coming from Valdosta, a government man with a lie machine and a female assistant, but no one ever showed. Sheriffs Dearing and Ruby, deputizing pretty much every man that could walk a straight line unaided, searched the woods and banks