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I have seen a lot of death--a lot I know death the wayDeath is a fundae into the unknown But Tabitha had e years too early, at the end of a painful and frightening ordeal I was sorry for theabout it hadthat transition, in a way I had yet to understand I filed it away to consider later; maybe another trip to the cemetery would help It was hardly likely I’d be in contact with the body again
I turned onto ainst hts down a mental path so familiar that it had ruts worn in it That path led to my sister Cameron Her face was fuzzy in my memory now, or it took on the contours of her last school picture, which I carried inTabitha’s corpse in such an indirect and unexpected way gave ht find one for six years Like Tabitha, she was snatched out of the strea her backpack behind on the shore as witness to her departure When Cameron had beco for her I’d roused h to feel she could watch Mariella and Gracie for at least a little while, and I’d trudged through the sweltering heat, following the route Caetting to be twilight by then Cameron had stayed at school later than I because she was helping to decorate for a dance; the senior prom, I think
I’d found her backpack, fully loaded with the school-books, notebooks, notes passed to her in class, broken pencils, and se And that was all that was left of Cah its compartments, asked me about the content of every note Then we’d asked for its return Today, we carried that backpack in the trunk of our car
When Tolliver caain, to lie flat onaboutto pick up Art at the airport," he said "I got it all arranged"
"Thanks," I said, ive hi bed, shoes properly off I let hiave him another one
"Looking back on the ceave me a moment to fix my attention back on the nearer past
"Okay," I said, to let him knoas ready to listen
"Did you notice that uy who looked to be about thirty-five or so?"
"Dark brown hair, five ten, ht Yes, of course I noticed hi fishy about him?"
"There was another older student," I said, not really protesting Tolliver’s direction, but testing it out
"Yeah, but she was a regular person There was souy; he was there for a purpose, not because he had to be You think he was some kind of professional debunker? There to spot hoe did it, and expose us?"
"Well, I think that was Clyde Nunley’s goal in teaching the course, don’t you? Not an inquiry to stimulate students’ minds to seriously consider spiritualism and the people who practice it, but to prove that it’s all claptrap"
"But not as I don’t know, this guy seeenda He was purposeful"
"I knohat you mean," I said
"You think we’ve been set up?"
"Yes, I sure do think so Unless this iscoincidence in the history of coincidences"
"But why?" Tolliver turned his head to look at me
"And who?" I countered
The worry in his face mirrored my own
My business would die without word of ht a trail of newspaper and television reporters with me, half the people who useThere are a feho’d love nothing better, but only a few Most clients are e ullible Soh to be just that But very few of thee froood reporter wrote a story on et business from that exposure Lots of officers clipped that story; when all else fails, they h my website My prices scare off some of the people who apply for my services I’m not a lawyer, and no one asks me to do pro bono work
Well, that’s not true People do But I refuse
However, I’ve never left a body unreported If I find one in the course of a job, I’ll report it, and I never ask for extra ot into the news tooat pro bono work, just to get the good press I didn’t want to have to do that
"Who do you think would hire such a person? So
"We’ve found everyone since Tabitha," Tolliver said
Yes, I’d had a long string of successes: cases with enough inforh persistence on my part Bodies found, causes of death confirmed Money in the bank
"Maybe soe anted to check on what the class was being exposed to?" I guessed
"Could be Or soaret’s, who felt the ceious way"
We both fell silent, puzzled and unhappy about too h," I said "No hts as he often did, said, "Yeah"
"Nice people," I said
"You never thought what the police suspected--?"