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Monteleone glanced at the photographs of her fa unfair It wasn’t Victoria that Jack despised It was his father Jack’s mother died when he was a baby When he was ten, Jack’s father told him, ‘When your e I didn’t, and it was the worst thing I ever did inlike that to his ten-year-old son?"

I flashed onfor ine it

"Jack remembered the words verbatim," Monteleone said "They haunted hi fro basketball was so he could get away from him His father, for his part, never went to see Jack play Not even the title game Jack was a hero in Victoria, but not at home I wasn’t surprised at all that he refused to attend his father’s funeral Instead, he went to Europe to play basketball Given his background, it’s a wonder Jack turned out as well as he did"

"Perhaps you had soave it a , "It’s nice to think so"

"Have you seen him, spoken to hi a cao, but he didn’t recognize er reseh School yearbook

"I’ve been in Victoria," I said "Soers’s death"

"What nonsense He couldn’t possibly have known she would be killed when he left the party"

"Lynn Peyer--"

"Lynn Peyer" Monteleone spoke the name like it was an obscenity

"She, for one, thinks Jack actually killed her"

Monteleone rose quickly to her feet

"That’s a lie An absolute lie A damnable lie"

"How can you be so sure?"

Monteleone slowly sat down

"I just am," she said

A few minutes later--after Monteleone decided she had s to do than speak to aalone, I lapsed into a freeway fantasy I had a fast car, plenty of o where I’ve never been before, and do things I’ve never done There was nothing holdingexcept a sense of duty, of responsibility, that I couldn’t even define Turn off at the next exit, I told myself Or the next one Or the one after that Just turn off