Kisscut

Lena did not let her go on this tangent for long. "When did Je

"About a year ago, I guess. They were all in the church together. I thought it was good, but these kids… I don't know. You would think that a church would be a safe place for your child, but…" She shook her head. "I didn't know," she said. "I didn't even know she had ever been with a boy, let alone…"

Lena gave Sara an almost imperceptible nod. Jeffrey saw Sara brace herself as she prepared to deliver the news. "Dottie, I did examine Je

Dottie pressed her lips tightly together as she waited.

Lena said, "Je

The mother stared openly from Sara to Lena, then back again. She seemed too shocked to show anything but disbelief.

Sara clarified. " Lena 's right. She wasn't pregnant, though I can tell you that she was sexually active prior to six months ago."

Dottie's mouth worked, but no words came. She smiled, finally, interpreting this as good news. "So, she didn't do it? She didn't hurt the baby?"

Lena answered, "We don't really know what happened with that yet." She paused, looking at her hands, this time not for effect. After a few beats, she looked back up at Dottie. When she spoke, her voice was low, her eyes locked on the mother as if Sara were no longer in the room. "This is just my opinion, ma'am, but from everything I've learned about your daughter, I can't see her doing what she's been accused of."

The mother's shoulders dropped in obvious relief. She began to cry again, putting a tissue to her nose. "She was so gentle," she said. "There's no way she would ever do this kind of thing." She turned to Sara for confirmation. "She was such a good girl."

Sara nodded again, her smile weak.

"She talked about being a doctor one day," Dottie told Sara. "She said she wanted to help kids just like you do."

Sara's smile wavered, and Jeffrey could see the guilt flash in her eyes.

Lena cut through the moment, asking, "Je

"Yes, Mark and Lacey."

"She was still going to church with them? Still active?"

"Until about eight months ago," Dottie answered. "She stopped going. I can't tell you why. She just said she didn't want to go anymore."

"This would have been in January?"

"I suppose."

"Right after Christmas?"

Dottie nodded. "Thereabouts."

"Did anything happen during that time? Maybe a falling out? Did she get angry at anyone? Maybe have a fight with Mark Patterson?"

"No," Dottie answered firmly. "As a matter of fact, she went on a youth retreat with the church the week after Christmas. They all went to Gatlinburg to go skiing. I didn't want her out of the house around the holidays, but she had her heart set on it, and she had brought her grades up in school, so…" She let her voice trail off.

"So, she was gone a week?"

"Yes, a week, but then I had to go to my sister's in Ohio because she wasn't feeling well." Dottie pressed her lips together. "Eunice, my sister, was diagnosed with emphysema a couple of months prior to that. She's doing better now, but it was a really difficult time."

"Je

"Oh, no," Dottie shook her head. "Of course not. She stayed with the Pattersons for three or four days, then I came back."

"That was normal, for her to stay with the Pattersons?"

"Yes, then it was," Dottie provided. "Every weekend Lacey would stay over or Je

"You know the Pattersons well?"

"Teddy and Grace?" She nodded. "Oh, yes, they both go to the church. I'm not too crazy about Teddy," she said, lowering her voice a little. "You can see where Mark gets it, I'll tell you that."

"How's that?"

"He's just kind of…" Dottie began, then shrugged. "I don't know. If you ever meet him, you'll see what I mean."

"So," Lena summed it up. "At Christmas, Je

"Well," Dottie seemed to go over this in her mind. "Yes, I guess so. I mean, it seems that way now. Before, when it was happening, I didn't make a co

"Did you ever suspect your daughter of using drugs?"

"Oh, no, she was adamantly against them," Dottie answered. "She didn't even drink caffeine, and just recently she cut out all sugar."

"For her weight?"

"For her health, she said. She wanted to make her body pure."

" 'Pure,'" Lena repeated. "Did that have something to do with the church, do you think?"

"She had stopped going by then," Dottie reminded her. "I don't know why she did it. We were driving home from school one day, and she just said it: 'I don't want to eat anything with sugar in it anymore. I want my body to be pure.'"

"This didn't strike you as odd?"

"At the time, no," Dottie said. "I mean, maybe it did, but she had been acting so strange lately. Not strange like you would notice, but strange like she stopped drinking Co-Colas when she got home from school, and she started concentrating more on her homework. It was like she was trying to do better. She was more like her old self."

"Her old self before she started hanging out with the Patterson children?"

"Yes, I guess you could say that." Dottie pursed her lips. "It was very strange, because Lacey was a cheerleader, and very popular, and from the day Je

Sara asked, "Tortured her how?"

"Just mean," Dottie answered. "Teasing her about her weight. And this was back when she was just a little chubby. Not like she's been lately."

"You don't think Lacey or Mark ever hit her?"

Dottie seemed surprised. "Heavens no. I would have called the police." She patted her eyes with the tissue. "They just teased her is all. Nothing physical. Like I said, they became friends."

Lena said, "Why did that change?"

"I don't really know. Maybe when they all went from the middle school to the senior high. It's a big adjustment. I think Lacey didn't make the cheerleading team, and she kind of dropped in the pecking order. You know how kids are. They want to belong. Now that I think about it, the sugar thing was probably Lacey's idea."

"Lacey's?" Lena asked.

"Oh, yes. She was always coming up with things for them to do. What kind of clothes they would wear to school, where they would go for the weekend. They spent hours on the telephone talking about it."

Lena smiled. "My sister and I used to do the same thing," she said. Then, "Was it some kind of religious thing, you think?"

"What's that?" Dottie asked, caught off guard.

"The sugar. The caffeine. It sounds kind of religious."

"You don't think…?" Dottie stopped herself. "No, I don't think it's religious. She was very happy with the church. I think it must have been those Patterson children. Mark has some kind of criminal record for stealing things." She shook her head in a slow arc. "I didn't know what to do. Should I have told her she couldn't see him? That would have made her want to spend even more time with him."

"That's generally the case with young girls," Lena agreed. "You still go to church, right?"

"Oh, of course," Dottie answered, nodding her head. "It's a great consolation to me."

"Have you made arrangements yet? I guess they'll do the service?"

Dottie sighed. "I don't know. I just…" She stopped, blowing her nose on a tissue. "I think she liked Preacher Fine. He came by the house to talk to her. So did Brad Stephens. He's the youth minister at the church."

"That so?" Lena asked.

"Oh, yes, Brad is very active in the community."

"Did Pastor Fine come by after Je