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On the way back from Orlando I’d stopped in Gainesville and retrieved Valdez’s file photos from the Mail ’N More The cassette tape had re with the reel tape froht drawer of my desk at work Nobody had a clue I possessed them, which to me seemed the best protection What to do with thenment called for me to turn them over to Stephanie Nelle

But I had to speak with Foster

So I took a personal leave day and drove to Orlando for the funeral

Another lie to Paht have had

Follow-up to what I just did

I’ll be hohtfall

Coleen and Nate were laid to rest together in a small cemetery west of Orlando, beyond the sprawl, in as once orange groves A perfect bowl of bright blue stretched overhead east to west About two hundred people caraveside service Foster sat with a few others, whom I assumed were Nate’s family, in rickety wooden chairs as the final words were said Then everyone filed by and paid their respects Foster re their hand, forcing a sad s

The crowd progressively thinned, everyone leaving the quiet cemetery in cars parked in an orderly line atop the close-cropped grass Foster lingered, and a few of the older folks in the crowd reraves, waiting for a chance to speak with him

Finally, he walked over

“What have you told them?” he asked

Right to the point “Not a thing”

“I knew that about you”

I was puzzled by the observation

“When I first met you in the house by the lake, I told myself you were a man who could be trusted”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Forty years of trusting other people”

“Look what price King paid for trusting you”

He nodded “His life”

“You say that as if itto you”

“On the contrary, it has ruled my every moment for the past thirty-two years”

“Coleen died never knowing the truth”

“I noticed how carefully you chose your words in front of her with Valdez”

“And you said nothing”

“It see I never did was lie to Coleen”

His words ca them I wondered if he really believed his own bullshit

“You still have the tape and the files?” he asked

I nodded “They’re safe No one knows I have the from Oliver”

Which surprised him