Read Hawk Moon for Free Online Page B

went on for the rest of the morning and was coordinated in such a way that when they returned to the parking lot they walked across another field that hadn't been searched.
    Tables had been set up in the parking lot, and several women were handing out sandwiches, soft drinks, and coffee. Corey walked up to one of the tables, and a middle-aged woman told her there were ham and cheese and tuna salad sandwiches. She took one of the tuna salads and was peeling away the plastic wrapping when the woman asked where she was from.
    Sometimes people asked that question because they were curious about where she had grown up. But when they didn't know anything about her at all, she suspected they were thinking that she didn't belong here.
    She looked up and smiled. I'm from God, just like everyone else.
    That was what her mother, who was black, always told her to say in such situations. But she couldn't bring herself to say it. "I live in Aspen and go to school with Myra."
    "Well, that's good," the woman blurted. "Let's hope they find her alive and soon."
    "I hope so, too."
    Corey walked away and had just finished half the sandwich when she noticed one of the organizers conferring with two sheriff's deputies. He looked excited and was pointing toward the field behind the town. Immediately one of the men unclipped a two-way radio from his belt and spoke into it. She started to move closer in the hopes of overhearing him, but he abruptly put the radio away. Then the three of them headed for the field.
    She walked over toward three girls who had been standing near the men. "Did you hear that?" one of them asked in an excited voice. "He said they found something with blood on it."
    Myra was dead. Corey was sure of it. She turned away, and that was when she saw Will again. He was standing apart from everyone else and looking toward the entrance to the parking lot. She followed his gaze and saw that he was watching a man in a leather jacket who was standing next to a motorcycle and observing the activity. Corey guessed the biker was nineteen or twenty.
    Will started walking toward him, then stopped about ten yards away and called out to him.
    "Jerry, is that you?"
    As soon as Will spoke, the man swung a leg over the seat of the motorcycle and revved it to life. Will took a couple more steps toward him before the biker sped away.
    Corey gazed after him, wondering why he was in such a hurry.

Chapter Eight
    Â 
    T hat evening over dinner, Will told his grandfather Ed Connors about the day's events. The search teams had covered the entire area in and around Ashcroft, but the search had been called off at dusk. The big news of the day had come around lunchtime when one of the adult searchers had discovered something. The area had been quickly marked off with yellow crime scene tape, and none of the kids, as far as Will knew, had seen what it was. The rumor was that it was a blood-stained undergarment—a bra or panties—but the police weren't saying, and no one he talked to seemed to know for certain.
    Will had another idea about what the searchers had discovered. "I'm kind of worried that they found my knife. You know, the one that was stolen from my Jeep." He shook his head. "I should've listened to you and kept it locked."
    Ed Connors stabbed his fork into his baked potato. His hair had once been red, and while it was still thick it had faded to white. He was thin and wiry with pale blue eyes, which now looked up at Will. "Too late to think about that now. Maybe you should call the shop and tell your mother the latest."
    "She probably already knows all about it by now."
    Besides tending her clothing shop, Will's mother was active in civic projects and knew all the town's leaders. His grandfather liked to say that between her and Tom Burke, the two of them knew all the politicians and all the actors in town, and Connors didn't seem to like any of them. In fact, he was certain that there was a conspiracy between government officials and