Cold Black Earth Read Free Page B

looks, but hadn’t taken especial care of them. Long stringy hair hooked over an ear with a ring through it, and a wary look came up at her from under dark brows as he slouched at his place in an oversized white T-shirt.
    This one fancies himself a bad boy, Rachel thought. “Hello, Billy,” she said.
    “Hey, Aunt Rachel.” He smiled, but he didn’t knock over any chairs leaping up to embrace her. His body language said he might respond positively if she cared to cross the kitchen, but that was about it. Rachel contented herself with pulling out a chair opposite him. The smile had helped; if this was a bad boy there would be no shortage of girls anxious to reform him.
    “Out late last night?”
    Around a mouthful of Cheerios he said, “Mmm. Takin’ the back roads home from Peoria. Dodgin’ state troopers.”
    She decided it was best not to ask for details. “Visiting your sister?”
    That was funny, apparently; Billy nearly choked on the Cheerios and shook his head. “Nah, Emma doesn’t approve of me anymore. Just listening to a band. In a bar down there.”
    As far as Rachel knew, they hadn’t lowered the drinking age to nineteen in Illinois, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t deter Billy. She failed to find a follow-up and felt the conversation screeching to a halt.
    Billy looked up and said, “You haven’t changed.”
    “That’s nice of you.”
    He shrugged. “Just callin’ it like I see it. You quit the State Department, huh?”
    Rachel nodded. “It hasn’t been much fun the past few years.”
    “Saw a lot of shit over there in Iraq, huh?”
    “A lot of shit,” she said, surprising herself. “Mostly I just got worn out.”
    Billy shoved the bowl away. “Weren’t you married?”
    “I was. The divorce just went through last week. I said good-bye to my ex-husband in Beirut, flew to Washington via Paris, had a very unpleasant couple of days there talking to my former bosses, then flew to Chicago yesterday.”
    The bad boy was giving her a surprisingly thoughtful look. “Well, after all those places I got a feeling you’re gonna find it a little quiet around here.”
    Rachel had to smile. “That’s what I’m hoping,” she said.

     
    Matt brought home groceries and news. “They had one get loose out at the prison yesterday. There’s sheriffs’ cars all over the roads.”
    Rachel pulled frozen dinners out of the bags, looking for food. “Anybody dangerous?”
    “They’re not saying who on the radio. I know they got some tough characters locked up over there.”
    “I thought it was just a medium-security facility.” The prison had been built in the eighties, the town catching a break as the plants closed, getting in on a growth industry.
    “What, you think that means everybody in there’s harmless? Plus, they got the psychiatric unit over there, with all the crazies.”
    Her eyes met Matt’s. “You don’t think that’s who we saw on the road last night, do you?”
    “Well, I did call the sheriff’s office to report it. But I’d be surprised. We’re eighteen miles from the prison, and I don’t think he covered that on foot. And if he caught a ride, stole a car or whatever, then he’s in Chicago or St. Louis by now. He’s not going to hang around here. I think that was just somebody fooling around. One of the Collinses stumbling home from the tavern ’cause he lost his car keys. It’s been known to happen.”
    “All right,” Rachel said. “I won’t worry about it.”
    “They’ll grab him in a day or two. They never get too far. A few years ago two of them made a break for it and got as far as the rail yards. They found them in a box car, hungry and ready to give up. Billy around?”
    “Some friend came by and they went off together.”
    Matt shot her a look, a handful of TV dinners poised to go into the freezer. “Dammit, he was gonna help me fix that auger. I bet he ran off just to get out of it.”
    “Maybe he forgot.”
    “He didn’t forget. It’s a constant