In the Clearing (Tracy Crosswhite, #3)

by Robert Dugoni

“Many years ago they hung an innocent man in the clearing. They said he committed murder, and they brought him to an old oak tree so everyone in the town could witness the hanging. When they asked him for his final words, he said he was innocent, and if they hung him he would rise from his grave and burn the town to the ground. A month after the hanging, a fire burned most of the buildings in downtown Stoneridge, but the cause of the fire was never determined. When they finally opened the man’s grave, they found it empty. Shortly after those events, the oak tree died. Since then, nothing grows in the clearing.”