“I want to try one last thing,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I’m from the army,” he said. “First we double-check, then we triple-check.”
She sighed. A little impatience there. “What do you want to do?”
“You need to drive me.”
“Where?”
“There’s an eyewitness we can talk to.”
“An eyewitness? Where?”
“In school, down in Echo.”
“The kid?”
He nodded. “Ellie. She’s sharp as a tack.”
“She’s six years old.”
“If it was happening, I’ll bet she knows.”
Alice stood completely still for a second. Then she glanced in through the windows. The place was crowded with customers. They looked listless from the heat and beaten down by life.
“It’s not fair to them, “she said. “I need to move on.”
“Just this one last thing.”
“I’ll lend you the car again. You can go alone.”
He shook his head. “I need your opinion. You’re the lawyer. And I won’t get in the schoolhouse without you. You’ve got status. I haven’t.”
“I can’t do it. It’ll take all day.”
“How long would it have taken to get the money from the rancher? How many billable hours?”
“We don’t bill.”
“You know what I mean.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“O.K.,” she said. “A deal’s a deal, I guess.”
“This is the last thing, I promise.”
“Why, exactly?” she asked.
They were in the yellow VW, heading south on the empty road out of Pecos. He recognized none of the landmarks. It had been dark when he came the other way in the back of the police cruiser.
“Because I was an investigator,” he said.
“O.K.,” she said. “Investigators investigate. That, I can follow. But don’t they stop investigating? I mean, ever? When they know already?”
“Investigators never know,” he said. “They feel, and they guess.”
“I thought they dealt in facts.”
“Not really,” he said. “I mean, eventually they do, I suppose. But ninety-nine percent of the time it’s ninety-nine percent about what you feel. About people. A good investigator is a person with a feel for people.”
“Feeling doesn’t change black into white.”
He nodded. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Weren’t you ever wrong before?”
“Of course I was. Lots of times.”
“But?”
“But I don’t think I’m wrong now.”
“So why, exactly?” she asked again.
“Because I know things about people, Alice.”
“So do I,” she said. “Like, I know Carmen Greer suckered you, too.”
He said nothing more. Just watched her drive, and locked at the view ahead. He could see mountains in the distance, where Carmen had chased the school bus. He had the FedEx packet on his knees. He fanned himself with it. Balanced it on his fingers. Turned it over and over, aimlessly. Stared down at the front and the back, at the orange and purple logo, at the label, at the meaningless little words all over it, sender, addressee, extremely urgent, commodity description, dimensions in inches, twelve-by-nine, weight in pounds, two-point-six, payment, recipient’s contact information, overnight, no post office box number, shipper must check: this shipment does not contain dangerous goods. He shook his head and pitched it behind him, onto the backseat.
“She had no money with her,” he said.
Alice said nothing back. Just drove on, piloting the tiny car fast and economically. He could feel her pitying him. It was suddenly coming off her in waves.
“What?” he said.
“We should turn around,” she said. “This is a complete waste of time.”
“Why?”
“Because exactly what is Ellie going to tell us? I mean, I can follow your thinking. If Carmen really did get a broken arm, then she must have been wearing a plaster cast for six weeks. And Ellie’s a smart kid, so she’ll recall it. Same for the jaw thing. Broken jaw, you’re all wired up for a spell. Certainly a kid would remember that. If any of this really happened, and if it happened recently enough that she can remember anything at all.”
“But?”
“But we know she was never in a cast. We know she never had her jaw wired. We’ve got her medical records, remember? They’re right here in the car with us. Everything she ever went to the hospital for. Or do you think setting bones is a do-it-yourself activity? You think the blacksmith did it in the barn? So the very best Ellie can do is confirm what we already know. And most likely she won’t remember anything anyway, because she’s just a kid. So this trip is a double waste of time.”