Now when Maggie asked, Amanda said she couldn’t remember where or when she was bitten. If it had been a wolf or cougar certainly she would have remembered, but Maggie didn’t press the matter. They had taken photos of the injury. She’d trust Lucy Coy to determine whether it was animal or human sooner than she’d trust the memory of a girl who had most likely been tripping out on a hallucinogen when the incident happened. And to Maggie, that was further evidence that this interview was probably worthless.
Maggie wondered if Sheriff Skylar knew the girl was lying. Perhaps that was why he was taking a gentler approach and using a different interrogation technique on her. However, earlier he seemed much too polite with Amanda’s mother, Cynthia Griffin, and the girl’s stepfather, Mike Griffin. On the drive over, Skylar had mentioned to Maggie that Mrs. Griffin’s family—the Vicks—owned several businesses in the area, including the meat-processing plant, a ranch, and two area banks. Maggie was sure she must have misunderstood about the banks—no one owned banks anymore, did they?
Skylar pulled up a chair, keeping a safe distance from the bed, unlike the menacing stance he had taken with Dawson. Whatever the sheriff’s intention, Maggie remained quiet. After her only question about the bite mark she stayed back out of Skylar’s way and out of the trailing vapor of Amanda’s annoying incense. She wanted to keep the girl off center and slightly outside her nice, warm comfort zone.
If it had been up to Maggie she would have questioned Amanda outside of her bedroom, another of Skylar’s decisions that she didn’t agree with, but not necessarily a bad one. Maggie decided to use it to her advantage. There was such a thing as a witness being too comfortable. Maybe she’d catch Amanda off guard with some of her own interrogation tricks, like simply standing instead of sitting. It made the witness have to keep track of two interrogators even if both weren’t asking questions. Being on different levels accentuated the effect. Sometimes the interrogated lost track of his or her story—or lie—needing to watch for a reaction from two people.
It appeared to be working.
The girl’s bloodshot eyes flitted from Skylar to Maggie and back to Skylar, trying to stay on the sheriff. She batted at her blond hair, pushing tangles out of her face. It looked as if she hadn’t brushed it yet today. She held on to a water bottle and absently took the cap off and screwed it back on, but Maggie noticed her coordination was off. Every few seconds Amanda stopped and gulped a few swallows like each sentence left her mouth dry.
“I know it’s not easy to talk about but can you tell us what you saw, Amanda?” Skylar’s questions came soft and gentle like he was coaxing a kitten out of a tree.
“It’s hard to describe,” she started to answer, eyes darting to Maggie. Her hands made the plastic water bottle crackle as she squeezed too hard and tightened the cap, then immediately started unscrewing it again.
“The lights came out of nowhere. We were, like, just sitting and talking. Then there’s this flash of light. It was like one of those big strobe flashes on a camera.”
She took a sip from the bottle. That was it. She was finished with her story. Maggie wanted to ask how soon had they seen the lights after they chewed on the salvia. She knew Amanda wouldn’t be confessing anytime soon to using any drug. Maggie also guessed the salvia wasn’t the girl’s first experimentation with drugs. Skylar had to see that, didn’t he? He’d questioned Dawson about drugs. Certainly he would ask Amanda.
“How about sound?” he said instead. “Did you hear anything unusual?”
“Oh yeah. It was really weird. Sort of like a hum. No, maybe more like a purr.”
“You mean a purr like an animal?”
Maggie could see the girl peeking out from behind a strand of hair, looking at Skylar as if waiting for him to give some hint as to the correct answer.
“I don’t think so. Then there was this sort of sizzle. You know like when you first throw a hamburger on the grill.”
Skylar winced at the comparison. If she wasn’t mistaken, Maggie thought the girl seemed pleased by his reaction.
“What made that sound?” Skylar asked. “Did it come from above? Did it seem like it was coming from the lights?”
This time Maggie had to stop herself from wincing. He was offering too much information. Why was he leading this girl?
Amanda simply shrugged and tried to put the cap back on the bottle. She missed. Looked down and tried again. Maggie noticed the girl’s hands were steady. There was no shake or tremble from nervousness. She didn’t see any of the signs of fear in Amanda that she had seen in Dawson’s eyes. In fact there seemed to be nothing uncomfortable about recounting the incident, and Maggie realized it had nothing to do with her lack of coordination.
“Did you see what happened to your friends?”
This time she looked like she was actually thinking about the event for the first time.