I'm told that the Chief also paid Mr. Proctor a visit very soon after one of the farm hands discovered Mae Swenson's body.

The department store became another gathering place for yarn-spinners. If the clerks weren't huddling together to tell campfire tales, the clerks and the customers were huddling together. The customers told better stories, especially those who'd had a few drinks. One of them even suggested that eighty-one year old Mae had had a boyfrienda""one of them male strippers from what I hear"a"who had killed her because she was breaking up with him.

The horror of the b.l.o.o.d.y murder lasted most of the morning. But just after lunch, the horror having been dulled somewhat by now, talk turned to Mae Swenson's fabled and fabulous treasurea"all that loot, all those diamonds somewhere in her house.

I was wondering about the loot myself.

Josh stopped in around two-thirty that afternoon.

"You hear there's a posse combing the woods?"

"I wonder if the Chief knows."

"He's part of it."

"What're they looking for?"

"n.o.body's saying."

He paused a moment and said, "You get off at five?"

"Uh-huh."

"I'll meet you at the front door."

"Where we going?"

He stared at me a long and somber time. "I think we need to talk a little bit about last night."

"The blood?"

"Yeah. The blood."

I looked around the empty shoe department. I wanted to make sure that n.o.body was within hearing distance.

"I didn't kill her, Josh."

"Maybe not. But I have a feeling you know something about it."

"That's different from killing her."

"Not necessarily. You ever hear of 'accessory after the fact?'"

I forced a smile. "You been watching Court TV again?"

"Yeah. I had to do a paper on it. They spent a whole half hour talking about this guy who'd been charged as 'an accessory after that fact.' He got his a.s.s nailed."

"How bad?"

"Ten to fifteen years."

"Wow."

"Something you should think about, brother."

"I'll see you at five."

But right before five Josh called.

"Coach Beaumont's on the rag again. He doesn't think our practices have been going all that well. So he's making us stay till seven."

"We can talk tonight."

"I'm scared for you, Spence. I really am."

And the way his voice quavered when he said it, I could tell that he really was.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Dad said, "I hear there's this nephew."

Mom said, "Nephew?"

We were at the dinner table.

"A nephew who can't hold a job, and who's been in trouble with the law, and who already owed her a lot of money anyway."

"Oh," Mom said, "I heard that one, too. Except it was a niece."

"A niece?"

"Yeah. According to Mrs. Finch there was a niece who's a wet T-shirt gal over in Muscatine."

"What's a wet T-shirt gal?"

"You know, goes around to all these taverns where they have wet T-shirt nights, and always wins first prize. But she was always b.u.mming money off Mae, and last night Mae said no, and so the niece killed her."

"The niece," said Dad, "makes a better story than the nephew."

"She sure does," Mom smiled. "Especially the part about the wet T-shirt contests." Then she looked sad. "Poor Mae. Old woman out there all alone, and somebody does something like this to her."

"I'm glad we've got the death penalty back."

To me, Mom said, "I never used to agree with your dad about the death penalty, remember?"

"Uh-huh."

"But now I do. There's some things that people do that are so terrible there's only one way to punish them." She looked sad again. "And this is one of them."

Fifteen minutes later, I was in the upstairs john, brushing my teeth and combing my hair, and getting ready to go out for the evening.

Not that I had any idea where I was going. But I was restless. I just kept seeing poor Mae there on the bed. There weren't any words for what Garrett had done to her.

I heard the phone ring but I let Mom get it. Most of the calls were for her and Josh.

I was just walking to my room when Mom called up the stairs. "For you." Beat. "Cindy Brasher."

A great joy and a great anger and a great panic came over me. I was already trying to contrive a personality for the phone.

Debonair? Not likely for somebody like me.

Glad to hear from her? No, that would sound like I'd eat up any crumbs she was willing to scatter on the ground.

Ominousa"hinting that I knew about last night? No; I didn't want to sound like a blackmailer.

I picked up the receiver in my room.

"Hi, Spence."

"Hi."

"Is this a bad time? I mean, are you busy?"

"Not especially. Just getting ready to go out."

"Oh, should I call you back some other time?"

"This is fine."

My heart was threatening to tear out of my chest, like that monster in Alien that comes bursting out.

"I wondered if you'd talk to me."

"I thought I was talking to you."

"I mean in person."

"Oh."

"I'd really appreciate it."

"I don't know, Cindy."

"I'm really sorry for the way I treated you."

"Yeah, I'll bet."

"There were things going on, Spencea"things I couldn't talk about till now."

I decided to have a little mean fun.

"Boy, that was terrible about Mrs. Swenson, wasn't it?" Long pause. "I really need to see you, Spence. Tonight."

"What time?" It felt great to have control of a situation that involved Cindy.

"An hour from now."

"Where?"

"Old Franklin school. The one that burned down?"

"Why there?"

"Somebody's following me, Spence. It's not too far from my house. I can slip out the back way and he won't see me go."

Some more mean fun.

"You sound like you're in trouble, Cindy."

"I don't want to talk on the phone, Spence."

"All right."

"I really appreciate this."

"I'm not going to let you use me again, Cindy."

"I don't blame you for being angry."

"What's Garrett going to think about you seeing me?"

Long pause again. "He's the one who's following me."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when I see you."

"An hour?"

"An hour. Anda"thanks, Spence."