On the hour, a bell tolls. You can set your watch by it. We are a small town,'' grocer Chase Prather proudly declares. He sits with his son, Jay, in the elevated office just inside their West Union IGA. ''If we aren't related,'' the elder Prather adds, ''we at least know who you are.'' True enough. The customer up the road in Soupbone Davis' barbershop is the cousin of one of the three suspects.
Rumors move quickly through a small town, too.
You hear them whispered in store aisles. Adams County averages one murder every two years. The people of West Union still can't believe who was behind the wheel of the getaway truck. In a town where everyone knows everybody, everybody knows Dennie Dryden even better. His dad teaches history at the local high school.