Poison Town Read Online Free PDF Page A

kidnapping.
    “Hey darlin’,” he answered quietly.
    “Is this Jack Crittendon, famous reporter and feature editor at the award-winning Trenton City Dispatch ?” Pam said.
    “You got him.”
    “I have a story to report …”
    Jack smiled, glad to hear her voice, but uptight about all he had to do.
    “What’s happening?” he said.
    “Girls off to school, laundry in. Did you get the car to the boys?”
    “Yep. Galen’s in the hospital with respiratory problems, but he’ll be okay.”
    “Oh no … maybe you can go see him.”
    Sometimes Jack wondered if she realized how busy he was.
    “Maybe,” he said. “Got a lot cooking here.”
    “How’d your editorial meeting go?”
    “Not bad. Remind me to tell you about the Demler-Vargus thing.”
    “You sound busy. I’ll let you go in a sec. I just wanted to tell you two things.”
    “Shoot.”
    “My mom called this morning. She said Daddy hasn’t been himself.”
    Ugh. Pam’s mom, Margaret, was extremely paranoid. Her husband’s “illness” was likely all in her imagination.
    “He hasn’t had any appetite—or energy. You know my mom; she’s a wreck. I was thinking it’s about time I got up to see them anyway. Maybe we could all go some weekend.”
    “Okay.” Jack really didn’t want to make the two-and-a-half-hour trip to Cleveland anytime soon. “It depends on the weather. Let’s look at the calendar …”
    “Okay.” Pam hesitated. “I was hoping we could do it soon—like this weekend or next?”
    Jack took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and grimaced, glad she couldn’t see his reaction. “Let’s talk about it tonight.”
    “Okay.”
    He could tell by her voice that he had burst her bubble. Now she was debating whether to even tell him the second thing.
    “What else?” he prompted.
    “I’ll tell you later.” Her voice fell into a monotone.
    She had come to him recently with several things that meant a lot to her, and he had squelched her every time—it seemed to be the norm lately.
    “Go ahead, really,” he said. “I want to hear.”
    “I was just going to tell you I talked to Wendy McDaniel.”
    Jack sighed. Wendy was the wife of Evan McDaniel, a local pastor who, clinically depressed and facing serious pressure at his church, had left town the same time the Granger Meade fiasco happened. In a stranger-than-fiction scenario, a suicidal Evan ended up in a crucible with Granger, and the two down-and-outers made a pact to live. Evan then counseled Granger during the latter’s incarceration at Mansfield Correctional Institution and now insisted that Granger was “reformed”—that he was “a different person.”
    Jack refused to believe it.
    “Yeah?” He tried to sound upbeat. “What’s going on with the McDaniels?” He knew Evan had stepped down as pastor of his church and had been working at an art supply store in Trenton City.
    “Evan helped Granger find a job.”
    Really? Jack dropped his head. “Where?” That was all he could muster. Was he supposed to jump for joy that her abductor had found employment?
    “Crafts Galore.” Pam spoke quietly, all emotion gone. “In Mount Camden. I just thought it was a good thing.”
    “They’re going to let him be around all those attractive housewives?”
    Dead silence.
    Jack knew his burning comment had hurt Pam. He stood, realizing it was too late to take it back.
    There was a long pause. “I’ll talk to you later,” she said finally.
    “Pam, what do you want me to say? I’m so thrilled your kidnapper got a job? Be serious.”
    “You know something, Jack? You have to let this go.”
    “I just find it hard to believe—”
    “This bitterness is poisoning you. You get so angry at the littlest things—ever since it happened.”
    “And you can’t understand that? My wife was stalked by some pervert high school classmate. He invaded our home—took things. Tore you away from us for a night of pure hell!”
    “Have you not been