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"I have the files Liaiven leave to reopen the case It’s time that it’s done"

"They never even had another suspect," Katie said She bit her lip She saw the slight tensing of his features "I mean, they never had a suspect at all-"

"Other than me"

"You were never really a suspect, were you?" She flushed slightly, looking away Of course he’d been a suspect!

"Just a ‘person of interest,’" he told her "And you’re right-there was never another suspect And there had to be a reason for that Either the police continued to believe that I had done it, or they were protecting someone else"

"Like who?" Katie asked

"I don’t know But I intend to find out Tanya deserves justice"

"Her faone, you know," Katie told hi away "I know Her mother never recovered froI never saw her father, except at the funeral, and he took Tanya’s ustine, and he had a heart attack a month later and died Her mother went into psychiatric care, and she died about five years later Tanya had an older brother-Sa charters out of Key Largo"

"Oh," Katie said, surprised "I thought he had left the state"

"Just Key West"

For a moment, they were both silent To her surprise, it wasn’t an aard silence, just a sad one And she did understand why he hated to see the museum reopened

She reached a hand out to touch his across the table Sparks seemed to jump into her, and she realized that he was far ined "I’m sorry, really sorry," she told him

"Well, you see, their lives were destroyed Our family was torn apart-I couldn’t stay here I really couldn’t stay here Iaway, but I honestly don’t think so I just couldn’t stay The destruction of lives and families was just too much But now, I know that I will never really be fine with myself if I don’t discover the truth, no matter what it takes"

"That’s ominous," Katie told hiunpoint or anything of the like But I’ woht-Tanya was fond of living, believe o Of course, everyone had been talking about it at the time It was a small community, especially as far as true conchs-those ere born and bred in Key West-went Even fresh-water conchs-those who had been in Key West at least seven years-were often rare Naturally, a scandal, a murder that involved one of the city’s oldest faossip

"I’m sorry, I don’t remember much about the case I mean, to be honest, we all whispered about it, but our parents would always hush us up And my brother was upset, of course, and ent to the funeral-everyone in toent to the funeral But I don’t know a lot about as discovered The body was found in a fairly pristine condition She hadn’t decomposed arding the case," Katie said She flushed, realizing the things she was saying had to be painful, since he had known Tanya so well Loved her, at least at some point in his life

He stared at her aher breath But he let out a soft sigh and she was grateful that he didn’t seery, or that he hadn’t taken her words as callous

"Our relationship was over," David said "I was sad, ry I’d been gone a long tiht course I know at the tirandfather had been worried about finances and he was deterured that would overn woman with little to do down here but bask in the sun I wasn’t that surprised that she left irl We’d parted ways-she had written me before I returned home to tell me that time and distance were too eht I hadn’t seen her since I’d coh I heard she intended to talk to ize for what she had done She didn’t uy in the letter I’d heard about that through others, but I was hardly surprised She was supposed to leave in the next few days to live in Ohio but I’d heard from others that she e of heart That night Or e up to coht that ere over I’d helped out at thein the museum I’d always loved the Carl Tanzler story-Iit with relish, I believe And then, there she was Tanya-where Elena de Hoyos should have rested"

"What-what about the fellow from Ohio she fell in love with?" Katie asked "Did they ever question him?"

"Mike Sanderson He was in Ohio, or on the road to Ohio," David said "He’d left several days earlier Tanya had actually stayed behind to get herself organized She also told people that she’d wanted to see irl, but a very decent hu As far as I remember And that’s painful I remember her dead far better than I reuy was out of state…" Katie murmured

"It’s easy to see why I appeared to be the perfect suspect," David said "Especially because, at tiht Between tours We didn’t find her until the following , and I thank God for the coroner He insisted that she had been killed before nine the night before, and there were a number of people ore that I couldn’t possibly have left the h time to kill her"

"Because she wasn’t killed at the museu enough for lividity to set in-and the way her blood had settled, she’d been on her side for a while after she was killed" He winced "You’re thinking that I shouldn’t be able to talk about her this way?"

She looked at hi that at all," she said "I was just wondering how on earth you could begin to go back to find out what did happen"