Guilty by Proximity

's n

wled on her notepad and stared at until she couldn't stop thinkin

blurred figure in the tree line. Holloway was a town councilman. Dana was the sheriff. If he'd found something worth worrying about,

t wrong in

already open, notepad covered in handwriting that had

he said, pouring cereal wi

t th

ing a dog find a tennis ball. You're not going to put

is ball, Milo. S

story had a permit violation nobody else noticed." He sat down across from her, unbothe

surprised. "Y

ou feel guilty about it." He shrugged, already standing, cereal bowl in hand. "Try to loo

ot

he kitchen of the sheriff's office in her school clothes

m the file in front of her, angled just slightly away. "Holloway texted half the town

did tex

nd not an aunt. "Hazel. I know this is hard, and I know you found something that scared you, and I'm not dismissing that.

esn't ma

y I can't tell you everything. If this goes to trial and it comes out I was feeding case details to my

ft the station with exactly as much as she'd walked in with,

ere that evening, standing at the co

preamble. "Said you came by the s

quest

that you and this Ashworth boy found him. I get that's not something you just walk a

w what

hter's decided to get involved in figuring out wh

Nobody else believ

not yo

ickered across his face, like he saw more of her mother in that sentence than eith

g to trust you on that. But if this starts feeling like more than carefu

ea

as out the door before she could decide whether to

ol, which was new. He just stood there, hands in hi

nt to see your

ll t

owered his voice. "Did

nything. Which, apparently, is a

e to let the professionals handle it, and none of the professionals seem to actually be handling any

prom

gone as fast as it came. "The ph

meone she still, on principle, didn't fully trust, except she'd spent

found you was 10:47. If the coroner's w

nd, like something in his che

office is going to take my word for it. I'm y

omeone else t

tanding in the tree line at 10:22. We need to know why Holloway's last text went to my aunt's pho

n doing this all night, haven't you? Worki

just si

uld h

. That's the oppo

now, aimed at everything but her. "Everyone keeps telling me to sit still and let it work itself out, an

e couldn't find the part of he

public until we're sure. And if you're lying to me ab

t it's worth, I wasn't planning on lying

and a legal pad between them like a truce table. It was stiff at fi

said. "Where you actually were. No

thing. The version I gave the officer wasn

ani

wenty minutes before that." He turned his coffee cup a quarter turn. "I wasn't ready to go in. I kept telling myself I was going to walk over and get

you were near the mill during the coroner

there." His jaw tightened. "I know the difference doesn't m

re? Alone, at night, n

he might actually tell her, before something in his face

case," he said finally.

e more thing that didn't add up, sitting next to

re twenty minutes earlier than you said, and someone finds out, it d

kno

and this to Dana an

hing. I wasn't going to, because I honestly don't know what i

e table between them-a worn leather day planner

y's," Hazel sai

it until last night." Liam flipped it open to the last few filled pages, turning it so she could see.