Michael Malone - Weebly

Finally the word went out that Judith Haig had been
raped. A few Dingleyans, of course, didn't care at all
about any of it, and a few who scarcely knew the
names of the principals cared with voracious hunger. A
few had even fallen prey to still another rumor, that a
maniac or something had poured a secret poison or
something into the reservoir and that everyone in the
town was dying, but this incredible tall tale caught the
ears of only the most desperate thrill-seekers and soon
expired.
Most Dingleyans simply waited with some degree
of curiosity for the evening television news to show
them what had happened.
Among that group were Polly and Luke, who could
not help but find fire and fire trucks momentarily
exhilarating, and who were programmed to find murder
per se an even more thrilling disaster than fire, and who
wondered what the firemen would say when they found
the remains of the deserted base. But all this news
stirred busily in the far distance, while three-dimensional
and huge, the death of their friend Joy closed in on them
like humid air that slowed their steps up Cromwell Hill