"I see her. Hold the line."
I clip the line over to her. I walk off the deck gun. I walk across the lot. I walk past the engine. I walk past the patrol car. I walk past the yellow tape, and I walk past Doyle, and I walk to the south fence, and a police officer is there before I am.
The officer Diane Ryan is in plain clothes and a jacket with a badge on the belt, and Diane has her hand up, and Diane is between Evangeline and the fence.
"Ma'am, I am going to need you to step back from the perimeter."
"I am sorry. I did not know."
"Ma'am."
"I am Mrs. Daniel Clark," Evangeline says. Her voice is the voice I heard sayI love youin the lamp-warm bedroom on Wednesday night. Her voice is now a different voice. Her voice is now the voice of a woman in a long camel coat who has driven a Porsche to a fire scene. "This is my husband's building. I was on my way out to look at the property with my husband's attorney. I saw the smoke from the highway. I am sorry to have walked up. I did not see the tape."
Diane does not move.
"Ma'am, I am going to need to see identification."
"Of course."
Evangeline puts her hand in the pocket of the camel coat. She takes out a small black wallet. She opens it. She hands a driver's license to Diane.
Diane looks at it.
Diane looks at her.
Diane does not look at me.
"Officer," I say.
Diane looks at me.
"Officer, this is the surviving spouse of the homicide on the house fire. She is a witness on Detective Warren's file. I am familiar with her from the night of the fourteenth. I will take her statement and walk her back to her vehicle."
Diane holds my eyes a beat too long. Then she looks at Evangeline.
Diane hands the license back.
"Mrs. Clark."
"Yes."
“Lieutenant Hale will take your statement."
"Thank you."
Diane looks at me.
Diane looks at me a count too long.
Diane walks off across the lot to the patrol car.
I do not look at Evangeline.
I turn. I walk along the south fence toward the access road. I do not look back. I walk twenty yards. I walk thirty. I walk forty. I walk to the corner of the fence where the smoke breaks and the parked patrol car blocks the line of sight from the engine and the deck gun and the chief's truck, and I stop, and I turn, and Evangeline is two paces behind me, and Evangeline is in the camel coat.
She does not put a hand on me.
"Max."
