Page 72 of I Will Find You

The paramedic, an Asian woman with a long ponytail, said, “Just relax, Harriet.”

“I’d like to go home,” she said.

“You can go back up when the police say it’s okay.”

Hilde Winslow gave the paramedic a sweet smile and sipped some more on her apple juice. She looked to Max like both an old woman and a little girl at the same time.

“You said you were a special agent with the FBI,” Hilde said to him.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m in charge of recapturing David Burroughs.”

“I see.”

He waited for her to say more. She sipped her juice.

“Can you tell me what Mr. Burroughs said to you?”

“Nothing really.”

“Nothing?”

“There was no time, you see.”

“So you don’t know what he wanted?”

“No idea.”

“Can we back up, Mrs. Winslow?”

He’d intentionally used her old name. He waited for her to correct him. She didn’t.

“What happened exactly?” Max continued.

“He knocked on my door. I opened it—”

“Did you ask who it was at first?”

She thought about that for a moment. “No, I don’t think so.”

“You heard a knock and just opened it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you always do that? Without asking who it is?”

“You have to be buzzed in the building.”

“Did you buzz him in?”

“No.”

“Yet you just opened the door?”

She smiled at him. “It’s a friendly building. I thought it was a neighbor.”

“I see,” he said.

Why, he wondered, was she lying to him?

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