"So you don't believe me. You think I'm lying."

This was a matter-of-fact announcement. He wouldn't hold Corde's eyes, which was okay with Corde because he would sure have trouble looking back into his boy's.

"Son, we need to know what happened. I don't remember where you were that night, I -"

Jamie leaned forward. "How would you know where I was any night?"

Diane said sternly, "Don't talk to your -"

He continued, "Where was I last night? Two nights ago? How the hell would you have any idea?"

His mother rebuked, "Young man." But there was no edge to her words.

The boy was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "I went fishing. I was there by myself."

A felony investigator, Corde had a dozen tricks he could try to drag the real story out of the boy. Bluffs and traps and intimidations. He'd learned them from his journals and seminars and bulletins. He'd practiced them in his continuing education courses. He'd tried them out on car thieves and burglars. He couldn't bring himself to use them now; he was crying out for the truth but he wanted it only one way.

"Were you fishing by the dam?"

"Not so close to the dam. Up a ways, in somebody's yard."

"I've told you you're not to trespass there."

Jamie didn't answer.

Corde asked, "Did you see the girl or anyone else that you hadn't recognized before?"

"No. I just fished then I came home."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before? You knew I was on the case."

"Because I was there alone and I didn't see anything. What was there to say?"

"Jamie, please."

The boy looked away. "I'm going to my room."

"Jamie…" Corde scooted forward on the couch and touched his son's knee. The boy remained unresponsive.

Corde asked the question he'd been putting off. "The other night, Wednesday, you weren't home either, were you?"

Diane said, "Bill, what are you asking?"

Jamie kept his eyes on his father. "He wants to know my whereabouts the night the second girl was killed. That's what he's asking."

Corde said, "Wait a minute, son. You can't treat this so light. T.T. and Steve are going to want to talk to you…" Jamie walked casually out of the living room. Corde's face went bright red with fury and he stood. Then he sat slowly on the couch again.

Diane said, "You know he didn't have anything to do with it."

"I know he was there." Corde looked at her miserably. "And I know he's lying to me. That's all I know."

Dear Sarah…

She read the note again but had trouble because of the voices from the other room. Something was going on with Jamie. Her brother scared her some. At times she idolized him. When, for instance, he would include her in what he was doing – like repeating jokes to make sure she got the punch line or taking her along when he went shopping at the mall. But other times he'd look at her like she wasn't even in this world, as if he was looking through her. He would get all dark and secretish. In Jamie's dresser Sarah had found magazines filled with pictures of women without any clothes on and a lot of copies of Fantagore - movie scenes of monsters, and people being stabbed or cut up.

She guessed her father had found the magazines and that was why they were fighting.

She tried to ignore them now and turned back to her immediate problem.

Which was what should she give to the Sunshine Man?

She wanted him to have something special. Something personal from her. But when she tried to think of a present her mind went blank. Maybe she could -

The sounds from the next room grew louder. Jamie was mad and her parents spoke in grim voices. It was the way they had talked when Grandpa got sick in the middle of the night and went to the hospital and then didn't come home ever again.

Then the voices finally stopped and she heard Jamie go into his room and close the door and she heard music start up, the soundtrack from that science fiction movie he'd seen three or four times.

What would the Sunshine Man like?

When her parents went to parties her mother always took a cake or something like that. But Sarah didn't know how to bake. She looked around the room, surveying her toys, videotapes, a dozen stuffed animals… Ah, that seemed like a good choice – because he had made Redford T. Bedford fly out to the circle of stones two weeks ago it was pretty clear that he liked animals and they liked him.

She picked one, a small cinnamon bear that her mother had named Chutney.

She put a pink scarf around Chutney's neck and then carried him to the window and together they looked out over the backyard. She took the note from her pocket. This time she read it out loud so that the bear could hear what the Sunshine Man had written to her.

Dear Sarah, meet me tomorrow at our magic stones. Be there at three o'clock. Don't tell anyone. I'll make sure you never have to go to school ever again.

Dean Larraby said, "I suspect you have two minds about it."

Brian Okun said, "Well, of course… What can I say? He's my boss. I've learned more about literature from him than from anyone. I respect him immensely."

The dean continued, "He was in San Francisco when the murders were committed. So the rumor that he was involved in the girls' deaths, well, there's no foundation to that."

"You mean, Leon was a suspect?"

"The police, you know how it is. Fools. But I'm not concerned about the deaths. The question is whether Professor Gilchrist was dating either Jennie Gebben or Emily Rossiter. Do you know if he was intimate with either of them?"

"Is that what you asked me here about?"

"You're the one he's closest to."

Okun shook his head. "But if he's not a suspect…"

The dean's square matronly face turned to Okun. This was her pose of sincerity but she spoke with menace. "I think the most despicable misuse of power is for a professor to seduce his students."

"I agree one hundred percent. But I don't believe it for a minute about Professor Gilchrist. In fact the only rumors I heard were about him and Jennie. Nothing about Emily."

"So you did hear something."

He paused, his eyes evasive with embarrassment. "But you can't believe campus gossip…"

"If he was sleeping with her I'll have him dismissed at once."

"Of course the temptation's there. He lives alone, you know. He's a recluse." Okun shook his head. "No, what am I saying? No, as far as I know he never dated her." The voice lowered. "There was some talk, you know, that he was a, well, homosexual."

The South surfaced in both grimace and inflection. "That's nearly as bad," she muttered.

As bay-ad. Okun deliberated for a moment. "I…"

"Yes?"

He shook his head. "I was going to suggest something. But it doesn't really seem supportable."

"Please say it."

"Well…" Okun's voice faded and his eyes landed on the dean's diploma. University of Kentucky. Chabm school…

She said, "I hope you feel your first loyalty is to Auden."

He sighed. "Dean, I'm as concerned about this as you are. To be blunt, I've invested a lot of time and effort in Leon. I have nothing but respect for him and I want to see him vindicated. I want the opportunity to prove he's innocent. Let me check around his office, see if I can find something about Jennie. Maybe a note from her. Maybe an entry in his desk calendar. If I can't, well, let's just accept that this was a tragic rumor. If I do I promise I'll show it to you and you can make your own decision."

"That's very courageous of you."

"It's not courageous at all. This school's been good to me. I owe Auden a great deal." Okun paused. "The only thing is…"

"Yes?"

"Well, I'd be taking a big risk. This would be, well, spying." He extended his palms and laughed at the plebian word. "Leon would fire me in a minute if he found out I'd looked through his personal things."