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She and my mother looked at me with disbelief, then sympathy "Not steal," Mãe said "She meant take away evidence"

It took me a few seconds to coht I ht be involved in Mysty’s disappearance Meantime, Grace jumped onto the sofa between irl, the one who caht?" Dashay waved her hands, as if to conjure a name

"Do you ht, rang the buzzer on the gate She wanted to talk to you"

"She has an to purr Did she love me, or was she after the shrimp?

"Yeah, well She said she needs to talk to you, and she said she’ll be back"

But Autuht We went to bed early,to the police

The Citrus County Sheriff ’s Office was a brick building in don Inverness, and the interview took place in a pale green rooe United States flag mounted on a wall Mãe was asked to be present The detective, whose na dark trousers and a white shirt with short sleeves He had a face and voice so ordinary that you’d never reray eyes looked as if they’d been bleached He sat opposite us, and he askednotes on a pad

He asked me the same questions he’d asked on the phone: how I’dwe’d been friends, how ht she disappeared; he looked at Mãe fro her to confirm what I’d said, and she always said, "That’s correct"

He asked about our trip to the mall, and I told him aboutus," I said

"What kind of sense? Did you see someone?"

"I felt it I didn’t see anyone"

He didn’t bother to write it down

He asked about Jesse in more detail: Did he and Mysty have a relationship? How close were they? And he knew about Jesse’s visit to our place the week before she disappeared What had we talked about?

Then it became aard Up to that point, I’d answered every question honestly, without cheating--in other words, without listening to his thoughts But now I needed to knoas in his mind, so I tuned in And what I heard shocked me, so much so that ht, Be careful

Detective Morley didn’t really care what I said! He was going through thequestions, but his notes were mostly scribbles that would never be transcribed He’d made up his mind: Jesse had killed Mysty It was only a matter of time, he was sure, before her body was found

"We talked about drinking and driving," I said, my voice clear and e"

Morley said, "Yes, he told us that He has a very high opinion of you"

But he was thinking, Duht and ruined his life, and for what? A little traan to say, "Mysty is not a trairl," I said "She’s bored with her life, uy"

He thanked us for our ti to find her?"

"The fa was botheringI couldn’t quite reain in my mind, and then it came tothe van the day I’d ht they’d walked out of Flo’s He opened his eyes a little wider, and he took some notes--real ones, this time "What kind of van was it?"

I tried to visualize it, to see it as it e There was a name in silver on the back door," I said slowly "Chevrolet"

"Did you notice its license plate?"

"No," I said, "but the driver--" I’d been going to say, "had no eyes," but I got a strong warning froirls, the first time I saw him," I said

The detective wasn’t interested in that

"He was heavyset," I said "He was bald"

We left the station and got into Mãe’s truck--her own, not the rental van, which Dashay was beginning to unload back at the house She waited until ere out of the parking lot before she said, "Why didn’t you tellthe blind s intervened"

We drove back to Ho

As she pulled into the lot in front of Flo’s Place, I said, "I’ve seen him before In Sarasota"

She said, "Okay"