“You wanted to be alone, but you picked up Shannon Randall?”

“She came running down the road, where it dead-ends by the library. She’s my friend. I stopped to see if she wanted a ride.”

Ranieri leaned in again. The movement was intimidating, as it was intended to be.

“She wasn’t just your friend. You had a crush on her. You followed her around, didn’t you? Followed her after school? Kept tabs on her…”

“No, I-”

“You were thinking about the dance because you were thinking about asking her to go with you, isn’t that right?”

“ Shannon ’s only a freshman, I’m a senior. No way would her folks let her go to the dance with me. Besides, some other girl had asked me but I’d pretty much decided not to go because I need the money for the deposit for college. To save my spot for next year.”

“You’re not going to have to worry about where you’re going to be living next year, pal.” Ranieri stood up again and walked around to the front of the table, where he could look the kid in the eye. “That money you saved for tuition? I don’t think you’re going to be needing it.”

Beale broke then, and started to cry.

“Did Shannon cry, Eric? Did she cry when you hurt her?”

“I swear to you…I swear to you, I did not hurt her.”

“Where’d the blood come from, Eric?” Ranieri stood across the room, his arms folded over his chest. “Why was her blood on your shirt?”

“I told you, she was messed up when I picked her up. Her mouth was bleeding. Her eye was swollen. She asked me to take her to the park so she could go into the ladies’ room and wash off her face. And I did. I gave her the extra shirt I had in my gym bag so she could clean her face.”

“What did she say happened to her?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Wait a minute. You see this girl, your ‘friend,’ running down the road, her face bleeding and swollen, and you don’t ask her what happened?”

“I did ask. She wouldn’t tell me.”

“What time was that?”

“I don’t know. Five thirty or so, I guess.”

“Tell me about taking Shannon to the park.”

“I just drove in, the gate was still open. I parked in the lot near those log buildings where the bathrooms are. She jumped out of the car and ran in. She was in there for maybe ten minutes or so. She came out, her face was cleaned up, but I could see she was going to have a black eye and her mouth was going to be all swollen the next day.”

“Did you beat her up there in the park?”

“I didn’t beat her up.” Eric Beale looked pale and defeated.

“Right. So then what happened?”

“She got back in the car and gave me back the shirt and said she was sorry she got blood on it. I told her it was okay, to just toss it in the back and I’d take care of it. I asked her again what happened, asked her who hurt her, but she just shook her head and looked out the window.”

“And she didn’t say anything? You’re telling me that someone beat her up, you helped her, but she wouldn’t tell you who?”

“All she said was, it didn’t matter. She just kept saying that over and over. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ I started to drive her home, but when we got to Montgomery, she asked me to stop the car, so I pulled over. She picked up her book bag and thanked me for the ride and for helping her, but she said she had to get out there.”

“In the dark? Three blocks from home?”

Beale nodded.

“And you let her?”

“I couldn’t stop her.”

“You know what I think, Eric? I think you picked her up there on Edgemont, and I think you drove her to the lake, not to the park. And I think she was just fine when she got into your car, Eric. I think you took her out to the lake and you-”

“No!”

“…tried to get it on with her, that’s what I think. And then I think you-”

“I never would have done anything like that! Shannon was my friend!”

“…slapped her around a little when she wouldn’t put out.”

“Don’t even talk about her like that!” Beale’s hand slammed the table defiantly. “ Shannon ’s a good kid. I would never treat her like that!”

“Where is she, Beale?” The FBI agent’s eyes narrowed. “Where is Shannon Randall? What did you do with her? Is she at the bottom of the lake? In one of the caves, maybe, or dumped into one of the ravines out in those hills outside of town? Why don’t you just tell us, save everyone a whole lot of time?”

“I swear, I didn’t do anything to her. I swear it.” Beale was sobbing now. “It’s all like I said. I took her to the park like she asked, so she could clean herself up. I asked her and asked her, but she wouldn’t tell me who hurt her. She got out of my car at Montgomery Avenue and that was the last I saw of her. I swear to God I haven’t seen her since.”

“How do you explain that someone saw you-you-driving on Lakeview, headed out of town with Shannon after seven o’clock?”

“I don’t know.” The boy was shaking now. “I don’t know why someone would say something that isn’t true. There has to be a mistake.”

“The mistake, Eric, is lying to me.”

Matthew Ranieri remained standing, his arms still folded across his chest, thinking of the pain the Randall family was going through at that very minute, certain in his heart that this eighteen-year-old punk not only knew where the girl was, but had been responsible for whatever happened to her.

A cold fist closed around his heart. His own daughter was just two years younger than Shannon Randall. What would he do if someone took off with her and she never came back?

He’d do exactly what he was doing now. And he’d make certain the son of a bitch paid.

June, 2007

Hot summer closed around the Florida panhandle like a tightly clenched fist. Soaring afternoon temperatures and suffocating humidity had thickened the night air, sending those poor souls who lacked air conditioning to seek respite in the nearest source of water, which for the prudent was a swimming pool or the shower. Only a fool would have taken to the lakes or ponds, especially in the dark, gators being what they are.

Dorsey Collins abandoned the air-conditioned comfort of her apartment for the balcony off her living room. The unrelenting sun had faded the orange-and-white-striped cushions on the two patio chairs she’d bought at the end of last year’s season. She’d known when she purchased the chairs with the matching table that the fabric wouldn’t stand up to direct sunlight, but she’d bought them anyway. When you’re on the job, and dealing with life and death on a daily basis, it’s life’s small pleasures that keep you going.

Dorsey leaned over the railing and tried to ignore the mosquitoes buzzing around her face. In the past, mosquitoes rarely bothered her, but lately, everything in her life had been totally screwed up. She was thinking her body chemistry must be reflecting this somehow, drawing a cloud of the little bastards to her whenever she stepped outside.

It really did figure, didn’t it?

She twisted the cap off her beer, took a long, serious swallow, and stared out into the parking lot beyond her apartment building. She’d met very few of her fellow residents in the complex, so she didn’t expect to recognize any of the tenants who were parking in their assigned spaces. By the time the last of the arrivals had disappeared into their respective buildings, she’d finished the beer. She debated whether or not to have another for all of three seconds.

Maybe, she told herself as she pushed aside the sliding door to her living room, just maybe she’d get lucky and pass out while leaning over the side of the balcony, fall three stories to the pavement below, and break her neck, thereby putting herself out of her misery.

It could happen, she reasoned as she opened the refrigerator door just far enough to grab another bottle. She was twisting the cap as she walked back toward the balcony when the phone began to ring. She stopped midstride to listen to the message.