Page 150 of What She Saw

Callie returned with a soda for me. I’d woken this morning hoping my coffee craving had returned. But my stomach refused to consider it. After this case, I’d get tested and confirm if Team Outcast had a new member joining soon.

“You want anything more to eat?” she asked.

“Toast would be great.”

“Will do.” Callie paused. “I heard about the fire.”

“It was an old cabin. Bad wiring, I bet,” I lied. “Shame it burned.”

“The fire chief was in early. He said there’s nothing left but ashes.”

“It was a pile of dry kindling ready to go up. Paxton will figure out the cause.”

Callie rolled her eyes. “Well, then, you should be just fine.”

Callie. Taggart referenced a Callie in his notes. “You were at the festival.”

“Yeah. I was.”

“What was it like?”

A smile teased the edges of her lips. “Great fun at first. So exciting. Not much happened around here in those days.”

“How old were you?”

“Seventeen. Like half the kids in this town, I defied my parents and snuck out of the house so I could go.”

“Callie, you surprise me.”

“I was quite the troublemaker back in the day. If I wasn’t sneaking off to the barn to drink, I was throwing fireballs down the mine shaft.”

“Mine shaft?”

“By the barn. Old gold mine.” She shifted her stance.

“You knew the victims.”

“Sure. I knew your mom. And Debra. Tristan and I went to a dance camp together the summer before.” She patted her full hip. “You can see I haven’t danced in a while.”

“I can’t even clap in time to a song. Were you good?”

“Yeah, I was decent. Tristan was super good. She was the star of our camp.”

I stirred the ice in my soda. “What was she like?”

“She was nice enough. She always had her eye on the prize.”

“Prize?”

“Fame. Fortune. Leaving Dawson.” Callie shrugged. “She could be high-strung. But most teenage girls are.”

“Did she know Rafe Colton?”

“I don’t know how long she knew him, but they were friendly at the festival. But he was outgoing with everyone.”

“Was Tristan using drugs at the festival?”

Her gaze grew distant for a second and then refocused. “It was a lifetime ago. Kids do dumb things.”