THE INNOCENCE (A Thriller) Read Free

lunch pail in one hand and orange back pack in the other.
    “Guess what mom.” Brian said with an air of victory in his prompt.
    Rita swallowed down the morning’s grisly contemplations and focused the rearview mirror on her sons freckled splashed face, currently sporting a broad smile that reminded her all too much of her ex-husband.
     
    “Mr. Morrin says I can do my colonialism report on Australia! Isn’t that so cool?” Brian’s fascination with Australia had not lessened over the years, as Rita had hoped, but rather had grown to a fanatical obsession. Brian was sure the day would come when his father would come home to find his son all grown and an expert on the country he had called home. Rita had never found the heart over the last two years to tell Brian the truth about her father or Australia. She figured the day would come on its own. Two years later it had still not arrived.
     
    Jack Morrin waved goodbye to Brian as the old blue dodge slowly worked its way back out of the parking lot. One of his favorite pupils, the boy showed a strong affinity for world history and mathematics and enjoyed staying after classes to talk and share with the teacher his thoughts and ideas from the school day’s lessons. Matthew had to admit he had grown fond of the boy but couldn’t find the strength to ask out his mother after she had rejected so many of Kelly’s attempts to set them up on a blind date. Not that she wasn’t attractive or approachable but rather, that he had spent so many years keeping people at bay he wasn’t sure how to break the habit. He watched the rust spotted tailgate disappear before he turned back to his classroom. He still had a lot of work to do and the night, for him, was only just beginning.
     
    Jack wasn’t the only person watching as Broman’s left the school grounds. From across the parking lot another set of eyes watched as Rita loaded Brian and Judy’s work into the back of the car. They watched as her son told her his good news and as she attempted one more time to keep the truth from escaping her lips. They watched as Judy pulled out her cell phone yet again to respond to a text message. Probably from a new boyfriend, they thought. Girls her age were always talking with their new boyfriends. Both of the children were so pure, so innocent. They deserved to be saved. But the older one would be a bit of challenge. The older they got, the harder it was to make them understand why it had to be done. So many years ago they had learned that. Dear old Bobby, so uncooperative, had to be strung up in the fishing line before he learned his lesson: the body must die so that the innocence can be saved. Maybe it would be Brian’s turn this year; his turn to be rescued before he learned the truth about his neglectful father who had been the reason for Rita to return to her roots. This quiet town, this sleepy little town was the perfect place with a constant supply of those waiting to be saved.
    They watched until the car was out of site then turned back to their reading. They still had a lot of work to do and the year, for them, was only just beginning.
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    “You’re not listening. Look. Please just look at these clippings. Please!” Panic, mixed with desperation, dripped from Kelly’s voice as she thrust the copies of the discovered articles under the stern countenance of Police Chief Merrels. The chief stared back at her from behind his small rectangular reading glasses as though she had just delivered a dead possum found on the road.
     
    “Little lady. You have got to be kidding me with this Nancy Drew bullshit.” He dipped his head down to his chest as he raised one gnarled hand to scratch at his newly acquired bald spot. He had only recently noticed the hair disappearing in a neat patch at the crown of his head and could have sworn, since then, that it had become a target for every insect in the county. Merrels was known to swear, curse, spit and smoke but was one