Dead Past

to drive off, Jenny saw her parents’ car turning into the parking lot. She yelled for Frank to stop, opened the door, and got out. Her mother and father saw her about the same time and came running to her, leaving their car in the middle of the road.
    After seeing so many burned bodies during the past twenty-four hours, Diane was relieved beyond words to see two happy endings. She thought of Bobby Coleman’s parents, and the parents of the girl with the blond wavy hair. Nothing would ever bring them closure. Diane knew there was no such thing.
    Through her passenger-side window, Diane saw someone she recognized walking out of the Student Learning Center to the parking lot. It was the blond girl’s mother from the coffee tent. She was alone. Diane wanted to cry.
    “Bobby Coleman’s dead, isn’t he?” said Star. Her voice startled Diane out of her thoughts.
    “The police haven’t released any information, yet,” Diane said.
    “But he’s dead. I could tell by your face. The way you had no expression. That’s what you do when you don’t want anyone to see you react—you set your face like that.”
    “Yes, honey, he is. But please don’t tell anyone. I don’t know if his parents have been told.” Diane was silent for several seconds as the Expedition sped across the icy street toward her apartment. “He was the first one to be identified.”
    After a minute, Diane looked in back. Star was curled up on the seat asleep. She wished she could have found Ariel curled up somewhere in the jungle. She was so thankful they had found Star.
    “What’s this about your car being jacked?” Frank said in a low voice.
    “Some kid running from the fire. He tried to get Keith’s car but Keith sped off. He came to me next. I was stuck in the snow.”
    “Diane . . . ,” he whispered. “I can’t leave you alone for any length of time.”
    “Apparently not.”
    “How did you manage? Not anything dramatic and dangerous, I hope?”
    “No. He was injured from the explosion.”
    She made a motion as if chopping her hand off. Frank winced.
    “I persuaded him to get into the backseat and I locked him in. He couldn’t get out because the child locks were on, and he couldn’t climb over to the front in his condition. It gave me time to run. By that time the police came. That’s about all there was to it.” Besides him shooting out my car window , she thought.
    “How is he?” asked Frank. “Will Garnett be able to question him?”
    “Yes, he was going to do that today. The kid was one of the few survivors well enough to talk.”
    They arrived at her house and Frank walked her to her door.
    “I’m so grateful we found Star,” she said.
    He gave her a kiss on the lips—a short kiss, then one that lingered. “I’m glad you were there to help,” he said when he raised his head. “I was pretty frantic. I ran into another parent in the Learning Center looking for her daughter, too. It was scary. I hope she found her.”
    “Me too—and I’m glad you’re home. I missed you.”

    Diane got only three hours sleep but felt refreshed when she awakened at eight o’clock. Finding Star had rejuvenated her as much as a full night’s sleep. She showered, dressed, and made a call first thing to Chief Garnett.
    “Diane, I tried to find you last night. I was told that you and Frank went looking for Star. Did you find her?”
    “Yes. Yes, we did. She was studying in the Student Learning Center with another missing student. It was a good end to a very bad day.”
    “Good. Good. It’s bad enough when it’s people you don’t know. . . . Everyone around here was worried.”
    He paused and cleared his throat. “Uh, McNair’s been on the phone to the commissioner. He’s trying to have you and your team removed from the recovery. Says you are tampering with evidence and compromising the investigation.”
    “That son of a bitch. I hope you know better than that. McNair was the one breaking the seals on the evidence bags. He’s the one who compromised evidence. I called him on it. He and I had words.”
    “I’m not at all surprised. But he does have pull with the commissioner—at least his uncle does.”
    “Well, you know how paranoid David is.”
    “Uh, you’ve said that before, but what does that . . .”
    “David was pretty worked up about it—as he had a right to be. It would not surprise me if he documented McNair’s misconduct by snapping some incriminating pictures with his cell phone camera. We at