Excerpt
“My God. He’s alive, barely, and he’s cold as ice.” The chief
shouted to the patrolman, “Get on the radio to the desk and tell the
sergeant to get that ambulance in here. Now.”
Piano music filtered from the house. Spanger thought it might be
Chopin. He paused and listened for a few seconds before he walked
up the front steps onto the porch. Sue-Anne Torgerson gave him her
timid little wave through the window and came to the door.
“Pete’s not here,” she said. “He went out last night and didn’t
come home.” It was a report, not a complaint.
“Let’s go inside, Mrs. Torgerson. I have something to tell you.
It’s best if we sit down.”
She perched at the edge of the sofa with her hands in her lap, her
legs angled together and crossed at the ankles. “What’s wrong?”
she said.
“The mayor’s gone. It looks like it might have been a heart
attack.”
She closed her eyes. A shudder ran through her shoulders and
chest as if she were trying to throw off a sudden chill. After a minute
she opened her eyes and sat without expression in silence so deep that
Spanger’s breathing and the ticking of a clock upstairs filled the room.
Moisture gathered at the corners of her eyes but did not fall.
“Oh.” It was not quite a moan. She brought her hands across her
chest and clasped her upper arms, rocking. Her gaze went around
the room, then back to Spanger.
“Oh, it’s been so hard.”
MAYOR DEAD IN JEEP INCIDENT
Man Badly Hurt By Torgerson Vehicle
Beating Connection Disclosed
by Edward Pease, Daily Dispatch staff
Manolis Aligizakis 