The Killing Moon: A Novel

He reached for his sons' whiffled heads, Wallace, Walker, and Waldo, their orange fuzz bristling. If those Pails ever tried to humiliate Walter Heavey in front of his boys

"The gall of that punk, Gayle. By God. Something's got to give."

Her hand fell to her side, her charm bracelet and its three identical silver heads jangling as she communicated her aggravation with a sigh. "So let's move then, Walter."

She lobbed this bomb at him every once in a while, but she was the one who could never part with the house, having sunk so much time and energy into decorating it to her liking. But he played his part. "Move where? Where else are we going to find a house as big as ours with as much acreage as we have for what we'd get in this market? At this tax rate? Take it from a man who knows," he said, thumbing his State Farm Insurance shirt.

Gayle put her hand on his arm, the immediacy of her grip meant to silence him.

A black ball cap and white jersey moving up the sidewalk. Dark sunglasses. A Black Falls cop coming their way.

Walter Heavey felt his wife pulling the boys back from the sidewalk's edge. It just wasn't right. A family shouldn't be wary of their own police force.

It was the new cop, Don Maddox. Maddox's hiring had been little more than a bad joke, indicative of the whole sorry state of affairs here in Black Falls. Maddox was about as qualified to be a law officer as Walter Heavey was. The POLICE jersey he wore, a pair of sunglasses: Was that all it took? If Heavey traded shirts with Maddox, would Maddox be able to draw up a whole-life policy? Would he be able to decode an actuarial table at a glance? Walter Heavey was his company's top performer in the region, remarkable when you factored in that State Farm didn't even offer insurance products in his home state. His region encompassed southwestern New Hampshire, southern Vermont, and eastern New York State, a customer base he had built up over the past fifteen years—fifteen years while Maddox was doing…well, what, exactly?

Maybe Maddox could put on surgical scrubs and take out Walter Heavey's appendix while he was at it.

Pinty was the one who had helped him catch on part-time with the police—another head-scratcher. If Pinty and Maddox went back such a long way, why would Pinty drop a friend into that pit of vipers?

"What now?" said Heavey, as Maddox came up. "You come for a chuckle too?"

Behind his dark glasses, Maddox acted confused. "I heard you heard a shot last night."

"I know, I know. You put down a deer in the road, that was the shot I heard. Only, it wasn't. The one I heard came from the Borderlands behind my house. The other direction."

"You remember the time, by any chance?"

"I do. It woke me up and I checked the alarm clock. Nine minutes after midnight."

Maddox looked around as though concerned someone might overhear their conversation. The turnout for the parade wasn't amounting to much—a combination of hot July sun and general apathy. "The shot was all you heard?"

"All I heard, that's right."

"No voices, no yelling?"

"Nothing. And I listened."

"Well, the timing seems about right," said Maddox. "This deer, it came streaking out of the Borderlands, broadsided my patrol car headfirst. Going that fast, I figure something must have spooked it."

This took a moment to settle in: Maddox believed him.

Maddox noticed the three boys looking up from behind their mother's shielding hips. He bent down closer to their level. "Hey, there, guys. You ready for the parade?"

The boys crowded closer as though trying to climb back inside their mother.

Maddox straightened, his smile bearing a trace of regret. "Anyway, enjoy the day, folks," he said.

Heavey said, "You're going to check into it?"

"I'll take a ride out on the fire road, I guess. Beyond that, I don't know."

"What about the shoe prints?"

That stopped Maddox from leaving, brought him back. "What shoe prints?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"I work just three overnights a week, Mr. Heavey. They don't give me a whole lotta help on the shift change."

Heavey told him briefly about the woman in black. He liked the concern he saw on Maddox's face. Liked it very much.

"Those shoe impressions still there?" said Maddox.

"Some, sure."

"Think you can keep your boys from trampling them? I could stop by at the beginning of my shift tonight, before it gets dark."

Heavey was speechless. A Black Falls cop actually listening to him. Willing to act.

Parade music started up, a prerecorded band march. Maddox glanced around again, leaving Heavey with the distinct impression that Maddox did not want to be seen talking to him. All to the better.

"Just you, then," Heavey said. "I don't want any of those others on my property."

5

PINTY