Page 37 of Forever Gone

Kelly gave a cautious smile.

“Hello, Selena.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m glad you’re happy to see me.”

Selena pushed one door open but remained in the entrance. “I take it you’re the help Meg sent.”

“Yes, I am.”

Neither moved.

Kelly adjusted the laptop bag on her shoulder. “Are you going to let me come inside so I can get set up?”

Selena stepped aside. “Sure.”

Kelly pulled her case over the threshold. The wheels caught on the metal strip, and she lifted it clear before the door closed behind them.

A federal identification wallet appeared in her hand.

“For the record,” Kelly said, “Special Agent Kelly Voss, Seattle field office. Temporary assignment to Eagleton effective today.”

Selena examined the credentials even though the name and photograph were clear from several feet away.

“You could’ve called.”

“I thought Meg had told you I was coming.”

“She told me someone was coming.”

Kelly slipped the wallet into her bag. “Maybe she thought surprising you would make things easier.”

“It didn’t.”

They started toward the rear wing.

Kelly took in the trophy case, the peeling classroom numbers, and the old hooks along the walls. “It’s funny, us working from an old school as a field office.”

Selena kept walking.

The locker-room memory had loosened others. Kelly blocking the end of a corridor. Kelly emptying Selena’s schoolbag onto a wet floor. Kelly and two friends following her home, close enough that Selena heard them discussing what they might do if she turned around.

“Funny how?” Selena asked.

“Well, considering we went to school together.”

They reached the teachers’ lounge. Selena placed her key in the lock, turned it, then faced Kelly.

“We weren’t classmates. You were two years ahead of me.”

Kelly’s mouth tightened. “Right.”

Selena opened the door and entered.

Morning light came through the bent blinds in narrow strips. The three unused desks occupied the far side of the room, each with a chair and an empty drawer unit beneath it.

“Take your pick,” Selena said.