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She walked out from the center of the cemetery Naturally, the headstones became newer She finished with the 1920’s, the 1930’s, the 1940’s, all the way into the 1980’s The planners of the ce outward from the middle so that if you wanted to be buried here in the 1990’s, you’d be nearly to the boundaries

She found Bobby Nettro’s grave, on the fourth circle out from the center It was perfectly tended

As far as she could tell, they’d kept to this wheel plan since the beginning There were so ined that when the first townspeople decided to put the ceround they were setting aside to be immense Well, it wasn’t There was little space left, since the west side of the cemetery was bounded by the cliffs, and the east and north were bounded by the church and sole path that led along the cliff

She walked to the western edge of the ceraves here were new, as well tended as the others She leaned down to look at the headstones There were na clever, nothing personal, nothing about being a super husband, father, wife, mother Just the bare information

Sally pulled a san to write down the names on the headstones She walked around the periphery of the ceood thirty names All the people had died in the early to late 1980’s

It didn’t seerown smaller with each decade Thirty people had died in a period of only eight years? Well, it was possible, she supposed Some kind of flu epide else and felt the hair rise on her arms

Every one of the headstones bore a le child’s naraves, it just said BILLY with a date of death Nothingthis period of time, just men? Itwhat the devil she’d discovered She knew she had to get this list to David Mountebank and to James She had to be sure that these people had lived here and died here She had to be sure that these people had nothing to do with all the reported ht be a connection rab James and run out of the town as fast as she could

She shook her head even as she stared down at one headstone in particular The nae--Lucien Gray So it was an odd naitimate, they had to be These were all local people who’d just happened to die during this eight-year stretch Yeah, and only rave Of course there wasn’t one But there was that one headstone with Lucien Gray scripted on it It looked very new, very new indeed

She was beginning to sweat even as her brain raced ahead

No, no This toas for real

This toas filled with good people, not with evil, not with death, ine

She put her notebook back in her purse She didn’t want to go back to Ae

She was afraid

Why had that poor wohts been taken prisoner in the first place?