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"You really need to think about the fact that, according tofor almost an hour--without my permission or a child advocate present Whatever questions you haven’t asked in that time can wait" Ivy looked from one officer to the other, her expression deadly "She’s a child She’s trau a dead boy’s blood"

Ivy’s words had their intended impact: the officers looked distinctly wary and they re

"We’ll need those pants," one of the officers said From the expression on his face, he half expected Ivy to bite his head off for even asking Instead, Ivy turned to e of clothes"

I didn’t spend even a second wondering how Bodie had known to bring a change of clothes, or hoas that Ivy’s read on the situation was so precise She’d gotten me out of the room

After I surrendered the bloodied pants, she tookfilled ar, but I didn’t lift it toJohn Thomas She hadn’t cross-exa like one herself She’d sat in the backseat next to me on the car ride home She’d put an arm around me e’d arrived at the house and climbed out She’d made this drink and slid it across the kitchen counter to me

"Hot chocolate with a splash of coffee" Ivy"Nora Kendrick’s cure for all ills"

I’d spentthat Nora Kendrick wasback the rush of e to my lips and let the drink war?" I asked Ivy once I’d found an ia" A slight hitch in her voice contradicted her outward calery We won’t kno extensive the daery They died in surgery all the time

I could see awareness of that fact in Ivy’s eyes She’d worked on President Nolan’s can Whenever he or the First Lady had problehter

"You haven’t askedabout it, fro about it, "what I saw"

Ivy turned back to faceheld between two hands "Do you want to talk about it?"

Did I want to talk about John Thoto staunch the flow of blood? About the moment when his eyes went empty, and his head lolled to the side?

"I hated hiot killed, John Thomas Wilcox--I hated him"

Ivy knehen to keep quiet I filled the silence, unable to stop talking now that I’d started

"He was a horrible person The day I arrived at Hardwicke, he was showing off pictures of the vice president’s daughter" I paused and let that pause do the talking about the type of photos John Thomas had taken "She’s fourteen He told her he liked her He told her she was special, and then he laughed at her while he flashed those pictures around

"This ht He told the entire school that Henry’s father was in and out of rehab before he died" The more I talked, the faster the words came "He texted these pictures of Emilia where she’s totally out of it to the whole school A video, too" I sed, re the words John Thoht I don’t kno much Emilia remembers I don’t know if John Tho her think that he did"

Ivy held her expression carefully constant, but I caught a surge of anger in her eyes

I closed mine "An hour before he died, John Thomas told me that he’d accessed Hardwicke’s confidentialdisorders and depression and--" I sed back the fury that still wanted to coled out Vivvie "He threatened to tell everyone the details"