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He looked young to me. “Were you with her back then?”

“No, but I know Susan.”

“I’m prone to … outbursts sometimes,” she said. “But not … not what happened there.”

“You screamed when you went back inside and two girls were left on the patio?” I asked.

For the briefest of instants, I saw that I’d surprised her, but she covered it quickly. “I don’t remember screaming.”

She was lying, but I didn’t challenge her. “You didn’t remember any of this when Calloway stopped by?”

Susan looked at David again.

“See, this is why I don’t want anyone talking to her. People hold Susan to a standard of a mentally healthy person. It’s not fair.”

“Okay.” I looked at her. “But you didn’t remember?”

“I wasn’t in a good place that day, but David has helped me get these things out.” She nodded at the notebook.

“Were you at the apartment other times too?”

“Right after you were born.”

And my mother had died. “Any other time?”

“I have visited a few times, but not for long and not when you were there. Wilmot and I didn’t want to confuse you. I wanted to be in your life, but we both thought it best that I wasn’t.”

“I hate that. It doesn’t really make sense.”

“You shouldn’t hate it. It’s a good thing.”

I disagreed, but maybe she was right.

Susan’s fingers started to flutter, and the blank look filled her eyes again.

“Take the notebook and go, Hazel. Susan needs to rest now.”

“No … I have more—”

Somehow, he herded me out of the room and saw me to the door quickly.

“Sheriff Calloway will want to talk to her again,” I said.

He opened the front door. “Hazel, I’m not trying to make your life difficult. I’m your aunt’s advocate. She hired me to be her caregiver and with that came advocacy. I will fight until the end for her to be left alone. That comes before everything else. Got it?”

“I’d like to see her again too.”

“Goodbye, Hazel. Good luck.” The door shut decisively.

I stood on the stoop for a few seconds. When I was back in the Jeep, I called Calloway.

“I have something you need to look at.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a long story. Where are you?”

“I’m in town, with Verro and Jenna.”