CHAPTER 24
Snow fell heavily. The search groups slowly
filtered back into the Wheeler yard. A sense of relief replaced the
frantic pace of a few hours ago. People smiled, laughed, and joked,
as they exchanged stories and information. Strange Willie was not
smiling. He sat locked in the back seat of a police cruiser. His
treasured motorcycle remained in the woods at the place where
Strange Willie surrendered, the snow silently piling on the bike,
as it lay abandoned on its side. He had not been told that Freddie
had been found or that the young boy, at this very moment, was
being flown to Mercy Hospital. In fact, no one had spoken to the
disheveled man for more than an hour.
They had given him a cup of coffee and a
blanket that he wore tightly wrapped around his shoulders, then
