Page 41 of Secrets in the Attic (Secrets 1)

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together when we could be in school. I went to her

house occasionally, and she came to mine to study

and stuff. A few times, my father took us to the

movies and out to eat. We went to some school

ballgames together. I never slept over at her house," I

said. "She has slept over at mine, but she's been with

her mother all her life."

"I didn't mean that literally," Detective Simon

said, closing and opening his eyes. "I meant, and I'm

sure her mother meant, that you were with her more

than any other person, friend."

"Yes. We were les oiseaux d'une plume," I said,

smiling.

"What?"

"I think that means 'birds of a feather' in

French," my father said. "No one denies they were

inseparable, Detective, as girlfriends. That's why you

asked to see her right away, isn't it?"

"Okay," he said. He looked at me again. "Was

her father too strict with her?"

"Her father died about four years ago," I said. "Her stepfather, he means," Lieutenant Cooper

said, and glared at my father.

"She told me he wouldn't let her talk on the

phone for more than two minutes, and he wouldn't put

a phone in her room."

"Oh, how cruel. So she killed him," Detective

Simon muttered.

"Easy," Chief Keiser said. He flashed a smile at

Daddy and then at me.

"Did she talk about that and about other things

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