What happened in ’87.
After old Sheriff Conway retired in ‘72 — he died not three years later — his lead deputy stepped in. Sheriff Mike Wiley was what my dad called keen, and I remember him always being around what I guess were the rough spots in town. But not the Place, even though I guess it was the roughest spot of all.
But he’s why there’s a chain link fence around the Place, and why that fence doesn’t have a door. After the Census Lady nobody in town would go there if they could help it, but we don’t have a wall around the town. A vagrant comes through, living rough and looking for an empty house to crash in? Well, the Place still has windows and a roof. That’s gonna be enough, when you’re cold and in the dark.
I don’t know how many people really disappeared between ‘60 and ‘72. I know there was at least one, for sure, and probably two more. I also know none of them were from around here. And I figure Sheriff Wiley knew more than he let on, because one day there was a bunch of guys putting up that fence. Out-of-towners, too. Their truck had Ohio license plates, and they had it up in no time flat, like they were being paid to do as fast a job as they could.