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 Was she upset? asked Diane.
 Of course. But I don t know what she expected. That
now I ve had nine years to think about it, I made a mis-
take? Well, I didn t.
 Tell us what you saw, said Diane.
 I thought you were here about Stacy. I ve told you, I m
not going to help you get that monster out of jail, she said.
 I m asking questions that I know Stacy probably asked
you, said Diane.  We would like to know her frame of
mind. We would like to see if there was anything she heard
that might have sent her in some direction that we could
follow. This is not about Ryan Dance. It s about Stacy. We
are trying to get into her head a big part of what was in
her head was her brother.
 We have spent nine years in this community trying to
get over it, she said.
 You never get over something like this, said Diane.
 You can only try to deal with it in some way that doesn t
drive you crazy. I would like to think that for you that
would mean helping us bring a little peace to another
grieving father.
Kathy Nicholson nodded.  I had no quarrel with Stacy
Dance. She was a young kid at the time of the trial. I re-
member her outside the courtroom. Her father wouldn t
let her come in and she would wait out in the hallway with
a relative. I could see she wanted to put her family back
together. There was nothing I could do about that. The day
I saw him the day El went missing he was driving an old
gold Chevrolet. It was a large gaudy thing with rust spots
all over it. It wasn t a car that we see here. Arlo Murphy s
father down the street had a rusty old Ford fishing truck,
136 Beverly Connor
but that s all he used it for to go fishing. This car drove
past El s house going too slow, like someone looking for
an address.
 Where were you? asked Kingsley, turning to look out
the window.
 I know what you re thinking. It s too great a distance
from here to the road. Well, I wasn t in the house looking
out the window. I was in my garden. It s not there now. I
quit gardening when my husband died. My garden was
close to the road. I saw him clearly. His window was rolled
down. His arm was resting on the door, half out the open
window. I saw the snake tattoo he had on his forearm. I
wrote down the license plate number. I was president of
Neighborhood Watch then and I wrote down suspicious
tags. Are you going to tell me that it wasn t his plate num-
ber?
 No, said Kingsley.  We re just trying to get at what you
told Stacy you saw. Surely she asked you questions, like was
he looking at Ellie Rose Carruthers house when he drove
past?
She was silent for several moments, her mouth set in a
frown, her hands clutching the arms of the chair.
 I told her I saw him, she said.
 Did he turn his head in your direction? Kingsley
pushed her. His voice was calm, but he was pushing. Diane
thought Stacy probably had pushed too. If the person was
looking at the Carruthers house, his face wasn t turned to-
ward Mrs. Nicholson in her garden.
 Which way was he going? said Diane.
 What do you mean? Mrs. Nicholson asked.
 Which direction was he driving when you saw him?
she said.
 I was standing in my garden. Looking across the street
at him. He was going north to my left. She gestured with
her arm.
 This street isn t a dead end, is it? asked Diane.
 No, she said.
 Did he come back and look again? asked Diane.
 I didn t see him if he did, she said.
 How long were you in your garden? Diane asked.
 From nine in the morning until eleven. That s when I
DUST TO DUST 137
worked in my garden, she said.  And my eyes are good. I
have reading glasses now, but my eyes were twenty-twenty
then.
Diane had read Kathy Nicholson s statement to the po-
lice, as well as her court testimony. It was in the file Kings-
ley had. Diane was willing to bet it was in Stacy s file too,
the one that was missing. In Nicholson s first statement she
emphasized the car, the plates, the Atlanta Braves cap, and
the tattoo. Not the face. In court she said she recognized
him. She pointed to him sitting beside his counsel. But the
trial was held after Ryan Dance s face had been all over the
news. The documents didn t say anything about a lineup.
Diane was willing to bet the first information Nicholson
gave was the truth. Truths are often put forth first by wit- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]