Two small figures stood in the clearing. Francis shaded his eyes and squinted to make them out: here was the strange little man who hung around the incubators, standing beside the Gypsy fortune-teller’s kid, Pin. Skinny as a rail, he looked like he hadn’t had a meal since Christmas. Francis had heard that he worked as an errand boy for Max, but he’d never known the kid to get into any serious trouble. His mother was skinny, too, but pretty, olive skinned and dark haired. She also worked as a dance teacher at the park; Francis had gone to the ballroom one night in hopes of dancing with her, but she already had a knot of men waiting by her table. She looked barely old enough to have a kid Pin’s age.

Francis waited to see if the weird fellow laid a hand on the boy. But they seemed to be merely talking. Then the man handed something to the kid. Dope? That could explain why the man behaved like a lunatic. They talked for a few more minutes, the kid handed whatever it was back to the little man, and they went their separate ways.

Francis frowned. What had been exchanged? If it really was dope, the boy was smart enough not to hang on to it. Still, Francis could think of other things that might be almost as dangerous to a kid—money, dirty pictures, a deck of poker cards.

And chesters didn’t prey just on young girls. Last year there’d been a notorious string of murders in Wisconsin, four boys gutted like fish at a remote hunting camp. Francis watched as the little man made his way along the Pike, feinting at unseen attackers. Few men acted furtive without a reason—Francis knew that from his days at Robey Street—but such men were clever. Apprehending them was like engaging in a game of poker where bodies could be cast aside, rather than cards.

He recalled the gun he’d had to turn in when he was fired from the department, and the one that had taken its place, bought for seventeen dollars from a pawnbroker and hidden in his bureau back at Mrs. Dahl’s boardinghouse. He’d no cause to carry it with him here at Riverview. That was about to change.

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

AT A WIENIE stand, Pin bought a frankfurter loaded with sauerkraut, sat on a bench, and ate while she brooded.