answer.
“The truth is I don’t know what I know,” he said. “But certain . . . information has come to light, with regards to that case, the Holly Burke case. And I’m sitting here now because I think there might be a connection.”
“A connection?”
“Yes, ma’am. Between what happened to her and what happened to you, back then.”
She watched him, and he could see in her eyes that he wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t already considered—maybe even before Audrey Sutter tracked her down.
“Have you spoken to Danny Young?” she said. “I mean recently?”
“No, ma’am. I wish I could. But he’s gone missing.”
“Missing?”
“Yes, ma’am. Part of me was hoping maybe you’d heard from him.”
“Me?” She gave a small huff. “I haven’t heard from him in ten years.”
“Yes, ma’am. It wasn’t much of a hope.”
She watched him, and he held her eyes.
“You don’t think he killed Holly Burke?” she said.
“No, ma’am, I don’t. I don’t think I ever did.”
“You must be about the only one then. You and your old boss.”
“Did you believe it?”
She didn’t answer, but she didn’t look away either—and at the same time she did; her eyes were on him because he was in front of them, that was all. Then she looked down.
“I didn’t know what I believed anymore, Sheriff.”
He waited. Turning the glass in his hands. She did not wipe at her eyes and no tears came. The TV played on in the other room. He resisted the impulse to check his watch.
Katie Goss shook her head. “You’ve got nothing on him,” she said, still looking down. Then she looked up and her eyes were focused again.
“Ma’am?”
“You’ve got nothing on him for Holly Burke.”
He watched her, and he knew who she meant.
“No, ma’am, I don’t. Not without Danny Young I don’t.”
“So you’ll take him any way you can get him.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s right.”
She nodded, watching him. Then she shook her head again. “A little late, though, isn’t it, Sheriff? Ten years. Why would anyone wait that long to come forward?”
“For good reasons. Because he’d threatened her. Because she was young. Because she didn’t think anyone would believe her. Because she wanted to get on with her life.”
“And suddenly she decides she doesn’t care about any of those things?” said Katie Goss. “Suddenly she doesn’t want to protect that life anymore? And if they wouldn’t believe her then, what would make her think they’d believe her now, ten years after the fact—the alleged fact?”
“Because, for one thing,” he said, “she’d have the full support of the law enforcement apparatus, including the sheriff’s department and the county attorney. And for another thing, she wouldn’t be the only one.”
Katie Goss was silent. Watching him. The cartoon voices, the sound effects playing on in the other room.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said.
He opened his hands and clasped them together again. “It means, do I think in ten, fifteen, however many years, you were the only one? That it was just your bad luck and nobody else’s?” He shook his head. “No, ma’am. If what happened to you is true, and I believe it is, then you haven’t been the only one. And you won’t be the only one to come forward, once he is served and arrested. I can pretty much promise you that.”
“But you don’t know it for a fact—that they’ll come forward.”
“Not for a fact, no, ma’am.”
She drank from her water and set it down again.
“Sheriff, I’m no idiot.”
“No, ma’am.”
“What I mean is, even if you got my statement, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“It’s possible.”
“Statute of limitations,” she said, and he looked at her more carefully, and understood her better. She hadn’t forgotten. She hadn’t put it all behind her.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “The statute is nine years.”
“Nine years. And there’s no DNA, no kit, because I never reported. So why are we even having this conversation?”
“We wouldn’t be, except that the man in question moved out of state more than eight years ago. Eight years and seven months, to be exact.”
“So?”
“So that stops the clock on the statute of limitations. By the law, less than a year has passed since the night he pulled you over. The clock starts running again when I bring him back to Minnesota in handcuffs.”
She sat staring at him. Processing this. She took a breath and let it out.
“It may be less than a year by law, Sheriff, but it’s still ten years that I didn’t say a word.”
Halsey nodded. He looked around the apartment again. The little girl just out of view.
“I’ll