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Danny Barnes.” She reached out to touch my star without asking and ran her fingertip over each point. “He lives over there.” She nodded over at a mobile home on blocks with no skirting that sat centered on a thickly treed, acre-sized lot.
    â€œAnd where do you live?”
    Carrie pulled her fingers off the badge and looked at me. She wanted to lie. I could see that. She decided not to, either because she didn’t have one ready or just decided it wasn’t worth the effort. “Over there, the big one.”
    The big one was a white, vinyl-clad two-story with a deep portico and four vinyl-wrapped columns. It was also sitting on the largest lot in the division and right across the street from Angela Briscoe’s home.
    Tucking away my badge, I said, “Tell me about Angela.”
    â€œShe was okay,” Carrie said quickly. She leaned again as if offering a confidence. “Not very mature.”
    â€œShe was a couple of years younger than you?”
    â€œNo. I just turned fourteen. Angela’s birthday was next month.”
    I felt a little sick.
    Looking around, I noticed for the first time the kids around the car were all boys, except Carrie. The skirt that I had thought too short for a girl of sixteen seemed suddenly less like a skirt and more like a terrible mistake. I pictured the girl in the woods with her skirt discreetly covering her knees. I had the feeling Angela and Carrie were two very different girls. This one was pushing at maturity, trying so hard to make herself a woman. I imagined Angela Briscoe had not been in such a hurry.
    â€œWere you with Angela at all yesterday?”
    â€œSure,” Carrie answered. Before she could say more, the engine of the car started up.
    â€œCome on, Carrie,” Danny shouted out the window. When I gave him a look, he tried to stare me down through his dirty window, but gave up after a second and lit a fresh cigarette.
    â€œMaybe you would like to come talk at the sheriff’s office,” I said to Carrie.
    â€œCould I?” She surprised me again with her enthusiasm for the idea.
    â€œI’ll talk to your parents. Maybe you can ride down with me. We’ll put the lights on and drive fast.”
    That was the first time she looked uncomfortable. “Do you have to ask her?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Her feet kicked out and she hopped off the fender, circling behind me to go for the passenger door. “I have to go.”
    â€œHang on,” I told her as I pulled a card from my pocket. “You can call me if you want. About anything.”
    Carrie reached for the card, but as soon as her fingers touched it her eyes flicked toward home. “I guess,” she said.
    â€œOne other thing. Have you ever heard of anything or anyone called Leech?”
    Her eyes widened. This time I had surprised her. When her eyes looked away they went to Danny, gripping the wheel of the car.
    â€œNo.”
    It was a lie. A bad one. Danny honked the car horn. At the sound Carrie jumped, then darted for the door. At the same time, the other kids, the lingering boys, all bolted. Rather than trying to catch anyone, I turned and put my hands on the car’s hood. Danny revved the engine and tried again to look like the tough guy, but I looked right back.
    â€œShut it off!” I shouted at him.
    He did, twisting the key, then looking away, trying to show contempt even in his compliance. I stepped around to his window and looked in. Up close, Danny wouldn’t meet my eyes at all. He kept staring at some point past my shoulder.
    â€œLeech,” I said, taking both of them into my view. Danny kept staring off and Carrie looked at her feet. “Tell me who it is.”
    From behind me came a popping roar, the sound of open pipes winding down. Carrie looked up and Danny’s eyes widened. All of his tough pretense was gone.
    I turned to look at what they were seeing. It was another biker, not the same one