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Maro:
That’s bullshit.
Sordello:
What if I told you we made attempts to contact you and couldn’t get through? The few times we did, we did everything we could to try to keep you safe?
Maro:
I’d know you were lying.
Analysis Note: Via the private comm channel, Sordello’s supervisor told her not to overstep. She no doubt heard him but didn’t acknowledge. Nonetheless, she changed the subject.
Sordello:
You’ve since learned the meeting at the middle school was orchestrated by a boy named Cody Hill. Looking back, what would you have done differently? To stop him.
Maro:
[No response]
78
Sheriff Ellie
THE TOWN LOOKED LIKEa war zone. Ellie could think of no other way to describe it. With the sun setting, the sky was a mix of reds and yellows and deep black from the rising smoke. She could taste it in the air, acidic and dry. They needed rain, but the few clouds dotting the darkening sky didn’t look like they intended to provide much of anything, and the forecast had no rain listed for two days. Main Street, possibly the entire town, would be cinder by then.
The girl who looked entirely too much like Emily Pridham sat silently in Ellie’s passenger seat, her head turned to the side, staring out the window. Her hands rested in her lap and she barely moved. Ellie couldn’t tell if she was so horribly traumatized she was unable to speak, or if the sight of all this hadn’t fazed her at all, like it was commonplace. Ellie was leaning toward the latter because the girl looked calm, and that frightened Ellie, because all the crazy bullshitshouldscare the bejesus out of her.
“What do you make of all this?” Ellie finally asked.
The girl didn’t respond.
