Billie thought for a moment, then said, “It was to my left.”

“Could you see out the window, Billie?” T.J. resumed the questioning.

“I couldn’t, no, I wasn’t facing it.” She thought for a moment, then said, “But he probably could have. His head was on my left shoulder, looking away from me.” She focused on them and said, “He probably could have seen out the window, but if he did, he wasn’t saying what he saw.”

“Did you hear anything? Voices, conversation, anything at all?”

She shook her head.

“When Jason didn’t come back in, I went out onto the back steps and called him, but there was no answer. And I didn’t hear nothing out there, nothing but the wind blowing through that field.” She bit her bottom lip. “I figured he’d started to remember how bad I’d been and it pissed him off all over again, and maybe he’d run away.”

“Had you seen anyone around that night? Heard any cars?”

“Just the one that dropped off Jason.”

“Billie, did anyone have it in for Jason?”

Billie’s eyebrows raised. “Mister, just about everyone who knew Jason had it in for him. He had a way, brought out the worst in everyone he met. That boy had a chip on his shoulder, big as the moon.”

“Did he mention anyone in particular?” T.J. continued. “Ever talk to you about anyone he was having problems with?”

“No. He wasn’t the type to tell you much of anything. Kept it all to hisself, mostly.” Her voice dropped slightly. “Guess when you know no one’s listening, you just stop talking.”

“The police report also indicates that the police spoke with your ex-husband, who stated he’d had no contact with you or the children in many years. Is that correct?”

Billie nodded. “Buddy didn’t have nothing to do with us at that point. He had hisself a new wife and a new family.”

“Did you ever seek child support from him?” Lorna asked.

“Not much point in that,” Billie told her. “He didn’t have nothing for me to get. I didn’t see much reason to bother with him. Once a man washes his hands of you, that’s pretty much it.”

“But they were still his kids,” Lorna protested. “He should have helped support them.”

“He wasn’t working for a long time. Never seen anyone get blood from a stone.”

“Any idea where he is now? How we can get in touch with him?”

“What d’you want with him?” Billie’s eyes narrowed.

“Well, the police interviewed him then, I’d like to speak with him now.”

“He didn’t have nothing to say on the subject back then. Chances are, he’d have less to say all these years later.”

“They were his kids,” T.J. reminded her. “A lot of times, when a child disappears, it turns out that the noncustodial parent has taken them.”

“I can guarantee you, right now, that Buddy Eagan did not take Melinda.” Billie’s jaw set. “And we all know where Jason has been, all these years.”

“Still, I’d like to speak with your ex.”

“Well, good luck finding him, then. I don’t know where he is.”

T.J. opened the file he’d brought with him and had tucked on the floor next to his feet.

“Billie, this is a copy of the police report from the night your son disappeared. It says that you told the officer who interviewed you that you and Jason were arguing and that he stormed out of the house.”

“We weren’t arguing no more by the time he left.”

“But the report indicates that you were.”

“That’s not the way I would have told it. That’s not the way it happened.” Billie shook her head for emphasis. “We weren’t yellin’ no more then. I wouldn’t have said that we were.”

“But you initialed the pages that you’d read it and it was right,” T.J. pointed out to her.

“I didn’t read real good back then. I wouldn’t have known what he had written on that page.” Her cheeks colored slightly at the admission. “He told me he’d written down just what I said, and he just needed me to write my initials, which he told me meant that I had said those words.”

Billie frowned. “Never occurred to me that he woulda wrote down something else.”

“It’s an important detail, Billie. The way it’s written, it sounds as if Jason left the house because you two were arguing. From there, it’s not much of a stretch to think maybe you followed him.”

“All these years, I did think he’d left the house that night because of me.”

“But it sounds to me as if you and he had, well, come to an understanding,” Lorna said.

“I thought we had, but then he left sudden like that.”

“Maybe he saw something or someone outside,” T.J. pointed out. “You said his head was facing the window.”

“You mean, maybe he’d seen someone out there, through the window?”

T.J. nodded. “If he wasn’t cursing at you, he was cursing at someone else.”

“Huh. Wouldn’t that beat all, if it had been someone else he’d been cursing at. Wouldn’t that be something.” She shook her head slowly. “All these years, I thought he’d been cursing at me…”

“You think she was telling the truth?” Regan asked after T.J. and Lorna had filled her in on their interview with Billie. “You think she seemed sincere?”

“Either that, or she is one fine actress.” T.J. settled himself on the top porch step.

“I think she was telling the truth. I think Melinda’s disappearance was a real wake-up call for her. I think she did stop drinking, and I think she would have tried to reconcile with Jason at that point. It all makes perfect sense to me.” Lorna looked at Regan, then T.J. “Is anyone that good an actor?”

“You’d be amazed at how resourceful people can be when they’re trying to save their skins,” T.J. told her. “An accomplished liar could easily have pulled off that kind of performance.”

“The question is, is Billie Eagan an accomplished liar,” Regan interjected. “Do you think Jason really saw someone outside the window that night? Or do you think she’s making that up now, to offer another plausible scenario? If she could convince people that there was someone else there, and Jason ran out to confront that person, it’s just a short step to suggesting that this other person killed him.”

Lorna nodded. “I agree, it’s convenient that she hasn’t told this story to anyone else.”

“We don’t know that she didn’t,” T.J. reminded her. “Billie said that this is the story she gave the cop who interviewed her after Jason disappeared. She says he wrote it down wrong, and because her reading skills were so poor, she didn’t realize that he hadn’t gotten it right.”

“That happens more often than you’d believe,” Regan said. “I’ve found that in my own research, for my books, that sometimes the cop taking down the information uses words that intimate something other than what was intended. Or sometimes the cop doesn’t take real good notes, he’ll think he’ll remember something, but forgets it and writes down his impressions rather than what the person really said. And if, like Billie, the witness or suspect doesn’t read well, he or she could sign something as being correct when it’s not a true account of what happened.”

T.J. shuffled through his files, then, finding the one he was looking for, opened it and took out a sheet of paper.

“The cop who signed this report was a Duncan Parks.” He looked at Lorna. “Do you know if he’s still around?”

“I have no idea. Chief Walker would know, but I’d prefer to keep my face out of his for a few days. I’ve pissed him off enough for one week.” She tapped her fingers on the side of her chair. “Fritz might know, though.”

“Fritz, who is on the list of witnesses we wanted to talk to?” T.J. asked.

Lorna nodded.

“This gives us a real good excuse to pay him a visit,” he told her. “Know where we can find him?”

“I know where to start.”

“Let’s do it.”

“I’ll stay here and wait for Mitch,” Regan said. “He told me he’d be here around dinnertime.” She smiled. “Typical Mitch.”

“We should think about dinner,” Lorna said as she stood.