CHAPTER 20
It seemed every light in the Wheeler house
was on as the red pickup turned into the driveway. The front door
was open and, without knocking, Carly and her grandfather entered
the split-level ranch. Built in the early ‘70’s, the house was one
of many homes Xeroxed in neat rows where farms once dotted the
hillsides. Mrs. Wheeler lived in the three-bedroom home with her
son. A daughter, Anne-Marie, was at college in Florida, and her
ex-husband, Freddie’s dad, had moved back to Washington, D.C. after
the divorce.
Carly and her grandfather entered as Mrs.
Wheeler hung up the telephone, her eyes red and puffy from crying.
Within moments they learned that Freddie’s dad, Jack Wheeler, would
be there by ten o’clock and that the sheriff was sending a deputy
to take the infor
