“Not yet. Not while children are disappearing. Fear is fertile ground for superstition.”
Katie’s heart sank, but deep down she knew he was right. They had studied the same history in school. Religion always rode on the back of turmoil, like a jockey. The Town might not be panicking yet, but panic could not be far away. Two weeks ago, Yusuf Mansour, seven years old, had disappeared from the park during a game of hide-and-seek. The Town had combed the woods, all the way down to the river, but they had found no trace of him.
Katie’s first thought had been of the creature she had seen in the woods, the one that had chased her up toward town. She had never talked about that night with anyone but Row; she tried not to think of it herself. For a few weeks, there had been nightmares, but in time they had faded away. The depredations in the graveyard had stopped long ago and had never been repeated. Katie made sure to never be alone outside town after dark. Most days she could even pretend that she had imagined it. But when Yusuf disappeared from the park, Katie had realized that it might be time to tell someone about that night, even if they thought she was crazy. She had no right to withhold the information from the community, simply to make things comfortable for herself. She might not be a perfect member of the Town, but she knew that much.
But who to tell? Mum? Katie shrank from that option, for many reasons. Mum would be furious that she had been out with Row after curfew, but even more, Mum was one of the toughest people Katie knew. Mum would not have turned tail and fled; she would have fought the thing, and if it would not submit, Mum would have dragged it back to town, kicking and screaming, to present it to William Tear . . . or she would have died trying. Katie didn’t want Mum to know that she had run away from danger.
Next, she had debated telling William Tear himself. It would be a bit of a challenge to speak to him alone, but it could probably be done. But again, Katie shrank from the idea. Tear had chosen her for the town guard, chosen her over many better and smarter—and taller!—people. Did she really want to tell him that this was how she’d repaid him, by remaining silent for the past two years? Anyway, Yusuf had been gone for more than two weeks. It seemed impossible that he could be alive.
What could Tear have done? her mind demanded. What could anyone do, against that thing you saw?
But Katie ignored the question. William Tear was William Tear. There was no problem he couldn’t solve.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up and found Jonathan staring at her with that gaze of his, the one that could almost strip flesh. Again, she was reminded forcibly of his father. Behind them, the unseen penitent had started up again, a steady stream of pleas to God, and Katie felt as though she could cheerfully brain him with her shovel.
“What did you see?” Jonathan asked, and Katie found herself telling him, just like that, telling him in a low voice because she didn’t want the Christer across the way to hear. She told Jonathan everything, even about Row at the end, that cruel and vindictive side of Row that had never been turned on her before. It hurt in the telling—even now, the memory of that night was enough to freeze Katie’s heart—but when it was all out, Katie knew that she had picked the right person. She didn’t know Jonathan well at all, but she felt better, almost comforted, as though she had handed him a burden and he had shouldered it without being asked.
“Row Finn had my father’s sapphire,” Jonathan said, almost a question, when she was done.
“Yes,” Katie replied, bewildered; of all the things she had just told him, the sapphire was what he cared about? She had betrayed Row, she realized now, but the whole thing was years old, and William Tear’s sapphire had been set to a necklace and returned long ago; she had seen it around his neck, many times. No harm, no foul.
“Well, you’re not crazy,” Jonathan finally replied. “There was something in the woods. Your mother, my father, Aunt Maddy, they were out hunting it for months.”
“What? When?”
“Almost two years ago. They used to go out on expeditions, late at night. I wanted to go, but Dad said I had to stay with Mum.”
“Did they find anything?”
“No. Whatever it was, it always prowled around the graveyard, and once the grave robbing stopped, it stopped too.”
“Grave robbing?”
Jonathan looked at her, his face kind but also a trifle impatient. “Of course grave robbing. You didn’t really believe that bit about wolves, did you?”
“No, I didn’t!” Katie snapped. “But I didn’t think . . . who would rob a grave? For what reason?”
“For silver.” Jonathan smiled grimly. “None of the corpses we found had any jewelry left.”
“No one in town would rob a grave.”
“Are you sure?” Jonathan smiled again, but this smile was different, almost sad.