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Little D checked the coot in and started it, pulling it forward a few feet to allow ot out

“You gots to go now,” he said

“Thanks for co and prone on the pave labored “What?”

“Don’t ask,” he said

Tina was still crying softly, clinging to rasp, while keeping an arot in and drove aithout looking back

Thirty iven h to make so CID and couldn’t reach a detective Rather than waste precious ti up and called Little D

He said he would park far fro place and approach the lot from the woods He assured me he could make it I didn’t know he had until I heard the shots

We hadn’t discussed ould happen And I hadn’t given it ht As I drove off with Tina beside me, I was struck by my lack of concern that Diesel was a dead uilty, but I felt only relief, sweet relief

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I took Tina to CID, where Poas being interrogated Turning my evidence over to Detective Harris, I waited with Tina while arrangeency shelter care

Harris told hbor, to come in Maybe she could identify Powell as the person she saw leaving the house the night Shanae was killed Poas slight and light-skinned In the right clothes, he could have passed for a gawky teenager They would check the phone records, to see if he had placed a call to Shanae’s house or vice versa

When they told Tina about her uncle and her father, she showed little ee, but I think the child had shut down She was past the point of feeling further pain She stared, in an almost catatonic state, as aited When an officer came for her, I asked for five minutes I crouched beside Tina

“Tina,” I said, handing her ain “You know you can call me, any time, if you ever want to talk”

“Why he do it?” she asked “Why Mr Powell kill my moms?”

“He was involved in so trouble He would have lost his job, gone to prison When your , it was only a matter of time before Mr Poould have been found out”