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I paused at the fireplace Whoever had made the last fire had used newspaper There was still a section next to the hearth and I bent down to check the date: Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving

The day Danielle and David disappeared, and the day before I‘d seen the face in the

The desk draas locked I debated a half second, then slid the kissing knife out of ht before I left the car I wedged the tip into the lock and jiggled it around, not really expectingmuch happened Maybe I could pry the desk open The blade was very thin and slid easily into the narrow crack between the drawer and the desk I relars used credit cards to depress the tongue of a lock Maybe that would work and--

Snick

The drawer popped open The desk did this little jump and Mitch‘s computer monitor winked to life I hadn‘t noticed that the computer was on Mitch‘s wallpaper was a seascape: bulbous corals and a rainbow of fish One progra: Firefox I maximized it Theexploded across the screen and--

―Oh et an abortion in Illinois That hat Mitch had said But not in Wisconsin or Minnesota or Michigan

And Mitch should know

The list of the Illinois clinics was right in front of otten Danielle pregnant and thenwhat? Had she threatened hiot in Mitch‘s faceGod, her dad knew? No, no, wait, that couldn‘t be right Mr Connolly was a lawyer Wouldn‘t he have gone to the police? But why else would Mitch--or Danielle, because I no she‘d been here--be looking up abortion clinics?

He told me to h to knohat she wants

That didn‘t sound like Mitch was the fatherbut, God, I didn‘t knohat to believe anymore

I scanned the other folders on Mitch‘s desktop There were lecture notes and labs for cherams; another for track; a third filled with tips on how to prepare for the Ironman

Then I saw a folder tucked in the lower left-hand corner, labeled only with an initial: J

No I stared at that folder a long, long time No, don’t do it, don’t do it, walk away just walk--

I double-clicked on the icon and the folder opened

They were Word docus and one PDF I reital camera in Mitch‘s desk at school, but I opened the PDF first because of the date

Discharge Summary: Jenna Meredith Lord

Rebecca kept it factual and extrenosis-- Major Depression, severe, with psychotic features, in renoses, none of the up to e reco

Of course, I knew about Matt, Mitch had said It was in your discharge summary

No, Mitch

It wasn‘t

51: a

Well, Bob, that‘s not quite fair Rebecca did say unresolved grief over her brother’s death, but that was all She hadn‘t said anything about Iraq, or Matt‘s being killed in action

All that Mitch found out fro e summary, Mitch worked backward Matt‘s death had made the local papers for a week or so, and all that eventually led Mitch to the fire at Grandpa‘s because he had all that information, too My whole life was on Mitch‘s desktop, like once he found out aboutInterest becomes obsession becomes--

―I can explain‖

I whirled Mitch was in the doorway His hair was loves or boots His sneakers et He must‘ve run all the way from his car His eyes went to his desk ―I‘d wondered where that knife had gone‖

So s I wanted to say, they all piled up behind ed: ―Where‘s Danielle?‖

―At a clinic in Evanston I drove her there with David ‖

He paused ―I told them they could stay here Wednesday and Thursday Both of them had been to the house, so they knew the way‖

That would tally I‘d come here Thursday afternoon ―If that‘s true, why haven‘t they called their parents? Why does everyone think they‘re runaways?‖

―Because Danielle‘s afraid her father will stop her He‘d irl should be forced to do that‖

―Who‘s the father? David?‖