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"How tall are you?" I said "You don’t look short to me"

"Five seven"

"She’s only five nine What’s the big deal?" Mac Voorhies tapped on his glass with a spoon about then, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention…" He and Marie had been placed at table two, near the center of the room Jewel and her husband were at the sa the speech to come Maclin Voorhies is one of the California Fidelity vice presidents, lean and huar clamped between his teeth He’s smart and fair-minded, honorable, conservative, ill-tempered so publicly praised by this ht the color to Jewel’s face The rooradually quieted

Mac took a ht to pay hoed to ith As you all knoel Cavaletto is retiring from the company after twenty-five years of service…"

There’s so hypnotic about the tone and tenor of an after-dinner speech, maybe because everyone’s full of food and wine and the roorateful that Mac had bypassed the canned huht to the point I don’t knohatat Mac I caught so out of the corner of my eye and turned my head

It was the kid I blinked uncoe Then I felt a rush of fear

The only clear glimpse I’d ever had of hier had been feigning sleep that day, stretched out on a bench with a azine across his face while Eric knelt on the paveears with his voice I’d seen hi lot, his features indistinguishable in the poorly lighted alcove where his father had taken hih the darkness, an impish peal that reminded me of the shadowy underworld of elves and fairies The last time I’d seen him, his face had beer partially obscured behind the paper sticker on the passenger side of the truck in which his father tried to run linted on his blond head His hair was getting long His eyes were pinned on me and a half-smile played on hisin the corridor just out of sight He was being prorade-school play I could see him say, "What?" I didn’t wait to see what the next line would be

I grabbedmy chair over in the process Dietz turned to look at aze By the time he checked the entrance, it was e toward the hall, tagging Dietz’s arrabbedbehind hiht the co up at us in astonish on Soht of Dietz’s45, but by then he’d reached the entrance and had flattened hiainst the wall He peered around the doorway to the right, glanced left, and drew back "Co me by the arm, he walk-raced us down the corridor to the left, our footsteps thudding on the tiled surface I half-expected him to stash me in Vera’s room while he ran reconnaissance, but instead he steered us toward the exit at the end of the hall At the door, we stopped again abruptly while he ht air hit us like icy water after the war the shrubs as we rounded the corner,lot

"You’re sure it was him?" he asked, his tone low

"Of course I’m sure"

We were on a darkened ay that bordered one of the interior courtyards Crickets were chirring and I could solds Voices up ahead Dietz drew us into the shelter of so I was clutching the Davis,Dietz’s fingers dug painfully into the flesh of ht arm, but that was the only indication I had of how tense he was A couple passed, two of the brides taffeta skirts rustle as they hurried by