Page 127 of What She Saw
“So she played dead until she could escape.”
“Yes.”
“She couldn’t be too worried about discovery. She’s living in plain sight.”
“She re-created herself thirty-one years ago. By the time she’d returned to the east, she was a blonde and people had forgotten about the Mountain Music Festival.”
He sat back and folded his arms over his chest. “Who is the second person?”
“She doesn’t know. There are many festivalgoers who are still alive and well. It could be anyone.”
“If she’d come forward, Taggart would’ve had a witness who’d seen the bodies. We wouldn’t be in this situation now if she’d been honest.”
“Maybe.”
“Who drove the bodies off-site?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“She called her father from a pay phone?”
“At the gas station at Tanner’s Run and Sherman Road.” This was all assuming she was telling the truth. And I wasn’t convinced.
“You think she’s lying?”
“Kind of takes one to know one.”
“This does support your accomplice theory. When Colton says he doesn’t know where the bodies are, I think he’s telling the truth. Whoever was helping him never told him.” He glared at the house. “She never saw the second person?”
“No.”
“But she’s certain she saw the bodies.”
“Yes.”
“She can still testify to the rape and seeing the dead bodies,” Grant said. “That’ll be enough for the parole board not to grant Colton a compassionate release.”
“She doesn’t want to go public.”
Grant shook his head. “She can be compelled to talk.”
“She’s been hiding for thirty-one years. She won’t be intimidated. She’ll run as soon as we leave the driveway.”
“Maybe not. She’s been here for twenty years. She has a history. She didn’t have a life to speak of in 1994. And we’re more flexible in our teen years.”
“I’ll bet she’s braced for this moment for thirty-one years.”
“The tracker is still on her car?”
“It is.”
“I’ll call local police. They can watch the house.” He dialed and raised the phone to his ear. Minutes later a patrol car pulled into the cul-de-sac.
“Don’t expose her. Not just yet. I think she knows more than she’s saying.”
“Like what?”
I shifted in my seat. “I don’t know. But there’s more.”
