Sour Candy Read Online Free

the headache that made it feel
as if someone was trying to drive a nail into the top of his head,
the recollection came easy.
    “ About six or seven, I’d
say. I don’t know that for sure. I’m not good with ages. Sandy
blond hair, blue eyes. He looked healthy.”
    Marsh scribbled; Cortez stared. “What
was he wearing?”
    “ Black pants with
suspenders. White shirt and a black jacket. I remember thinking he
was dressed strangely.”
    “ Strange how?” asked
Cortez.
    “ Old-fashioned. Kinda Amish,
I guess.”
    Marsh looked up from her notebook.
“You find the Amish strange?”
    “ No, no, that’s not what I
meant.”
    “ Can you clarify what
you did mean?”
    “ Just…I mean it would have
made more sense if an Amish family had been with him is all. But he was with the
woman and she looked normal. Well, she was dressed normal. Ms.
Bennings, I mean.”
    “ Mrs. Bennings,” Cortez
corrected.
    “ Sorry, Mrs.”
    “ Although,” Marsh offered,
“I suppose it hardly matters what you call her now that she’s
dead.”
    Phil didn’t know what to say to that,
so he said nothing.
    Detective Marsh finished her
scribbling, closed her notebook, and sighed. “Cortez, can you give
me a moment alone with Mr. Pendleton?”
    “ Sure,” he said, his dark
eyes boring holes in Phil’s face before he blinked and walked
away.
    “ Did I do something wrong?”
Phil asked. “I mean, I’m sorry that lady is dead and all but I was
the one she rammed her car into and I can’t shake the feeling that
you’re blaming me for something here.”
    “ I’m not blaming you for
anything, Mr. Pendleton. I’m just not clear on a couple of things,
that’s all. I’m hoping you can help me with that.”
    Marsh fished a pack of Newports from
her pocket, lit one and took a draw. She exhaled smoke as if she’d
never tasted anything quite so wondrous in her life. Then she
offered the pack to Phil, which he declined.
    The detective pocketed the cigarettes.
“The paramedics gave you the all-clear, right?”
    “ Yeah, aside from a few
cracked ribs, I should be fine.”
    “ No concussion, no
disorientation, no memory loss or anything?”
    “ No, none. At least, not
that I’m aware of. Why?”
    “ You described to Officer
Burns the child you saw at the store earlier, right?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ And you sent a young man
over to Mrs. Bennings’ car to make sure the kid wasn’t in
there?”
    “ I did. I wasn’t aware
concern was a crime now.”
    “ It isn’t.”
    “ Then for Christ’s sake, why
are you making me feel as if it is?”
    “ As per your request, we
sent a patrol car to your address to inform your friend...” She
consulted her notebook. “…Lori Watkins, about your
accident.”
    “ And?”
    “ And she wasn’t
there.”
    “ Well, she’s probably on her
way here.”
    “ Seems unlikely. That was an
hour ago. It’s a ten minute drive with traffic. Have you tried to
call her since then?”
    “ No. My phone died. That’s
why I asked the officer to send a patrol car over there. Didn’t
realize I’d be kept here this long and I figured she’d be
worried.”
    “ And your address is 160
Grady Avenue?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ In Delaware?”
    “ Yes, for the umpteenth
time, yes. Jesus. Why are you asking me all this?”
    Marsh studied him as one might a
particularly exotic species of insect. “I’m asking you all of this,
Mr. Pendleton, because when the officers went to your house, the
child you just described seeing with Mrs. Bennings is the one who
opened the door.”
     
     
    4. Possession
     
     
    “There has to be some kind of mistake,”
Phil told the detectives as they drove him home. “Why would she
drop him at my house? I mean, how would she even know where I
live?”
    The daylight had faded in
time with all logic and sense, so much so that the back of the
detectives’ car felt like a padded room in an insane asylum. As
absurd as it was, he kept expecting to find that he was merely the
victim of one of