together when we could be in school. I went to her
house occasionally, and she came to mine to study
and stuff. A few times, my father took us to the
movies and out to eat. We went to some school
ballgames together. I never slept over at her house," I
said. "She has slept over at mine, but she's been with
her mother all her life."
"I didn't mean that literally," Detective Simon
said, closing and opening his eyes. "I meant, and I'm
sure her mother meant, that you were with her more
than any other person, friend."
"Yes. We were les oiseaux d'une plume," I said,
smiling.
"What?"
"I think that means 'birds of a feather' in
French," my father said. "No one denies they were
inseparable, Detective, as girlfriends. That's why you
asked to see her right away, isn't it?"
"Okay," he said. He looked at me again. "Was
her father too strict with her?"
"Her father died about four years ago," I said. "Her stepfather, he means," Lieutenant Cooper
said, and glared at my father.
"She told me he wouldn't let her talk on the
phone for more than two minutes, and he wouldn't put
a phone in her room."
"Oh, how cruel. So she killed him," Detective
Simon muttered.
"Easy," Chief Keiser said. He flashed a smile at
Daddy and then at me.
"Did she talk about that and about other things