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The wo to cut wood"

"No, Mother," he said softly "I’ to cut wood"

She didn’t start to scream until he walked toward her Then, it was too late His first strike was high and overhead and filled with passion and rage, and cleaved her skull so that her face seeain and again And when she lay dead, the young man sat down on the sofa, covered in her blood, and he waited And in time, a tall man in a cap and shabby tweed coat walked in and made it into the parlor, where he saw the woman on the floor and his son drenched in blood

He started to shout; the young man, who had been all but imet first in the throat, and the only sounds that were heard other than the sickening crunch of the ax were those of a …until those sounds came no more, and the ent and horrible on the air The man with the ax just stood there Then the door burst open and a young woht have been pretty, beautiful even But her face was far too thin; she appeared tired and worn, like a faded rose

At the doorway, she surveyed the scene in horror

"I had to, Isabelle I had to," her brother said

"And we et rid of your clothing, and wehappened Come, Nathan, co ton, he loved his wife,

So much he kept her near,

Close as his sons, dear as his life;

He chopped her up;

He axed them, too, and then he kept them here

Duck, duck, wife!

Duck, duck, life!

You’re it! Oh, Isabelle! Now, I’o out the back, to the cliff…I’ll get you new clothing…we’ll sink what you’re wearing, Father’s fishing weights are in the back…we must move quickly! Oh, dear baby brother, what have you done?"

"They can hang!"

"Coed, and at last, he seemed able to move

Jenna stood frozen, the scent of the blood ale of bits and pieces and flecks of flesh all around her was horrifying, and she felt as if her knees were co but water

The mist receded She felt as if she hisked back in ti to fall…

She didn’t Sarave concern

"I’ive a da and dragging her, out to the hallway, the foyer and then outside

He set her down on the porch, and sat beside her

"Jenna?"

She took a deep breath Out here, the blood of the distant past and the more recent past was all washed away by the breeze that ca the sins of tied a weak smile and set her hand on his

"I’m okay, Sam"

"I know, I know It’s what you do Maybe it coh a price"

Her smile steadied; he hadn’t even asked her yet what she had seen

"No, because, as you can see, I’ ht century"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the Braden family They weren’t nice people, Sam I mean, of course, no one out there deserves to be murdered, but I believe that the parents were pretty horrible to their children The son did do it And his sister knew, but she was the one who helped hiet out of the house and clean up, and she probably swore for him at the trial that he wasn’t in the house when it happened"

Before Sam could answer, they heard footsteps on the stair John Alden came out to the porch and looked curiously at Sam and Jenna "You done?"

"Yes, thanks, John," Sam said

"Alht her hand "Don’t do this to yourself," he said softly

She looked down and saw so dark and disturbed in his eyes She couldn’t allow hio back in, Sam I have to try," she said, and walked back into the parlor She stared about the rooht about the recent past She tried to iure in a costu in to commit murder She waited and she opened her eyes