Page 25 of Return of the Spider

Sampson said, “You loved Conrad.”

Abby nodded, then began weeping.

I waited until her crying eased before I said, “Abby, we were the ones who found you.”

“Should have left me to die.”

I said, “In my view, you lived for a reason. I think you lived in part to help us find Conrad’s killer. You loved him—don’t you owe it to his memory to help us find out who killed him and why?”

She rolled over and glared at us. “If I could, I would. I have no idea who killed Conrad. I don’t know who would even think of it. Everyone loved Conrad. Even my dad!”

“I know they did, Abby,” Sampson said. “Conrad was one of a kind. But what we’re interested in today is what you remember from the night you were both shot.”

She shrugged, closed her eyes. “Bronco.”

“Conrad’s brother’s Bronco.”

“C loved that thing. Kept talking about it. All night.”

“And not paying attention to you?”

Abby opened her eyes, stared at me. “That’s right. How did you know that?”

“I get people,” I said. “He kept talking about the Bronco?”

“Until we, like, parked by that canal and… I don’t know.”

“Close your eyes again, Abby. Try to see yourself in the Bronco with Conrad.”

She shut her eyes, lay still for several moments, then got tense.

I’d anticipated that. “We are not here to judge you, Abby. We do not care what you and Conrad were doing. We just want to know if you saw or heard anything by the canal.”

Eyes still closed, she said, “All I can see is Conrad.”

Before I could respond, she said, “Wait. There’s a… like… a shadow.”

“Where are you seeing the shadow?”

“Out of the corner of my left eye, like, to the side.”

“In your peripheral vision?”

She nodded slightly.

“The shadow’s at the back of the SUV?” I asked.

“No, like, back left along the—”

She breathed in sharply, her face gripped by terror. “He was there,” she whispered. “I saw him there. Right by Conrad’s window.”

I glanced at Sampson. He drew circles in the air:Keep her talking.“What else, Abby?”

“I’m not believing he’s there. And then he takes another step and he’s got some kind of hood or mask on, and his arm is coming up. He has a pistol. I can see it in the moonlight. I want to scream. I open my mouth to scream and then, like… nothing.” Abby opened her eyes. “I still feel like that. Nothing. No reason to go on.”

“That’s understandable, Abby,” I said. “But you believe that Conrad loved you, correct?”

“I know Conrad loved me.”