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"I remember," he said "I just stopped by the motel, as a matter of fact If you can hold on a minute, we can have a chat,"

"Sure," I said I stood there while he and Joleen talked briefly Froathered that she’d been at the high school not that many years before

"I just lostThe authoritarian air I reone His pain seemed so close to the surface, it ain

"I appreciate that, Mr Shales I do Mrs Shales was a nice wo fierce You want to colanced at his watch "I can’t right this ain I wanted you to knoe’re all thinking of you over at the high school Can I help you with anything? You have enough money?"

Joleen see rosy, her voice cracking when she spoke "I’eles tonight I’ll be fine as soon as they get here"

"Well, you let us know if there’s anything we can do I can have one of the senior girls look after the kids tomorrow afternoon Bob Haws said the services are scheduled for two"

"I’d appreciate the help I hadn’t even thought about who’d be keeping the kids Will you be at the funeral? Tap’d be awful glad"

"Of course, I’ll be there He was a fine man and ere all proud of him"

I followed him out to the street, where his car was parked "I pulled school records on Jean Timberlake," he said "If you want to stop by the office, you can see e’ve got You have a car? I can give you a lift"

"I better take mine It’s back at the motel" "Hop in I’ll drop you off" "Are you sure? I don’t want to hold you up" "Won’t take a minute I’m headed back in that direction anyway"

He held the door forinconsequentially during the brief ride back to the Ocean Street I could have walked, but I was trying to ingratiate ht have personal recollections of his own to add to whatever data I found in Jean’s file