check.”
Tommy stepped out into the hall, where he heard the district attorney tell Dani she wanted to coordinate their schedules. A large portrait of the current governor of New York hung at the end of the hall.
Tommy waited until Dani was alone, and then he had his chance. “That was impressive,” he said. “I think you passed the audition.”
“What do you mean, audition ? How did you know it was my first time?”
“I didn’t know it was your first time,” he said. “I just thought you looked nervous. You kept touching your hair. That’s a tell. According to the guys I play poker with.”
“I was doing that?” Dani said. “Gosh. I’m so hungry, I can’t think straight.”
She asked him not to talk to the media.
“We want to keep the kids’ names out of the papers for as long as possible. The reputable media know not to publish the names of minors, but there’s no way to control the digital media or the blogosphere,” she said.
“Gotcha,” Tommy said. “What was the deal when Casey left the room?”
“I asked him not to show Liam pictures from the crime scene. He wanted to see how Liam would react, but if he’s innocent, it would scar him for life. I asked him to let me try to talk to him.”
“Looks like it worked,” Tommy said. He worked up his courage. “You wanna get something to eat? It’s lunchtime.”
“No thanks,” she said. “I’m not really hungry. I still have work to do here. They found an old woman wandering in the woods who might have seen something.”
“Abbie Gardener,” Tommy said. “Don’t get your hopes up. She’s mad as a hatter.”
“Abbie Gardener?”
“Crazy George’s mom,” Tommy said. “Author of all those scary books.”
“I know who Abbie Gardener is,” Dani said. “How did you know she’s the one they picked up?”
“They found her at my house,” Tommy said. “In my yard. Talking to a frog. But I didn’t recognize her. I remember when she came to our fourth-grade class. She must have been a hundred years old then.”
“So she would have been a hundred and three by the time you finished fourth grade,” Dani said.
Tommy laughed. “Good one.”
“Why do they call him Crazy George?”
“Probably because when we were kids, he’d go crazy if you stepped on his property.”
As he drove back to the gym, Tommy reviewed their closing conversation. He had no idea what it was he said, but apparently he’d put his foot in his mouth. When he asked her out to lunch, she’d said she wasn’t hungry. A minute earlier, she’d told him she was so hungry she couldn’t think straight.
Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Yet some part of him believed she’d come back into his life for a reason. Seeing her again, he realized the one word that described how he had felt about his friendship with Danielle Harris all those years before: unfinished.
8 .
“No thanks, I’m not really hungry.”
She hadn’t really said that, had she?
Right after telling him she was so hungry she couldn’t think straight. How a mature, sensible, educated, professional woman could become so tongue-tied was beyond her—and for what? A guy she knew half a lifetime ago?
“He must think I’m an idiot,” she said out loud.
Dani spent the afternoon in her office researching Alzheimer’s to prepare to interview Abbie Gardener and certify whether or not the old woman was competent to give reliable testimony or speak in her own defense. She’d read Abbie Gardener’s books as a girl, particularly The Witches of East Salem , which told hard-to-believe stories about some of the very houses and places Dani rode past on the bus on her way to elementary school. Kids called her “the witch lady.” No one dared go near the Gardener Farm on Halloween where, according to local kid lore, three trick-or-treaters had once rung the doorbell and been so frightened by what they saw next that their hair turned white. Parents knew better, but they still steered clear
Tommy stepped out into the hall, where he heard the district attorney tell Dani she wanted to coordinate their schedules. A large portrait of the current governor of New York hung at the end of the hall.
Tommy waited until Dani was alone, and then he had his chance. “That was impressive,” he said. “I think you passed the audition.”
“What do you mean, audition ? How did you know it was my first time?”
“I didn’t know it was your first time,” he said. “I just thought you looked nervous. You kept touching your hair. That’s a tell. According to the guys I play poker with.”
“I was doing that?” Dani said. “Gosh. I’m so hungry, I can’t think straight.”
She asked him not to talk to the media.
“We want to keep the kids’ names out of the papers for as long as possible. The reputable media know not to publish the names of minors, but there’s no way to control the digital media or the blogosphere,” she said.
“Gotcha,” Tommy said. “What was the deal when Casey left the room?”
“I asked him not to show Liam pictures from the crime scene. He wanted to see how Liam would react, but if he’s innocent, it would scar him for life. I asked him to let me try to talk to him.”
“Looks like it worked,” Tommy said. He worked up his courage. “You wanna get something to eat? It’s lunchtime.”
“No thanks,” she said. “I’m not really hungry. I still have work to do here. They found an old woman wandering in the woods who might have seen something.”
“Abbie Gardener,” Tommy said. “Don’t get your hopes up. She’s mad as a hatter.”
“Abbie Gardener?”
“Crazy George’s mom,” Tommy said. “Author of all those scary books.”
“I know who Abbie Gardener is,” Dani said. “How did you know she’s the one they picked up?”
“They found her at my house,” Tommy said. “In my yard. Talking to a frog. But I didn’t recognize her. I remember when she came to our fourth-grade class. She must have been a hundred years old then.”
“So she would have been a hundred and three by the time you finished fourth grade,” Dani said.
Tommy laughed. “Good one.”
“Why do they call him Crazy George?”
“Probably because when we were kids, he’d go crazy if you stepped on his property.”
As he drove back to the gym, Tommy reviewed their closing conversation. He had no idea what it was he said, but apparently he’d put his foot in his mouth. When he asked her out to lunch, she’d said she wasn’t hungry. A minute earlier, she’d told him she was so hungry she couldn’t think straight.
Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Yet some part of him believed she’d come back into his life for a reason. Seeing her again, he realized the one word that described how he had felt about his friendship with Danielle Harris all those years before: unfinished.
8 .
“No thanks, I’m not really hungry.”
She hadn’t really said that, had she?
Right after telling him she was so hungry she couldn’t think straight. How a mature, sensible, educated, professional woman could become so tongue-tied was beyond her—and for what? A guy she knew half a lifetime ago?
“He must think I’m an idiot,” she said out loud.
Dani spent the afternoon in her office researching Alzheimer’s to prepare to interview Abbie Gardener and certify whether or not the old woman was competent to give reliable testimony or speak in her own defense. She’d read Abbie Gardener’s books as a girl, particularly The Witches of East Salem , which told hard-to-believe stories about some of the very houses and places Dani rode past on the bus on her way to elementary school. Kids called her “the witch lady.” No one dared go near the Gardener Farm on Halloween where, according to local kid lore, three trick-or-treaters had once rung the doorbell and been so frightened by what they saw next that their hair turned white. Parents knew better, but they still steered clear
Similar Books
