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As they moved slowly to the music, she was reminded again just how handsome Zack Winslow was. Their bodies were close enough that they brushed with each beat, and she was beginning to feel much warmer than when the song had started. Had the temperature risen that fast and far?
No, it was him. Such a strong response wasn’t usual for her, but with him it didn’t seem strange.
People were looking at them, though, with barely disguised curiosity. Even her own mother had staked a spot out near the dance floor to watch them, drink in hand. Her father was back at the table, munching on a cupcake from the buffet.
It would be all over town before sundown that she and Zack were an item of some sort. There would be all sorts of stories, some innocent and a few much more sordid by morning. In all of them, Lucy would look like she’d finally trapped a man. Her mother had told her several months ago that people were worried she might end up bitter and alone with a bunch of cats if she didn’t get out there and date a little.
Zack’s gaze moved over her shoulder, and she craned her neck to see what he was looking at.
“It’s Finn and Blake,” he said. “I think they’re trying to get my attention. Do you mind if we cut this dance short?”
“Not at all.”
He escorted her off the dance floor where Finn and his deputy Blake were waiting in the corner of the large ballroom.
“Let’s go out in the hallway to talk,” Finn suggested. “We really need to speak to you.”
Lucy would have held back, but Zack had taken her by the hand, and she followed him into the hallway where there was less noise and people.
“Did you learn something new?” Zack asked. “Do you think that it’s not Sarah?”
“I don’t have any reason to doubt our identification,” Finn said with a shake of his head. “The lab has DNA samples to confirm, but I do think it’s Sarah.”
“You can get DNA from…bones?” Lucy asked. “That’s high-tech.”
“It’s a process but it can be done,” Blake piped up. “We don’t expect any surprises. We also have a sample of Lily Winslow’s DNA on file from years ago just in case we ever had anything to compare it to. We’ll compare it with Lily’s and also Sarah’s, of course.”
“Then how can I help you?” Zack asked.
“I saw you talking to Ethan,” Finn explained. “He’s refused to talk to me so far. Did he say anything about Sarah?”
“Kind of,” Zack admitted. “He agreed that he and Sarah dated, but he said that they weren’t together that long. They had been broken up when she disappeared. He mentioned that she didn’t get along with her stepfather so he’d always thought that she ran away. That’s what I always thought as well. That was about it, though. He won’t talk to you?”
“He won’t. I called him last night and again this morning, but he blew me off. He said he doesn’t have anything to say because he doesn’t know anything that would help. That he and Sarah barely knew one another. He told me to talk to her friends. That they knew Sarah better than he did. Then he hung up on me.”
Ethan had always been a laidback kind of guy. It didn’t sound like usual behavior for him to hang up on the sheriff.
“I tried to talk to him as well,” Deputy Blake said with a scowl. “He was even less polite to me. He said he didn’t have any information, and that we needed to leave him alone.”
“Can’t you just bring him in for questioning?” Lucy queried. “He has to answer questions.”
“It’s not that simple,” Finn replied. “I need to talk to him because we all know that he and Sarah dated off and on for a long time. He can say what he wants, but we know what really happened. He might have information that could help us without even knowing it. It could be a small detail that doesn’t mean much to him but could be important to finding out what happened.”
“Did you explain that to him?” Zack asked.
“I did, but as I said he’s not interested. I can’t force him to cooperate. I can negotiate some sort of question-and-answer period possibly with a lawyer present, but right now he’s not inclined to speak to the cops. I was hoping he might be more open with an old friend.”
“You’re an old friend,” Lucy said.
“I don’t think he feels that way. He - and a lot of people in this town - still look at me as an outsider since I didn’t grow up here my entire childhood. I only came back as an adult.”
That seemed like bullshit to Lucy. Finn was one of them. They weren’t acting like this with Zack or with herself. They’d left, too.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Zack said. “He didn’t say much. I was puzzled why he was downplaying his relationship with Sarah, but then I assumed he just didn’t want to talk about it. All of this has really stirred up feelings in the community.”
“It has,” Deputy Blake agreed. “The sooner we can get to the bottom of what actually happened the better.”
“That sounds like a great idea, but how are you going to do that?” Zack asked. “This all happened eighteen years ago.”
