Page 25 (1/2)

"Understandable"

In the main room, bedsheet curtains had been ripped down Shafts of dust-ht sliced across an old television set, a bare plywood bookshelf, a beanbag chair that had been cut open, its polyfoauts spread across the cement floor The tiny kitchen had been ransacked Bathroom likewise, even the top of the toilet tank removed

The first bedrooainst one as a teak sideboard with the glass reo fire, an old foot-pedal Sears machine on top A stripped bed fra on the as a s was heaped in the corner -- sweats, tank tops, running shorts, the kind of clothes Hector Mara wore The room smelled of old perfume and sweat Neither the clothes nor the smell of sith the rest of the roorandmother's death and never bothered to redecorate

There was a second bedroom down the hall at the end of the L

Despite the police ransacking, I knehose room it was thewoht of day in years were now disgorged from a closet in the corner -- Jordache jeans, fuzzy sweaters, et from Solo Serve and La Feria The upturned dresser drawers had spilled silver bangles, randos, a few sparse iteirl There were no CDs, no azines, few personal effects Most notable was the ankle-deep pile of books and loose papers that had been swept off the shelves against one wall

I toed through sout, Bronte An African Ay, a Latin Aood for a high schooler

I picked up the Sylvia Plath The library pocket pasted to the inside cover said JUDSON ISD The book had been due May 12, seven years ago Hell of a late fee Of course, before Sandra Mara had checked it out, the book had been borrowed exactly once, in 1975 Probably JUDSON ISD hadn't h school essays -- double-spaced cursive, , 1992 One was on "The Wife of Bath" I scanned half a paragraph and was depressed to find it better than

I picked up another book -- this one with a goldjournal The first half of the book was filled with tiny cursive handwriting, distinctly feain, Ana DeLeon was standing at the

On the sill next to her were three porcelainnoses and cherry cheeks and glazed ruer absently around the rim of one

"Mind if I check this out?" I asked

It took her a while to focus on me "What?"

"This journal Hector's sister's I thought I would borrow it"

"Let es She looked at the words without reading thees of the cover

She handed the journal back to me "I should tell you no But I can't see that it'll be raphs"

"What?"

"No photographs anywhere," I told her "None of Sandra None of anybody else, for thatthe search?"

"I don't recall any"

I looked out theUnder a stand of cedars, half a dozen chickens were clucking and pecking around the feet of souys

One of the reasepaint under his eyes, glanced in my direction I smiled He didn't s sailor's-head s didn't offer any advice

I looked toward the closet

"What?" DeLeon asked immediately

I walked over to the closet, crouched down, tugged the tiny glinting piece of red and gold paper from the crack in the cement

DeLeon stood over me "What is it?"

I kept the paper wrapper curled in er traced the almost invisible seam on the closet floor -- the square outline I would've missed if not for the paper "Trapdoor"

DeLeon said, "Stand back"

DeLeon yelled out thefor some assistance, somebody with a crowbar

Thirty seconds later the little room was filled with cops

A minute after that the exciteain, staring down at a crawl space that smelled of cool damp earth and was absolutely empty

"So much for that," she said

"Let me call Ralph"

"No"

"In another twenty-four hours, Mara will be gone An APB won't acco and you know it"

"I said no, Tres"

The use of uard as much as the tone of her refusal

"Ana, I want to see you win on this Let me help"

She turned away After a ten-count she surprised me She said, very softly, "Let me think about it"

I didn't push it I walked to theand looked out at Hector's sarden, the apple tree with the muddy tracks of his Ford Galaxie still fresh underneath, the white ine a young wo up fro surprised every time that the scene outside was not the asphalt-and-brick housing of the Bowie Courts

I flicked a slip of paint off theledge, watched it helicopter into a sailor's-head et used to it here The quiet The country"