All Through the Night Read Free Page B

is.”
    “What is it, an old injury?”
    Victoria pulled the thread up high, gave it a gentle tug, and dipped down again. Half of the houses in the community had pillows with her needlepoint. “In a manner of speaking.”
    “I’m not following you.”
    “That’s because you insist on looking at the outside.”
    They were both watching Victoria now. Foster said, “The only reason you’re talking like you are is because you got the scoop from his sister.”
    “Anybody with an open heart would see a lonely, troubled soul.” Another stitch. “Jerry, why don’t you call him over.”
    So he did. Which was only a little strange. He had been known on the force as having a problem with people ordering him around. Which was why he had never made it to the higher grades, even after he aced the lieutenant’s exam. Jerry laid down his pole and headed off without a murmur. Because there was something to Victoria that he couldn’t bring himself to argue with, a power strong enough to remain gentle.
    Jerry angled his path so that he met Wayne up near his front door. Close enough so the kid could bug off if he so chose. Only he was not a kid at all. Jerry realized that as the man lifted his gaze from the pavement and the sun illuminated the caverns around his eyes. The guy might carry less than half Jerry’s years. But whatever Wayne held inside had aged him so hard and so fast the number of days just didn’t count anymore.
    Jerry said, “Why don’t you come down and help me hold my pole?”
    Jerry knew the look Wayne gave him. He had seen it before. Officers involved in a shootout, especially one where a good guy took a hit. They carried that look. The one where the body might be intact, but the gaze was fractured. So Jerry didn’t do what he had planned on, which was to slip in the invite and then walk away. Instead he gripped Wayne’s arm and tugged. Gently, but with enough pressure for Wayne to know this was half an invitation and half a command. “I’d say come fish with us, only the biggest thing we’ve ever pulled out of the lagoon was a leech, and that was the day Foster slipped on the edge and we almost lost him to the quicksand. That may look like marsh, but it’s really a bottomless pit. Consider yourself warned.”
    Wayne let himself be led forward, but it was doubtful he actually digested anything Jerry was saying. Victoria had turned in her chair and was watching their approach. Jerry switched verbal gears and gave it to Wayne straight. “You remind me of what I’ve seen coming into a house when the cordite is still thick enough to choke you. The place is quiet because the gunfire that just ended has blasted away all the air. That sound crazy to you?”
    Wayne was listening to him now. “No.”
    “Yeah, I figured you for somebody who’s tasted his share of dread. Me, I was the clean-up guy. You know how it is. The brass are outside singing for the cameras. I’m the one back in the cave of horrors, talking down a kid who’s suddenly found himself about half an inch away from his last breath. He’s shaking so hard his teeth rattle ’cause he’s coming down from the most awful high on earth.” Jerry pointed with his chin toward the water’s edge. “The reason I’m saying this is because I want to make sure you hear what I’m about to tell you. That lady up there? She’s the real deal.”
    Victoria smiled in that special way of hers, not so much sweetness and light as distilled wisdom. “Hello, son. I don’t need to ask how you are. Why don’t you come sit down beside me?”
    Wayne hesitated only a moment before sitting on the ground beside her chair. Jerry didn’t say anything more, just walked back over and picked up his pole and cast into the setting sun. Feeling for once like he’d done the right thing, getting the man to walk over and join them.
    Victoria just started straight in. “Twenty-two years ago, my husband felt called to go work in regions under attack by the child soldiers