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“Who is she talking to?” Brody asked but Lou was already gone The water bottle that had been clutched in her hand rolled across the porch

Lou ran down the drive and Brody took off only seconds behind her They tore down the long winding driveway, dirt flying from beneath their feet in their haste They reached Sarah at almost the same time, just as the dark sedan pulled away Dust flew behind the vehicle, et a license plate number

Lou spun Sarah around, gripping her upper arhtly

“Who was that man?” she asked between broken breaths, choked by exertion

Sarah shrugged her shoulders and looked toward the retreating car “I don’t know, Mo to a house near here and wanted to know if I live at this house Did I do so?”

“Yes! You did so! You are never, never, never, ever supposed to talk to strangers!”

Brody was much more composed than Lou He bent down beside Sarah “Can you tell us what he looked like? Did he say anything else to you?”

“He had on a baseball cap and he smelled like cherry s her finger lightly on her temple

“Cherry smoke?”

“Yeah Like that ar when he came to see Mr Jeb”

“But it wasn’t the sahed and looked at Brody “That’s probably all she noticed”

Sarah looked toward the house and commented, “Why is an ambulance here? Is someone sick?”

Lou patted her gently on the shoulder “The aht Mrs Wester home from the hospital”

“But I have not finished my card yet!”

“You’ll have plenty of ti to take a nap now and you can see her later if Dr Wester says it’s okay”