The Devil Within Us All

The Devil Within Us All William F. Gray The Devil Within Us All By William F. Gray Wicked House Publishing No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, descriptions, entities, and incidents included in the story are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, and entities is entirely coincidental. Cover design by Christian Bentulan Interior Formatting by Joshua Marsella All rights reserved. Copyright © 2023 William F. Gray Contents List of Characters A Tale About Ice Cream Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Part Two Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Part Three Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 A Tale About Ice Cream II Keep Reading for a Sample of chapter one from the forthcoming Chapter One Wicked House Publishing For Jessica Mohler and Declan Bixler I love you with all my heart List of Characters Main Brock Lowery - Sheriff of Rappahanok Falls Drew Russell - Deputy in Rappahanok Falls Isaac Melendez - Former Preacher, has lost his faith after losing his father’s church to a fire James Ramsey - Pastor in Rappahanok Falls, preaches fire and brimstone Kenneth Wilson - Deputy in Rappahanok Falls Sean Avery - Deputy in Rappahanok Falls Leon Mckesson - Deputy in Rappahanok Falls Ben Donovan - Elected Selectman of Rappahanok Falls, largely absent Olive Kent - Eddie’s sister, works at King’s Market and in a relationship with Brad Greene Charlie Lowery - The sheriff’s son Nolan Presgraves - Local bad boy, rides a Triumph motorcycle Eddie Kent - Olive’s younger brother, smart mouth but kind Hannah Madigan - Eddie’s friend and step-daughter of Wayne Wayne Madigan - Hannah’s abusive step-father Brad Greene - Olive’s jock boyfriend Jackie King - Owner of King’s market Gene Wolford - patron of King’s Market Timothy Tims - runs the local municipal, angry and bitter Henry Goodwin - elementary school principal Eric and Jack - friends with Hannah and Eddie Randall Connolly - train conductor, passing through Mary Davis - a woman who commits a heinous act A Tale About Ice Cream Mary Davis sat in her car outside the hospital and thought about death. Behind one of the few well-lit windows that shone like a beacon into the night, her grandmother slept peacefully. Stroke. A really bad one. Her cousin had been the one to tell her. The news had come as a shock. It wasn’t because Evelyn Waymack had always been healthy or anything of the sort. It was because she had always thought that her grandmother had been incapable of doing something so mundanely human as dying. Her hands tightened around the steering wheel as she thought about all the horrific things the woman had done in her life. Evelyn was a law-abiding citizen, but her morality ended there. Mary remembered how her mother had talked about her childhood, the utter lack of love the woman had shown for her two oldest daughters. She had only loved Karen, and that was because Karen had been born out of the adultery she had been committing for most of her marriage. Her mother, dying of cancer in 2013, had told Mary everything. The late-night trips to the gas station for “ice cream,” how she had desperately wished to be anywhere but there as Evelyn had ridden the man in the front seat. Mary’s mother had been anything but religious in her later life, but she had described it as sin because there was nothing dirtier than what she had seen. “She told me that if I ever told, I would be out on the street in an instant. I believed her.” Mary had, too. Evelyn had always been decent to Mary but only in a passing, “respect for your strangers” way. Very little love was shared; Evelyn spent it all on Karen’s son, Reese. Maybe that was okay, though. Mary didn’t want a damn thing from that woman, except maybe to see her go when the time came. Mary looked up at the shining lights and knew it would come soon. She had always been jealous of all the other kids who came to school and bragged about the things they did with their grandparents. Mary had never had that. Her father’s parents had died in a car crash when she was a toddler, and Evelyn’s husband had died of a heart attack behind the wheel of his Lincoln a year before Mary was born. She felt cheated and unfulfilled as she thought about everything she had missed out on. She remembered what she had told her husband about her grandmother. Some grandmothers bake cookies for Santa. Mine wore Louis Vuitton on Christmas morning. Chris had been confused but had not asked her to explain. She wasn’t sure if she could have. Of all the things she hated about Evelyn, those goddamn pumps kept coming to her mind. They exemplified everything about the woman. Shallow. Materialistic. Selfish. Mary dragged herself out from behind the wheel, thinking about why she had come there. She wouldn’t have been able to do it without the stranger. She was self-aware enough to know that. She had resigned herself to never seeing Evelyn again, even if she died soon. She didn’t expect to have any regrets. Then she met him. Everything else was a blur. She couldn’t quite remember the details (or even his name), but he had given her the courage to face her grandmother one last time. To tell her how it was, to say goodbye.