“Of course,” I say. “Of course she’s afraid. Someone tried to kill her best friend. Could have killed her.” I pick up my purse from where I set it on the floor next to me and stand. “I’d like to take my daughter and go now.”

“Ms. Crow.” Dr. Gideon leans forward in her chair. “At the moment Violet truly believes that someone is after her. She says it’s Joseph Wither coming back from the dead. She knows quite a bit about his history.”

“That damn project,” I say. “But it doesn’t make sense that Violet would believe he’s real,” I protest. “Some pervert has been contacting the girls pretending to be Joseph Wither. She told me. He lured them to the train yard. Of course she thinks he’s real because he made sure of it.”

“That could be the case,” Dr. Gideon says. “But nevertheless, she’s scared. I’d like to give her some time to work through what really might have happened at the train yard.”

Realization washes over me. “You don’t think that someone pretending to be Joseph Wither attacked Cora, do you? You think that Violet did it? You think that Violet stabbed her and is blaming it on Joseph Wither.”

“No way,” I hear Max say from the corner. “No way.”

“Beth, there were only five sets of footprints in the dirt next to where Cora was found. Cora’s, the woman who found her, Violet’s.” Officer Grady sits in the third empty chair. I feel penned in. When I had the chance I should have sold every last possession we owned to get the car fixed so we could go back home to Algodon.

“Who do the other two sets belong to?” I ask weakly.

“We don’t know for sure,” Officer Grady says. “But one set is small, consistent with a child’s. The other a bit bigger. Could belong to an adult or a larger child.”

“Jordyn,” I murmur. “Jordyn Petit was there, too. Violet said that Jordyn Petit and Cora were arguing and Jordyn knocked her down. Violet said that Cora fell against the tracks and hurt her arm. Doesn’t it make sense that if Jordyn pushed Cora she could have been the one to stab her, too?”

“Mom,” Max says. “What about the jar? I left it in the waiting room.”

“What jar?” Grady asks.

“Go get it,” I tell Max. To Grady and Dr. Gideon I say, “I don’t want Violet talking to anyone without a lawyer.”

Dr. Gideon clears her throat. “My main concern is Violet. I don’t work for the police. My job is to find out what psychologically and medically might be going on with her. I want to keep her overnight, see how she does, and then we’ll go from there.”

“What if I say no,” I ask. A tear escapes and rolls down my cheek and I quickly wipe it away.