Turn to Stone by Brian Freeman

Sophie, is that right?” he asked the girl.
    “Yep, that’s me.” She pointed a finger at him playfully. “And you are Jonathan Stride of the Duluth Police, and that policeman’s wife asked you to find out why he killed himself, right?”
    “You know a lot,” he told her.
    “I like to listen. You learn a lot when you listen. No one pays attention to kids, because they think we’re stupid.”
    “I don’t think you’re stupid.” He added: “No school today?”
    “Nope. A pipe burst. The place is flooded. Bummer, huh?” She grinned.
    “Yeah, I used to be glued to the news after snow storms to see if they closed the Duluth schools,” Stride said. “It’s nice of you to help out Mrs. Bruin on a day off.”
    “Oh, sure. I like kids, and Mya’s great. I mean, Mrs. Bruin pays me, but it’s fun.”
    “Let me ask you something, Sophie. What’s the deal with Mike Black?”
    “Mike? I don’t know, he’s a little weird, but that’s okay. I’m weird, too. He loves animals, which I think is cool. Him and his mom, they’ve got dogs and cats and rabbits and stuff. Mike rescued most of them.”
    “Nice.”
    “Yeah, I like him. He mostly hangs out by himself, but that’s the way I am, too. I feel bad for him. The other kids at school are pretty awful to him.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Oh, you know, they figure, like father, like son.”
    Stride frowned. “Father?”
    Then he remembered. Sophie didn’t need to tell him who Mike Black’s father was, because he already knew the story from the newspapers. Chester Black, who went by the nickname “Jet.” Black was a scrawny auto mechanic and high school dropout who routinely beat up his wife and son when he got drunk on Saturday nights. After one particularly vicious assault, he pled guilty to domestic assault to avoid jail time. He got probation, with the requirement that he get counseling for anger management.
    His court-appointed counselor was a young psychologist named Kelli Westmark.
    Jet didn’t want anyone putting their fingers inside his troubled mind, particularly not a strong, attractive woman. He had other plans for her. He kidnapped Kelli and imprisoned her inside the ruined Novitiate on the banks of the Red River, where he tortured her for days. That was where Percy Andrews eventually found them.
    That was where Percy shot and killed Jet Black.
    Sophie watched him. “You know who he is. I figured you would.”
    “Percy Andrews killed Mike’s dad,” Stride said.
    “Yeah.”
    “How did Mike feel about that?”
    “I don’t know. I couldn’t really tell if he liked Percy or hated him. He was a little obsessed with him, that’s for sure. Followed him everywhere, wouldn’t stop talking about him. That figures, huh? I mean, it sucks when your dad is murdered, even if he deserves it.”
    “What happened at the Novitiate wasn’t murder, Sophie,” Stride told her.
    “That’s what people say, but tell that to Mike. I mean, he knows who was really in the ruins with his dad that night.”
    Sophie slapped a hand over her mouth, as if she wanted to shove the words back inside and lock them away. Secrets were big, scary things, and they were tough to keep. Especially when you’re a young girl and a cute boy tells you something important.
    Stride knelt down until they were eye to eye, and he spoke calmly to the girl. The girl who liked to listen.
    “Who was in the ruins?” he asked.
    “Nobody.”
    Stride waited, saying nothing, staring at Sophie as the girl blinked nervously.
    “I mean, nobody human ,” she went on.
    “What are you talking about?”
    Sophie chewed her lip and adjusted her yellow glasses. She looked as if she wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl down inside and cover it up. Stride heard a car engine, and he saw a vintage pick-up rattling toward the house. Relieved, Sophie tugged her purse higher on her shoulder. She saw her escape.
    “That’s my dad,” she said. “I gotta go.”
    “Sophie, who does Mike think