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"There were no hard feelings when you split up?"

"Hell, no" He stared at Caleb suddenly "You think I could have done so to her?" he asked incredulously

"No," Caleb assured hiut told him that this kid couldn’t have carried off a white lie,if she would have confided in you If she would have told you that she was going to run away, for instance Or if she wasaway And she wasn’tanyone" He was quiet for ahih Just on beer--she didn’t s around the fire and pretending it was so"

"Really? Why do you think that was?"

"She liked to read creepy stuff, books about black ic and crap like that She was kind of Goth for a while even"

"So did she believe in ghosts and that kind of thing?" Caleb asked

"Oh, yeah She wanted to experience all that spooky stuff, you know? See the real thing She was the kind ould turn out the lights and h She wasn’t afraid of anything She used to cliht and dare us to coht help her experience the real thing?" Caleb asked

"I don’t think so," Nigel said, his brow furrowed in concentration Suddenly he brightened "She did talk to a weird woman on the beach"

"A weird wo to sound casual This was so On the other hand…

"She ca up" He stared at Caleb "She looked like a hippie She scared us at first," he adrove of scrub right e started building the fire We thought she lived nearby or so to threaten to call the cops on us But all she said was hello, and that we should be careful Hey wait!" he said suddenly

"What is it?" Caleb asked

"She said that she was there co with the eleured she’d been hiding out back there, sht of it There were only three of us there Mindy Marshall, Winona and me She told us to be careful, said the moon was at its ht out all kinds of spirits I thought she was a kook Winona thought she was cool and talked to her for a little while, but I wasn’t really paying attention I can’t believe I forgot all about her ’til now"

"What happened then?"

"She walked away"

"To where?"

"I don’t know Probably down the trail that led back to the road"

"Did you see her again?"

"No She just told us to be careful and left"

"What did she look like?"

"I told you, a hippie"

"A tall hippie? Short, dark, light?"

Nigel frowned in concentration "I don’t know She earing so on her head, and she had on really big sunglasses"

"Okay, was she tall or short?"

"Mediuel decided after a moment

"Five-five?"

"Yeah,at all? Was she wearing perfu"

Nigel looked away for a moment, then faced Caleb sheepishly "I’d had two beers, maybe three by then I was pretty looped by the tiht? You’re really not a cop?"

"I’m really not a cop" Caleb drew a card from his wallet and handed it to the boy "I want you to doelse--and I want you to really think about this woive el took the card and looked at Caleb again "Okay You " He looked doincing "Thing is, the three of us…we had a twelve-pack to start and it was pretty one by the time the wo, either, knohat I o talk to her anyway So where exactly was this beach party?" he asked He had directions; they were in the file Jaiven him But he wanted the kid’s directions, as well

"I’ll draw you aa napkin froister<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>