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what he’d said. Was he really guessing correctly at what had happened,or did he know what had happened because he had been there in the darkness? Had I been right? What if this guy had watched me through the unshuttered windows as I worked in Gabe’s office? Had he opened the back door to reach inside and turn the lock in the doorknob and then hidden at the edge of the woods?
    I was lobbing questions to myself at a fast clip until one popped up that stopped me cold.
What reason could he have had for being at the house?
I couldn’t see any possible connection between this pool guy and Uncle Gabe.
    Ashley spoke, startling me so much that I jumped. “What was Damien talking about?”
    “That’s his name? Damien?” I blurted out. He looked as though his name should be Rocky or Tony, not Damien.
    “Yes. Damien Fitch. I told you. He lives in the trailer next to Gran’s and he drives that scratched-up black sedan we parked next to. So? Tell me. Why were you yelling for help last night?”
    I told her most of the story, mentioning that I must have accidentally locked the door as I went out, then had panicked when I couldn’t get back inside. I expected her to laugh, but she didn’t.
    “It
is
scary up here after dark,” she said. “I don’t blame you for being frightened.
I
would have been.”
    I was grateful for Ashley’s support. I guess I could have told her my suspicions that someone actually had reached in and locked that door. However, something held me back. Maybe because I just didn’t know Ashley well enough. Maybe because I still didn’t understand her.
    Glenda and Gabe seemed to. During the afternoon,while the four of us played Chinese checkers, Gabe teased Ashley and made her laugh. Glenda and Ashley found they had read the same biography and practically got into a Great Books discussion. To my surprise, I realized that Glenda and Gabe seemed to know more about Ashley than they did about me.
    When Millie Lee drove by to pick up Ashley, Gabe and Glenda appeared to be as sorry to see her go as I was.
    “Come back tomorrow,” I said.
    “I will, if it’s okay with Gran,” Ashley promised.
    “Lovely girl,” Glenda said as she waved at the departing car. “I’m sorry her family …” Her words drifted away, but I remembered what she had told me.
    That evening, when I was alone at dinner with Gabe and Glenda, I asked, “Do you know much about Damien Fitch?”
    “Who’s Damien Fitch?” Gabe asked, his energies focused on the steaming hot, once-frozen lasagna he was eating.
    “He’s the lifeguard at your pool,” I said.
    “Never heard of him,” Gabe said. He took a large bite.
    “We’re just not much for swimming,” Glenda apologized. “I do remember him, though. He came to the house in early May with a membership form to be signed if we wanted to use the swimming pool. He seemed like a pleasant young man. We had a nice chat while he drank his coffee.”
    “You invited him in?” I asked.
    “Why, yes,” she answered. “He asked for a drink of water, and I offered iced tea, but he preferred coffee.”She gave me a questioning look and added, “We’re hospitable in Texas, Julie.”
    Gabe looked up from his plate and asked, “What do you want us to know about him?”
    “Nothing, really,” I answered, feeling stupid because there was no way I could come up with a sensible answer. “I just wondered if you knew him.”
    “We chatted about all sorts of things,” Glenda said. “I remember he asked about the Dime Box, and I told him its story.”
    Gabe scraped the last bite of lasagna from his plate, put it in his mouth, and asked, “By the way, does anybody know where my Dime Box is now?”
    I glanced toward the kitchen counter near the back door. “It’s over—” I stopped short. “If you mean that ceramic bank with the name ‘Dime Box’ on its roof, I was going to say it’s on the counter where you usually keep it, but now it’s not.”
    “Somebody moved it,” Gabe