I breathed in, breathed out, looked at the wall behind his ear.
"You and your ‘brother' have been questioned lots of times," he said. His name tag read, Green. He waited to make sure I'd heard he'd put "brother" in quotes.
Since there was nothing to respond to, I did some of my own waiting.
"No one's ever put you behind bars," he said.
This was another indisputable fact, and I did some more waiting.
"Of course, they should've."
Opinion. Didn't call for a response. My parents hadn't been lawyers for nothing.
"You know what they say about people from this neck of the woods," Green said. "The kind of people who go to family reunions to get a date?"
Green was from somewhere else, I assumed. I slid lower in the plastic chair.
"I figure you and your brother are people like that," he said, with a most unpleasant smile.
Another opinion, and one he knew was based on incorrect information.
"He's not really your brother, is he?"
"Stepbrother," I said.
He was taken aback. "But you introduce him as your brother."
"Simplification," I said. I crossed my legs the other way, just to have a change. I was ready to eat lunch. Tolliver and I would go to a restaurant, or we'd get something at the grocery store to heat up in the little microwave we carried with us and plugged in at motel rooms. We'd talked about buying a little house outside of Dallas. We would have a bigger microwave there, or maybe I'd learn to cook. I liked to clean; that is, I didn't exactly love the process, but I did love the result. I might subscribe to a magazine, something it had never been practical for me to do. Maybe National Geographic. The December after we moved into the house, Tolliver and I would buy a Christmas tree. I hadn't had a Christmas tree in ten years.
"... hearing a word I say?" Greyhound Green's face was drawn with anger.
"No, I haven't. I'm ready to go now. You know I didn't kill that poor woman. You know Tolliver didn't, either. There's not a reason in the world we'd want to do anything to her. You just don't like me. But you can't put me in jail because you don't like me."
"You prey on the grief of others."
"How?"
He glared at me. "They're grieving, wanting closure, and you and your brother turn up like crows to pick at the carcass."
"Not so," I said briskly. I was on sure ground, here. "I find the body. Then they have closure. They're happier." I got to my feet, feeling my legs prickle after sitting so long in the same chair. "We'll stay in town as long as you want. But we didn't hurt Helen Hopkins. You know it."
He stood, too, and tried to think of something to say that would stop me from leaving, convict me of some crime. But there was nothing, and he had to watch me leave. I knocked on the door of the next room. "Tolliver," I called. "Let's us go."
After a pause, Tolliver opened the door and stepped out. I looked up at him, and saw his eyes were filled with rage. I gently put my hand on his cheek, and when a moment had passed, he relaxed. Together, we walked out of the tiny Sarne police station and over to the car. The grass around the courthouse was starting to brown, and the big silver maple leaves cartwheeled across it exuberantly.
Following the path of one leaf, my eyes lit on Mary Nell Teague. She was waiting for us, her face eager. No, she was waiting for Tolliver. I was clearly a shadow walking beside him, in her eyes. She'd parked her little car right by ours, which must have been difficult. It was a Saturday, and the town was busy.
A group of teenage boys was clustered around the war memorial. They could have been teenagers from anywhere in the United States—jeans, T-shirts, sneakers. Maybe their haircuts weren't cutting edge, but that wouldn't bother anyone here. I wouldn't have had a second look at them if I hadn't realized they were watching us. They didn't look friendly. The tallest one was glaring from Nell to Tolliver.
"Hmm," I said, wanting to be sure Tolliver had noticed the boys.
"Psychics are all crap," the tallest boy said, loud enough for us to hear. Of course, that was his purpose. He was probably on the football team, probably class president. He was the alpha wolf. Handsome and brawny, he was wearing sneakers that had cost more than every stitch I was wearing added together. "The devil is in people who say they talk to the dead," he said even louder. Mary Nell was probably too far away to hear him, but she was glancing back and forth from the pack of boys to us, and she looked, in turn, indignant, horrified, and excited. I thought we had us a little love triangle going on here: Alpha Boy, Mary Nell, and Tolliver. Only, Tolliver didn't know about it.
I was becoming antsier by the second. The boys were moving to intercept us. Tolliver had gotten the keys out of his pocket and pressed the pad to unlock the doors.
Mary Nell, moving swiftly, intercepted us just before the boys did. "Hey, Tolliver!" she said brightly, taking his arm. "Oh... hi, Harper." I tried not to smile at my second-class status. It was easier not to smile when I saw there was no way to avoid some kind of confrontation with the boys. Alpha Boy laid his hand on Nell's shoulder, halting her progress, and therefore ours.
"You shouldn't be hanging around with these people," he said to Mary Nell. I could tell from his voice he had known Nell for a long time, and had a proprietary interest in her.
Alpha Boy might have known her for a long time, but he hadn't known her well. Her little face tightened with anger. He'd embarrassed her in front of her newest fixation, an exotic out-of-town older man. "Scotty, you don't have any say over me," she said. "Tolliver, let's us go to the Sonic and have a Coke."
Tolliver was caught between a rock and a hard place, and I waited to see what he'd do to get out of it. While he squirmed, I looked from young male face to young male face, trying to meet each set of eyes and smile, the squeaky non-sexual smile of a newscaster. Only two of them made the effort to nod to me; the others either evaded my gaze or scowled at me. This was not good.
"Mary Nell, I'd like to, but Harper and I have to go back to the motel and make some phone calls," Tolliver said. I could see him casting around for something to say that would simultaneously salvage her pride, get him off the hook, and mollify the angry columns of testosterone that were glowering at us. There was nothing that would serve all three functions.
"Maybe Mary Nell would like to have supper with us tonight," I said unwillingly. It was not so much that I was trying to show the girl some mercy; if she got angry with us, her anger would give the boys permission to attack.
I saw the conflict on Mary Nell's face pass in a flash; it was I who had asked, which negated the value of the invitation, but it did save her face, to some extent. "That would be wonderful," she said, giving me the barest glance. "I'll see you at six at the Ozark Valley Inn."
I had no idea where that was, but I said, "See you then," and Nell walked away to her car very quickly, her head held high. Just as quickly, Tolliver and I got in our car and drove away, stopping at the next light to buckle our seat belts.
Tolliver looked angry and embarrassed. "Too bad you don't want to be in a boy band," I said, after a minute of riding in silence. "You've obviously got the charisma."
"Oh, shut up!" he said. "How about you? You gonna be one of the Babes of Law Enforcement?"
"Well, at least Hollis is legal age... ." I began, but then I couldn't help smiling.
Tolliver managed a small upcurve of the lips. "Where the hell is the Ozark Valley Inn?" he said.