Dean poked about while she was gone, but the newly moved-in apartment had little in the way of personal objects. The only picture was of a teenage boy, apparently the deceased brother.

Lydia returned, her old arrogance renewed.

"You sure bring out the worse in me, Dean. What is it with you?"

"Maybe it's the old detective coming out," he answered.

"Why the vodka interrogation?"

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Dean hadn't planned to confide all his concerns to Lydia- frankly, he wasn't sure he could trust her enough. Nevertheless, he plunged ahead, deciding to offer a sanitized version of his suspicions. "Got time for a long story?" he asked. She nodded and he proceeded to narrate the details of Martha finding the bones, and Fitzgerald coming forth with prop replacements and perhaps sharing ownership of the facility from whence they came. He told her they had found the finger and it later turning up missing. He explained about the Dawkinses' litigation, but didn't mention Jennifer Radisson or Dickinson Faust. He also withheld the identity of Josh, Dawkins Sr.'s mine manager, and the fact that someone fired a gun at the mine. When he'd finished, she simply stared at him. He couldn't blame her for looking incredulous after hearing the tale. Jennifer Radisson had displayed the same reaction.

Finally, she smiled. "Nice story, but I think you have an overactive imagination. What does all that nonsense have to do with vodka or Billy Langstrom?"

"I think Billy Langstrom was killed because someone chased him down the mountain."

If her look portrayed honesty, Dean's statement caught her completely off balance. "Who'd do that? Another kid?"

"Just before the accident, I heard a siren and then saw a white car speeding down the mountain. My first thought was a sheriff's white Blazer."

"You bastard! You think it was me?"

"There's only two vehicles, yours and Fitzgerald's. Right?"

"There's a spare, too, but you've been smoking something. We weren't up there." Then she added, "Every volunteer fire buck and EMT has a noise on his wheels. The siren must have been one of them." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Did you accuse Fitzgerald?"

"I didn't accuse anyone. I just asked a question."

"Well, hell, no! It wasn't me!"

He told Lydia about Fitzgerald buying the vodka on the morning of the Fourth of July, denying it, and saying at the debate that there was liquor in Billy's vehicle when he, Dean, felt there wasn't. He neglected telling her he'd tossed the bottle he'd found at the scene.

"Was there liquor discovered in Billy's Jeep?" Dean asked. "You must have seen the reports."

"I don't care about all your bones foolishness, but Fitz buying the vodka scares me. I'm not sure I'd put it past him, slipping it into Billy's Jeep just so he could bust him. If the bastard chased him down the mountain and then beat it out of there when Billy went over the side, that's a whole different matter-he ought to be nailed if he did that."




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