The Lesson of Her Death

Ebbans, who ran into the corridor behind the Sheriff’s Department and stared as the back door, now lacking most of its glass, swung slowly closed once more.
    He stepped across the hall to the interrogation room and looked inside then glanced out the broken door and saw Jamie sprinting away from the station house.
    “Deputy, you better—”
    Ebbans turned his gaunt face to Mahoney. “Jamie wouldn’t run like that. What’d you say to him?”
    Mahoney nodded toward the shattered door. “You better stay on him. You know where he’s going.”
    Ebbans said evenly, “I should tell you, sir, I think you’re a real son of a bitch.”
    “Deputy, he’s getting away.”
    “What are you doing here?” Corde asked.
    Mahoney, walking through the squad room, glanced at the coffee he sipped. “Devil’s brew.”
    “Were you in there with my son?”
    “I just looked in on him. He and T.T. were talking.”
    Corde stepped into the corridor and saw the empty room. He returned as Mahoney was dumping sugar into his cup. “Where is he?”
    “Your kid? I think T.T. said they were going to the lake and look around. I don’t know.”
    Corde walked to the front door. “He should’ve told me.
    Mahoney noticed the evidence envelopes containing the Polaroids and the messages they carried. “What’s this?”
    Ribbon answered tentatively, as if asking for Corde’s approval, “Somebody left them for Bill. He thinks they might be his daughter.”
    “You show them to her, ask her about it?”
    “She didn’t see them, no. My daughter has a learningdisability. She’s going through a rough time right now. This would upset her.”
    “Well,” Mahoney said with an exasperated laugh, “that’d be a shame, but—”
    “I asked her if anybody’d taken her picture recently and she said no.”
    “You say she’s slow?”
    “She’s not slow,” Corde said evenly. “She has an above-average IQ. She has dyslexia and dyscalculia.”
    “Does she now? Maybe somebody talked her into posing and warned her not to tell anybody about it. That happens all the time.”
    “I know my daughter.”
    Mahoney, fingering the photos, said, “Your son, does he have a Polaroid camera?”
    Corde turned to Ribbon. “Can I see you for a minute, Steve?”
    The men walked into the sheriff’s office, Corde leading. Ribbon left the door open. Corde reached back and closed it. He hardly ever lost his temper but the problem was he couldn’t tell when it was going to happen.
    Ribbon said, “All right, Bill, I understand—”
    Corde’s teeth pressed together fiercely. “No more with that guy! I don’t want him crossing my path.”
    “He’s—”
    “Let me finish. It may be that Jamie knows a little more than he’s saying but you know him as well as any boy in town and he wouldn’t take those pictures. I’m not going to listen to this crap anymore!”
    “But Mahoney doesn’t know Jamie at all and you can’t condemn him for asking the question.”
    “Hell yes I can! This thing is
way
out of hand. The town’s scared out of its mind. We got the paper counting down the days till another moon and we’re going to get ten more folk shot.”
    “You’ll remember it was my thought not Charlie’s about the moon.”
    “Was he interrogating Jamie?”
    Ribbon paused. “He’s been helping out some. Bill … Look, he’s a famous homicide detective.”
    “Oh, Steve, come on.”
    “We need all the help we can get. This isn’t a frat hazing that got out of hand.”
    “Do you know where T.T. took my son?”
    “I don’t know if he did. Or where.”
    Corde opened the door and walked into the squad room.
    Mahoney said, “Hold up, Detective.”
    Corde walked toward the door.
    “Hey, Detective …”
    Corde kept going.
    The window was open, letting in the scent of lilacs and whatever snatches of breeze might penetrate the stale-ness of the room. The morning was quiet. Philip’s father was at the warehouse. His mother was asleep. She hadn’t wakened her children in time for school. Philip lay in bed, eating from a box of graham crackers. Crumbs dusted his chest and stomach. He’d wait until ten, when his PE class was over then wake his mother and have her write him a tardiness excuse.
    Outside he heard footsteps. He rolled over and looked out the window. “Hey, Phil!” The voice was urgent.
    Philip looked into the stand of lilac bushes. He saw Jamie Corde, sweating and pale. “Hey, Jano, what’s the matter?”
    “I went by the school.