Amy smiled nervously. “Oh, I was looking at your football blanket.”
“Oh. It’s a pretty one.”
Helen took Amy by the arm and turned her away from the Land Rover. “Let’s go get you that drink of water.”
Playing out the rest of the charade, Amy pretended to be wobbly on her feet. She made her knees tremble as she walked. She’d learned how to do that in her senior-high drama class.
“I’m sorry you have to go through all this, Amy. It’s just too bad that your brother didn’t turn out the way you did.”
“He didn’t do it, Helen. He really didn’t.”
Helen patted her arm gently, reassuringly. “He couldn’t ask for a more loyal sister than you, that’s for sure.”
Inside, Helen led Amy to a chair at the kitchen table and then sat her down, as if Amy were a very old and brittle lady.
A minute later, Helen placed a glass of water on the table in front of Amy.
“This should do the trick,” Helen said. “Water always helps me when I feel a little woozy.”
“I really appreciate this, Helen.”
“My pleasure, dear. My pleasure.”
Amy sipped her water. “This does make me feel better.”
“I knew it would.”
Thinking about the coat in the back of the Land Rover, Amy said, “I think I’m all right now, Helen. This is just what I needed.”
Helen smiled. “Let’s give it another minute or two. We want to make sure you’re really all right.” Her smile broadened. “At least, that’s Dr. Helen’s advice.”
“Thanks again for everything, Helen.”
“My pleasure, dear. My pleasure.” Then, “I was thinking. Was there anyplace special that your brother played when he was a kid?”
“No place special that I can think of. I mean, he roamed all over the place. You know, the way most little boys do.”
“But no one special place?”
“Not that I can think of. Why?”
But, of course, Amy knew why — so Helen could lead Chief Hadley to Richie, and Hadley would arrest Richie, and the verdict of the trial would be a foregone conclusion. And David and Helen Cummings could return to Washington with nothing to worry about.
“I was just thinking... if there was a special place where he used to hide... some secret place... you know the way boys are... David was always like that... always wanted to have hiding places that nobody else knew about... that maybe if Richie had had a place like that... maybe that’s where he’d hide out now.”
“There’s no place I can think of.”
“Are you sure?”
Amy shrugged. “Pretty sure. I mean, if I think of it, Helen, I’ll tell you.”
“That’s very honorable of you, dear.”
“Maybe we should get back.”
“You sure you’re feeling better now?”
“Positive.”
Once again, Helen helped Amy to her feet. Amy might have been her ninety-three-year-old grandmother.
How am I going to do it? Amy thought. She and David are going to get into their Land Rover and drive away and I’ll never have a chance to get the jacket.
They went out the back door and down the walk to the farmyard.
Amy couldn’t take her eyes off the back of the Land Rover.
Sitting in there was the evidence that might well begin to prove her brother’s innocence.
Helen, seeming to sense Amy’s interest in the vehicle, held tightly to Amy’s arm and guided them wide of the Land Rover.
Amy realized that there was only one way she was ever going to get the jacket... and that was to take it. To bolt from Helen’s arm... run to the Land Rover... throw open the back door... and take the coat out.
She prepared herself.
In eight or nine more steps, they’d draw even with the Land Rover. That would be Amy’s last chance to bolt free.
Three steps... four steps... five steps.
“How’s Amy doing?” David Cummings said, interrupting the conversation he was having with Sam and Hadley and Susan.
Six steps... seven steps... eight steps...
“Oh, fine,” Helen said.
And in just that moment, her attention focused on her brother rather than Amy’s arm... her grasp lightened... and Amy jerked away.
“What’re you doing, dear?”
Helen, startled, tried to keep her tone sweet, but in her words you could hear a bit of confusion and panic... and certainly anger.
“Where are you going?” she snapped then.
Amy knew she didn’t dare hesitate. Amy put her hand in her pocket and brought the button out as she ran toward the Cummingses’ car.
She rushed over to the back of the Land Rover and grabbed the rear door handle and turned it and it was locked.
“Just a minute here!” Helen snapped, stepping over to where Amy stood. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Amy tried the handle again, giving it a savage turn to the right.
This time, the locking mechanism turned, and the handle went all the way down.
She hadn’t turned it hard enough before.
Just as Amy was starting to open the door, Helen grabbed her arm.
This time it was not the loving touch of a nurse that Helen used. This time it was the death grip of an enemy.
With her other hand, Helen seized Amy’s shoulder and pushed her back from the open door.
“Hey, what’s going on there?” Chief Hadley said.
As Amy was pushed back from the vehicle, she felt her left hand open and the brass button fall from her grasp.
The button landed on the bare earth of the farmyard. It lay there like some gleaming artifact of cosmic importance.
Helen saw it, too, and instantly seemed to recognize what it was... and what it meant to her and her brother.
Amy bent to pick it up but Helen shoved her out of the way.
Amy, losing her balance, almost went over backward.
Helen bent down from the waist and started to pick up the button.
That was when Amy realized the opportunity Helen had given her.
While Helen was picking up the button, Amy would have time to—
She took three steps back to the open hatch door and groped inside and grabbed the carrying bag.
Helen had the brass button in her fingers before she saw what Amy had done.
“Give me that!” Helen said, trying to swipe the bag out of Amy’s hand.
But Amy jerked it away, and then, seeing Sam, tossed it over to him.
“What the hell’s going on with you two?” Chief Hadley said, looking from Helen to Amy.
Amy, breathless, said, “When David and Helen were putting Darcy’s body in back of my brother’s cabin last night, Helen lost the brass button I showed you, Chief. Sam can show you where it came off. It’s a suede coat and got drenched last night, so Helen was taking it to the cleaner’s this morning. I showed you the button.” She nodded to Helen. “She has the button now. Ask her to give it to you.”
“I don’t have to tell you how ridiculous this all is, do I, Chief?”
But Hadley, surprisingly, looked as if he didn’t consider this to be foolish at all.
Has he finally begun to believe me? Amy wondered. Is that possible?
Chief Hadley glanced at Sam a moment and then back at Helen. “You’re one of the oldest friends I’ve got in this town, you and your brother. So I don’t want anything to do with causing you trouble. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
So I was wrong, Amy thought. Even though he knows that the button is worth pursuing as a piece of evidence, he is just going to let them walk away.
“So, Helen,” he said, “I’m going to let Sam here handle this investigation.”
Amy wondered who looked the most startled at that moment — Helen or Sam.