Allison nodded. “What about a shelter?”
Chambers made a face. “I’ve done that before, but they’re not set up for men with kids. A woman with kids, yeah, maybe she could find a place. But a man with a kid—there’s no place for him to go, not really. They would have split us up. I won’t risk having my daughter taken from me. I’m the only family she’s got. And I won’t live on the streets and expose her to what she would see there—alcohol, drugs, kids her age selling themselves. So one day we hiked into the park, got off the trails, and just kept going until we were in a part that looked completely wild. It’s beautiful there. We’re surrounded by God’s creation, not by concrete and garbage and junkies. We started out in a tent. Then I built a little cabin. Once or twice a week we go through the trash bins in the park and look for recyclable cans and bottles we can take back to the store. You’d be surprised what some people throw away.”
Allison nodded agreement, hoping he was referring only to cans and bottles. It was one thing to think of a grown man eating someone’s dis-carded half-eaten sandwich. It was another to think of a child eating out of garbage cans.
“And on Sundays,” Chambers continued, “we go to church.”
“Church?” Allison echoed in surprise. “Which one?”
“First Congregational.”
“Do the people there know you’re homeless?”
The church, with its downtown location, was known for its outreach to the down-and-out.
“We’re not there for charity.” Chambers looked affronted. “We’re there so Starshine can learn about Jesus.”
Nicole cleared her throat, and Allison realized that they had wandered off track. She wasn’t here to solve Chambers’s problems. She was here to find out whether he had killed Katie.
Taking over the questioning, Nicole crossed her arms and slouched. “Do you know why you’re here, Tim? Why we want to talk to you?”
He didn’t bother to pretend that he didn’t know what she was talking about. “Because of that poor dead girl.”
“She’s got a name,” Nicole said. “It’s Katie Converse. She’s not just some dead girl. This was someone’s daughter.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Chambers said. “I pray for her soul every night. She must have been in terrible turmoil to do what she did.”
Allison watched him closely, wondering if the reason he was praying was to ask forgiveness for what he had done.
“We need to find out what happened to her,” she said. “If you’re completely honest with us, we can help you and Starshine get into a subsidized apartment, get you on food stamps.”
Nicole glared at Allison, but it was all for show. At least Allison thought it was. Nicole had been in a bad mood ever since she had come back from the autopsy. And Nic was always better at playing bad cop than Allison was at playing good.
“Don’t lead him on.” Nicole turned back to Chambers. “You’ve got a dead girl a couple hundred yards from where you camp out, and you expect us to believe you had nothing to do with it, and just let you go on your merry way? Tell us what happened. And don’t lie to us, because we already have the forensic evidence.”
“It must have been hard keeping it a secret,” Allison said sympathetically. “No one to talk to.”
Chambers sighed. “What happened is, Starshine and I, we were down at the grocery store turning in our cans. It was getting dark. We were almost home when I saw this girl sprawled on the ground. Not moving. I yelled at Starshine to get in the cabin and stay there. I knew that she didn’t need to see it.”
“What day was this?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know.” Chambers shrugged. “A school day, that’s all I remember. When we go into town on a weekday, I have to make sure we do it late enough in the day that no one will ask me why Starshine’s not in school.”
“Did you pass anyone on your way back?” Allison asked.