Chapter 34
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The storm hit Sanctuary. The hospital was hit, the generator was damaged and they had to use the back-up generator. Fortunately there were no looters. Perhaps the fact that there were deputies here discouraged potential looters. After the storm was over a number of people came to give blood. Among them were William Lambert, his wife Jane, Jimmy Tinker, Mary Elizabeth Merchant, Samantha Larabee's widower Frank Kovick, Abby Flint came with her guardian Prudence Conner. Samantha Larabee's father John was here, he seemed to be in a dazed state. He kept muttering to himself "Lightning, blackout. Lightning, blackout. Blackout, lightning." Gary had no idea what John meant by this, he doubted that John had any understanding of what he was saying. The truth was John Larabee knew exactly what he meant by this, he just didn't like what it meant. A part of Gary believed that any of them could be the person who killed Angel. Yet each of them came to give blood. Perhaps they were trying to symbolically make amends for this. Then again, perhaps her death really was a suicide, and Samantha carved the pentagram into her chest. It was now July 6th, it had been an exhausting week for Gary, he hadn't gotten any sleep in over 24 hours. He was disoriented, looking for a place to take a nap. He was looking for the room where the doctors napped when they were on-call, but in his state he wound up in the crematorium. It was here mainly to burn the clothes of people infected with a contagious disease. But Gary saw someone running away from this room. In his state, and with the lights blinking on and off, he wasn't sure who it was. It took him a minute to realize why anyone would be running away down here. Doctor Hayward said that Angel was likely killed with a hunting knife, but the knife was never found near Angel's body. This meant someone had taken the knife. Maybe Samantha had been arrogant and/or self-destructive enough to keep the knife, or maybe someone else was just waiting for the right opportunity to destroy this knife. Gary rushed into the room, the incinerator was going on. If the knife was indeed placed here it was destroyed by now, any chance of using it to find evidence was gone. Gary tried to remember his suspects. It seemed unlikely that William Lambert would murder his own child, nor would his wife Jane. But maybe, to erease the shame of what Carmen did to him all those years ago. That seemed unlikely, but Gary couldn't completely rule it out. And there was also Samantha's husband Frank, maybe he wasn't okay with his wife sleeping with another woman. And there was Jimmy Tinker and Mary Elizabeth Merchant, maybe their views on sex and love weren't as free-spirited as they claimed. And what of Abby Flint, could she have killed her own sister to protect her mother from being charged with child-molestation. Gary couldn't completely rule any of them out, especially since all of them came to the hospital this day. In theory Angel could have told any of them about her step-mother's past, and one of them had deliberately destroyed evidence. This wasn'tover yet.
