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"Then why ask such a question?"

"It's what we do. We try to get all the information we can in order to understand what happened. Mrs. Atwell. A terrible family tragedy has occurred here."

"I think I know something about terrible family tragedies," Mommy told him, speaking so sharply, he reacted as if he had been slapped.

"I'm sorry. We're just doing our job."

"Well, do it quickly and leave us he she said. He turned back to me.

"So you didn't know Elliot was in any sort of trouble when you left him that day?"

"No." I said and nodded at the amulet he was holding. "I thought he was protected."

Maybe that was the wrong thing to say; maybe it was the right thing to say. I didn't know, but it widened the eves of both policemen.

"Huh?" Officer Harold said. "What do you mean. protected?"

"Red coral is a powerful gemstone. It can make the wearer courageous and have a very strong calming effect, reducing tensions. It has healing powers," Mommy explained. "Noble had good intentions in giving the boy the amulet, but the boy shouldn't have depended on it to protect him in every possible way.

"In fact." Mommy continued. "one problem with red coral is it might make the wearer too confident, too courageous. You know that saying about fools rushing in where angels fear to tread." she added in her typical educationalist tone of voice.

The two policemen stood speechless, staring at her. Finally. Officer Harold turned to me.

"You did a bad thing, not telling us you had seen Elliot Fletcher recently. We would have concentrated on the woods a lot faster, and even if we couldn't do anything to help him, his father and his sister wouldn't have been left in limbo so long."

"Withholding information from the police is a criminal act, you know," Detective Young said.

I said nothing, and neither did Mommy. They looked uncomfortable.

"Here." Detective Young said, handing me the amulet. "Mr. Fletcher doesn't want it."

"We don't want it either," Mommy said, stepping in between me and the policeman. "Tell Mr. Fletcher he should bury it with his son. There are ways to protect us in the afterlife as well, and that can be even more important."

Officer Harold smirked. Then he turned away and shook his head.

"Okay." Detective Young said. He put the amulet back into his pocket. "If your son thinks of anything else that might help us understand what happened--"

"Why is it so difficult to understand?" Mommy practically shouted at them. "From what we've heard, the boy drowned in the creek. You said he was smoking something bad, and you just heard Noble confirm it. I'm sure it was marijuana, and that can affect your perception, can it not? I was a public school teacher once." she added. "We were always talking to the children about why using drugs was bad for you."

"Yes," Detective Young admitted. "The pot might have had something to do with what happened."

"It's a tragedy.Its terrible, but parents have to be on top of their children more vigorously these days," Mommy lectured. "I've said it before. and I'll say it again. I feel scaly for Mr. Fletcher, I know what he's suffering. No one knows better about that suffering than I do, but in the end, he has to live with his own failings. We all do," she concluded. "Now if you're finished here --"

She opened the door for them.

"Thank you," Detective Young muttered,

Officer Harold just glared back at me and followed

him out of our house.

When Mommy closed the door. I felt like she had closed the lid on my coffin. Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned to me. I fumbled words in my mind, trying to find the right way to say I was sorry.

"Don't try to explain anything to me," she said. "I know exactly what happened."

Did she know? Exactly?

"Evil spirits have been at us ever since your father died.