“You want to try to find him?”I ask.
Palomo makes a sound of disgust.
“If she cut him, we might be able to match it.”
“Fuck that,” Palomo says.“You heard her.Nickels doesn’t know what she popped, but she saw her take something when they went back into the bedroom.She’s stoned, and now she’s remembering that if she says anything, Charles is going to kill her.What the fuck does running him down change?”
“He was choking her.”
Palomo shakes her head.
My face feels tight.“Okay.”
I walk back to the front of the trailer.Sam’s right where I left him.He looks even more miserable than he did a few minutes before, probably because he knows how this is going to go—because he heard me and Palomo, or because he caught our tones, or because he’s been on this particular ride before.
“Did you ask her if he was choking her?”
Sam shakes his head.“No, sir.”It’s weird hearing that, too, but if Sam feels it, he doesn’t slow down.“I asked Ms.Ayers if she was okay, and she said no.I asked her what was going on, and she started crying.I asked her to tell me what happened, and she said like I told you.”He flushes.“I mean, she volunteered the information.”
“And you got photos?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about the knife?”
“In the drawer, sir.”
“I know.Did you open the drawer?”
Sam shakes his head.“No, sir.”
“Did she open it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did anyone else touch it?”
“No, sir.”
“The drawer or the knife or anything?”
He looks at me, and with that stink of microwaved pasta sauce filling my nose, it takes me a moment to decode the micro-expression on his face: hurt.Because I should have known better.“No, sir.”
“Good.Good job.What about when she started talking about packing a suitcase?Did she say anything else?”
“No, sir.”
“She didn’t start telling a different version of events?”
“No, sir.”
“Didn’t change how she was talking about it?Like maybe she started saying, ‘I think’ or ‘I don’t remember.’”
“No, sir.She said she was going to pack her suitcase.She said it over and over again, but that’s it.”
“Okay.”And for some reason, I say it again, “Good job.”
“Thank you, sir.”
