“Don’t talk to him that way!” Anna said. She knew instantly that she’d spoken too quickly and too sharply, but she’d never heard Karl talk like that. “You know his name.” She tried to speak more calmly. Softly. “It’s ‘Jesse.’ You worked side by side with him to get this canvas on the wall, so please don’t act like you never saw him before.”

Karl glared at her and she knew she’d said way too much. She knew it before half those words were out of her mouth. One of the big burned-out ceiling lights suddenly flickered back to life and she let out a yelp.

“You’re wound up mighty tight, aren’t you?” Karl said. He nodded toward the door. “Come outside with me, Anna.”

Reluctantly, she followed him outside. He shut the door behind them and she hoped Jesse could handle Officer Charles on his own.

Outside, she turned to face Karl. “Why are you here?” she asked. “We don’t know anything about Martin Drapple.”

“So you and the boy are a ‘we’?” he asked.

“What? No! Not the way you mean. For heaven’s sake, he and Peter … I couldn’t have gotten the mural as far along as it is without them. You saw how hard they worked to help me.”

“Why is he still here, though? Where is Peter Thomas, by the way? Why isn’t he here, too?”

“He’s on the baseball team at the high school. But Jesse’s—” She didn’t want to say that Jesse had dropped out. “Jesse’s finished with school, so that’s why he’s still here. He helps me, and in return, I’m teaching him how to be a better artist.” She thought of Jesse dragging Martin’s body out of the warehouse. She would be in jail right now if not for his help.

“Pauline thinks you’ve gotten a bit too familiar with him,” Karl said.

“Pauline is wrong.” She folded her arms across her chest, proud of how firm her voice sounded.

“Is he harming you?”

She laughed. “Of course not.”

“You can tell me.” Karl tried to soften his voice, but it sounded false. She’d liked Karl so much, but at that moment, she didn’t like him at all.

“Karl, no, he’s not harming me,” she said. “Quite the opposite. He’s a big help to me. How many different ways do I need to say it?”

It seemed to take forever, but the men finally left. Anna worried they were listening outside the windows of the warehouse, even though she’d heard their car head back up the dirt road. She held her finger to her lips after they left and then went outside to walk the perimeter of the warehouse, knowing she was acting crazy again. But before she and Jesse spoke to one another, she needed to be absolutely certain they were alone.