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auren went out after lunch, leaving her bike at home. She could cut into the woods from the cul-de-sac at the end of the road. Mrs. Schneider, of course, never let anyone through her yard—not even a raccoon—but pretty much everyone
else expected the neighborhood kids to use their yards as access points and didn’t mind.
She only needed her bike if she was going straight to the ghost tree, and she didn’t want to start at the ghost tree today.
Lauren had a small green canvas duffel bag that used to belong to her father slung over her shoulder. She had carefully packed this bag with all the things she thought she would need if she actually came across the crime scene.
It was easier for her to think of it that way, to consider it in a distant and scientific manner. If she di
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Night of shades 26
Jesus, I think one of my eardrums is bleeding,” Jake said, holding his hand to his right ear. “What are you doing here?” Lauren asked.Her voice sounded shrill to her own ears. Her hands shook and she’d dropped the duffel bag when she’d spun around.She felt ready to dash away at the slightest provocation, a trembling little rabbit in sight of a fox.Jake reached back and rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish gesture. He’d gotten his hair cut, Lauren noticed now.It was short in the back and a little longer on top.Kind of like Matt Dillon in The Outsiders, she thought, and wondered if Miranda would agree.But Jake’s new haircut was not the point. The point was that he was standing there in her woods (my woods???) very close to a m
Night of shades 27
The last person Miranda expected to see in that part of the woods was Lauren. She hid behind an old oak wide enough to keep her body out of sight and peeked around the edge. Lauren and Jake Hanson were walking back in the direction ofLauren’s neighborhood, carrying large plastic bags. Were they out here picking up trash?Miranda snorted to herself. Real romantic, Lauren. Why don’t you take him down to the pharmacy and ride the mechanical pony for a dime while you’re at it?But the sight of them together, and this deep in the woods, annoyed her. She and Lauren almost always stayed near the ghost tree, and she hadn’t imagined that Lauren would even enter the forest without her. She was such a little mouse.Miranda thought that without her friend, Lauren would sit
Night of shades 28
Alex found his opportunity to sneak down to the archives late in the afternoon. Hendricks and Pantaleo were out patrolling. Christie was in a meeting with the mayor about the security preparations for the fair. About two hours afterlunch Miller fell asleep in his chair, his head lolling forward onto his chest. Miller had his legs up on his desk at the time. Alex wondered if he would stay in that position or if the rolling wheels of Miller’s chair would slowly creep away until his feet crashed to the ground.Would he wake up if that happened? Possibly not.Once Alex and Miller had been out on the county road with the speed gun and Miller had conked out in the passenger seat. When an out-of-towner in a yellow Mustang went by doing a cool eighty-five miles per hour Alex had flipped on the lights and sirens and
Night of shades 29
Lauren and Jake emerged from the woods the same way that Lauren had gone in—through the Arakawas’ yard. Mrs.Arakawa’s white Mazda 626 wasn’t in the driveway and Lauren was glad. She didn’t want to answer any questions right now about what they’d found in the woods, or why she’d gone in alone but returned with Jake.From the Arakawa house there was a fairly commanding view of the cul-de-sac and the houses on the street beyond. Lauren saw Jake’s bright orange Gremlin in his driveway six houses away from the cul-de-sac. A few houses past that was Lauren’s home.There was a police car parked in front of her house, and she saw her mother standing by the mailbox talking to Officer Hendricks.Her first thought was Great, I can hand these bags
Night of shades 30
Sofia Lopez stared at the two plastic-wrapped packages that Lauren diMucci had left on her dining room table. She didn’t want to touch them, felt vaguely that they were like grenades with their pins pulled partway out.She couldn’t leave the bags on the table. If Lauren was right—and she’d certainly believed she was right, Sofia could see that—then these bags were valuable evidence. If they weren’t moved, one of the children was sure to find them and grow curious about what was inside. It was fortunate that all three of them were off playing elsewhere when Lauren arrived.They’d been in the backyard earlier but as the other children of the neighborhood drifted out to play, the lot of them had migrated to another yard, one that had a tree house. Daniel and Camila had run inside onl
Night of shades 31
Alex stood on the lawn and waited for Riley to drive away. He wanted to make sure the man was gone before following Sofia and Bea into the house.Alex heard Bea’s sobs coming from the kitchen. He saw the black plastic garbage bags that Sofia had called him about on the dining room table.He desperately wanted to know what was in those bags. He also wanted to talk to Lauren diMucci about where she found them. Sofia hadn’t been able to give him a great deal of information. She only told him that Lauren had found some things that belonged to the two dead girls in the woods, and that Lauren didn’t want her mother to know what she’d been doing so she asked Sofia to take them.But Alex knew he couldn’t go through the bags while his sister-in-law was in the kitchen crying. First
Night of shades 32
Lauren found herself walking very slowly to her own house. Normally she would rush to Officer Hendricks’s side (God, you really did do that. What a stupid little puppy he must think you are), but she didn’t want to talk to him today.It had something to do with Jake and his declaration, she realized. She felt guilty about accepting his invitation to the fair and then talking to Officer Hendricks, even though she shouldn’t. It wasn’t as if Hendricks was planning on asking her out himself.And you know that you really do like Jake.She liked what she knew of him, she amended. He had been kind to her when they were young, and kind to her when she’d been sick. He was smart—she knew that because he’d graduated from high school early, and he would
Night of shades 33
Karen waved good-bye to Officer Hendricks—Aaron, he told me to call him Aaron—as he climbed into his patrol car and drove away. She’d been out front watering the flowers when he pulled up at the end of the driveway.It had been a surprise when he stopped, and even more of a surprise when she realized he didn’t have Luke Pantaleo with him. The two of them were always together.At first she thought he might deliver more information about Joe’s death—a witness that had come forward, a suspect in custody. But he said he’d just come by to see “how all of you are doing.”Somehow a simple check-in had turned into almost an hour of conversation. They’d started chatting about books and movies and travel. Karen had never realized before how mu
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