to see if there’s anything she can add.”
“Sure, let me get—”
“I’m right here, Mom,” comes a sing-song voice.
I turn to see a pretty, blond-haired girl trot down the curved staircase.
“I got dibs on pancakes!” Behind her, a slightly older boy wearing a Painters Mill High football hoodie pounds down the steps. Both of them are giggling. At the landing, he elbows past his sister, descends the remaining steps in two big strides. He doesn’t notice me until he reaches the base. He freezes, giving us a deer-in-the-headlights stare. Not expecting to find the police standing in the foyer first thing in the morning.
The girl’s stride falters when she notices my uniform. “Oh. Hi.”
Ashley Hodges is slender and athletically built, with blue eyes and sooty black lashes. Wearing ratty sweats, her hair pulled into an untidy ponytail, and not a stitch of makeup, she’s model pretty, in a girl-next-door sort of way. She reaches the base of the stairs, eyes darting from me to her mother and back to me. “What’s wrong?”
Belinda Hodges smiles at her children. “Chief Burkholder, this is my daughter, Ashley. And my son, Jason.”
The two teenagers exchange looks, then move cautiously toward us. Belinda leans to kiss both of them on their cheeks.
Ashley’s eyes flick from her mother to me and back. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s Noah, honey.” Belinda Hodges puts her arm around her daughter. “He’s in the hospital.”
“What?” The girl presses both hands to her cheeks, her eyes meeting mine over her French-manicured fingertips.
“Whoa,” mutters Jason. “What happened to him?”
“How bad is he hurt?” the girl asks, the pitch of her voice rising. “Is he okay?”
I recap the basics, keeping it vague.
“Oh my God. Mom.” She looks at her mother, her expression ravaged. “I have to go see him. Please.”
“Sure, honey.”
Jason touches her arm. “I can take you if you need a ride, squirt.”
I address the girl before she can turn away. “I understand you and Noah went to homecoming last night.”
Though she’s visibly shaken by the news of Noah’s hospitalization, happiness flashes on her face at the mention of his name. “It was our first real date. We just danced and talked all evening. He’s incredibly sweet. We had a great time.”
“How did you get to the school?” I ask. “Did someone drive you?”
“Dad drove me. Noah walked, like always.”
“What did Dad do?”
The four of us turn at the sound of the male voice. I see Craig Hodges emerge from the kitchen. Wearing sleek running gear—tights and a windbreaker, with headphones looped around his neck—he’s sweating and flushed as if he just arrived home from a morning run. He does a double take when he sees me and his expression sobers. “Is everything all right?”
I tell him about Noah Kline.
“An accident?” he asks.
“We’re not sure what happened just yet.” I turn my attention back to the girl. “Ashley, were there any problems last night? Any disagreements with anyone? An argument? Anything like that?”
“Everyone was so sweet to Noah. I mean, he didn’t know a soul and he wasn’t exactly comfortable. I introduced him around, you know, and everyone went out of their way to make him feel welcome.”
“What time did you leave?” I ask.
“I picked her up around midnight,” Craig inserts.
“What about Noah?” I ask.
“I offered to drive him home,” he says. “It had been raining on and off.” The man shrugs. “He said he’d walk, so I let him.”
“You should have asked a little more nicely,” Ashley says, pouting.
Her father shrugs. “He’s a big boy.”
“Here we go,” Jason mutters, rolling his eyes.
Ashley’s eyes fill with tears. She looks up at her mother. “Mom, please, Noah doesn’t have a phone. I just want to see him. Please. Can we just go?”
Craig sets his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Of course, sweetheart. Let me walk Chief Burkholder to her car. You grab a quick breakfast, get dressed, and then we’ll go.”
He makes eye contact with his wife, then me, his expression letting me know he’s got more to say that he doesn’t want his daughter to hear. Jason catches his father’s silent message. The three of us head outside.
When the front door closes behind us, Craig says, “Ashley’s too naïve to understand, but I thought you should know, Chief Burkholder. She had a boyfriend before Noah came along.”
Jason nods, his expression sober. “Doug Mason. He’s on the football team. I always liked him, but he’s kind of a jerk.”
“Doug wasn’t happy when she broke up with him.” The lawyer grimaces. “Even less so when he found