'Hey, steady.'
'Sit down,' her mother said.
Berry, looking at the grieving couple, gave her head a hard shake. 'I'll be all right. They lost their son tonight.'
Across the large room, Ski emerged from a smaller office. His and Berry's eyes connected immediately and held as he wove his way through the maze of desks. When he reached her, he said, 'I owe you an apology.'
'What for?'
'For not taking you seriously enough. I thought that too much was being made of Starks, his threats. I was wrong. I'm sorry.'
Berry tamped down a surge of emotion, which would have to be dealt with later. But not now.
He continued, 'Anyway, thank you for coming. I thought if you listened while the girl gave her--'
'Girl?'
'I haven't had time to fill in the details,' Dodge informed him.
Ski bobbed his head once. 'Davis Coldare was with a friend when he was shot. She's okay. Shaky, but uninjured. She picked Starks out of a group of pictures. No question, she said.'
'He got away again?'
'The boy fell dead at the girl's feet. She ran for her life. Called 911 from the motel office.'
'Motel?' Caroline asked.
'A hasty-tasty.' Dodge compressed his lips with regret. 'Coupla horny kids just looking for a mattress.'
Ski said, 'By the time the first responders arrived, Oren Starks was long gone.'
'What provoked the shooting?' Berry asked.
'Not a damn thing.'
'He just shot this boy for no reason?'
'Wrong place, wrong time for Davis Coldare.' He spoke in a tight, angry tone similar to Dodge's.
'My God,' Caroline whispered. Berry couldn't bring herself to say anything.
Ski said to her, 'I thought if you listened to the girl--Lisa Arnold is her name--if you listened in while she gives us a recorded statement, you might pick up something about Starks. Hear something that might help us. I don't know. Worth a try.'
'Of course. Whatever you think.'
Apparently he thought she needed assistance walking, because as they retraced his path through the squad room, he kept his hand on the small of her back. 'Get her some coffee, Andy,' he said as they passed the wide-eyed deputy that Berry recognized as the one who'd been at the lake house the night of the shooting. 'Do you take anything in it?' Ski asked her.
'Cream. Milk. Whatever.'
'Some of that half-and-half stuff,' he told the younger deputy. 'Ms. King?'
'I'll get hers. I gotta go smoke anyway.' Dodge peeled off with the deputy.
Ski escorted Caroline and Berry into a small room. She missed the warmth of his hand when it was withdrawn.
He motioned them toward a rectangular table that had brown metal legs and a chipped, particleboard top. 'Sit there. Or you can watch through the window if you don't mind standing. The sound will be piped in, so you can hear her from anywhere in the room.'
Caroline sat down at the table. Berry moved to the window. In the adjoining room, seated at a table identical to the one in this room, was a girl who appeared to be in late adolescence. With her was a woman, older by perhaps fifteen years. 'Is that her mother?'
'Stepmother.'
'Her father?'
'Split last year, whereabouts unknown. Neither seems very happy over having to live together, but they don't have options.'
'Where's her real mother?'
'Nobody knows that, either.'
Lisa Arnold had a voluptuous figure, made obvious by her braless tank top and short skirt. She wasn't the all-American, rosy-cheeked, and wholesome type but the kind of girl that was just as easily stereotyped.
Despite her hard-core appearance, however, there was an incongruous vulnerability that touched Berry. Although her eye makeup had been heavily applied, tears had left muddy tracks of it on her cheeks all the way down to her chin. Fresh tracks were being formed now as Berry watched her blubber, her whole body shaking as she wept.
The stepmother sat with her arms folded across her waist and stared into near space, looking bored, sleepy, or stoned, but definitely unmoved by her stepdaughter's distress.
Their general appearance, mode of dress, and body language were vastly different from those of the shattered couple who'd been praying with their minister.
Ski had come to stand beside Berry at the window. 'You okay?' he asked in an undertone.
She nodded. 'How did the two teenagers clash with Oren?'
'I'll let you hear it straight from the girl.'
Dodge and the deputy came in bearing several foam cups of coffee, single servings of half-and-half, and packets of various sweeteners. Dodge tossed a handful of stir sticks onto the table, then reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a stack of paper napkins, which he set in front of Caroline.
She smiled up at him. 'Thank you for remembering.'
He gave her a crooked grin and grunted an unintelligible reply.
Ski went to the door and opened it. Looking back at Berry, he said, 'This shouldn't take too long. I'll come back as soon as we're done to get your read on it.'
He left. Berry went to the table and fixed her coffee. By the time she had carried it to the window, Ski was already in the next room, along with the deputy who'd met Caroline and Berry upon their arrival. He was making adjustments to a tripod-mounted video camera.
Ski said something to the girl, then patted her on the shoulder before rounding the table and sitting down across from her. Berry saw him slip his hand beneath the table, and an instant later she heard the hiss of speakers as they were engaged.
'Whenever you're ready, Miss Arnold,' he said, his voice amplified. 'Tell me everything that happened in as much detail as you can remember. I won't interrupt you unless I need something clarified. All right?'
'Okay.' She blew her nose into a tissue, shifted in her seat, crossed her legs, then uncrossed them. 'Do you want me looking at you or at the camera?'
'You can talk to me if that's more comfortable for you.'
'Sure. I mean, I guess. Where do you want me to start?'
'What was your relationship with Davis Coldare?'
'I only met him this week. I'd seen him at school, but we didn't have classes together or anything. We never, you know, talked or nothing. I went to the baseball game last Monday night. He plays. I mean played.' Here she gave an emotional hiccup.
'I forget which position he played. Second base, I think. Anyway, after the game, a bunch of us sorta met up out at the lake. Me and Davis got together and, you know, messed around a little. He was sweet. He asked could we go out tonight.'
