“Did you see anyone on your way to the gazebo?” Sheriff Crowe asked.
I shook my head. “And I was looking.”
“Hear anything? Someone working with tools? A lawn mower? Anything at all?”
I shook my head again. “Not unless you count the birds and stuff.”
She studied me. “Did you talk to anyone on your way into town?”
“Did I talk to anyone?” I wasn’t sure what she was asking.
“Did you stop anywhere someone might remember seeing you? Gas? Food? Did you talk to anyone on the phone?”
My heart rate kicked up a notch. She was questioning me like I was asuspect.
Like I needed an alibi.
“The car is a rental. It had a full tank when I picked it up. And the drive is less than two hours. I didn’t need to stop.”
“Any phone conversations along the way?”
“I listened to music.”
I tried not to feel pathetic. The truth was, I didn’t have a lot of close relationships. My dad was busy with his replacement family — including my half-brothers Luke and Evan, who were teenagers — and my mom was preoccupied with her job as a hospital administrator. My social circle was mostly people from work, and while we went out for drinks every now and then, we weren’t what I’d call friends.
Sheriff Crowe held my gaze, like my eyes might tell her if I was a liar.
Then she stood. “You plan to be in town for a while?”
“Just until I sell the house,” I said.
She looked around the well-furnished room. “Shame. It’s a beauty.”
“I have a job, an apartment…”
She nodded slowly. “I’m going to have to ask you not to leave town for the foreseeable future.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “I’m not a… asuspect?”
“No one’s a suspect… yet. But you found the body. We might have more questions.” She pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to me. “Give me a call if you remember anything else, will you?”
I nodded and took the card, and she turned her back, then disappeared into the hall.
I exhaled all the air I’d been holding in. My face was hot, my head buzzing, and I leaned forward at the waist, trying to head off what was obviously a panic attack.
Not that I’d ever had a panic attack before. Why would I? My life was predictable.
Orderly, the way I liked it.
But nothing had been predictable about my first three hours in Blackwell Hollow.
I’m going to have to ask you not to leave town for the foreseeable future…
I took long, slow breaths and tried to reason with myself. It would take at least a few weeks to sell the house.
Surely this whole thing would be settled by then.
3