From where I’m standing they’re barely pubescent, and I’d hazard a guess neither is old enough to have a driver’s permit.

“No, ma’am, they’re not in college,” Barclay says, and he flips through pages in his notebook. “They go to the school near Donnelly Field, in the eighth grade. Or that’s what they told me and I got no reason to think they’re making something up or hiding anything. Or that they knew the victim. They said they didn’t.”

These strike me as callous remarks to make about two girls who have been traumatized by a discovery that will stay with them the rest of their days. I wonder if he’s implying that he briefly considered them suspects—if it crossed his thoughts that the twins might think it was a fun idea to ambush someone on a bicycle. I suppose anything is possible, and I notice his small flashlight is turned off. It’s as if he’s forgotten he has it, and he checks through his notes. He finds the page he wants as if he can see in the dark like a cat.

The girls live near the Highland Laundromat off Mount Auburn Street, he tells me as he loudly flips through pages. It makes sense that their route would have taken them from Harvard Square, along John F. Kennedy Street toward the river. The plan was to walk along the water through the park, then cut up Ash Street, which would take them home. All told the outing was just under a mile round trip.

“Usually they would cut over to Mount Auburn, which is more direct,” Barclay explains what he gleaned from questioning the sisters. “But it’s so hot they’ve been detouring through the shaded park and sticking near the water as much as possible.”

“Why were they out at all?” I’m making notes.

“They said they were heading home from the Square, from Uno’s, and I’m thinking who can eat pizza in this weather? I heard on the news this morning that in another day the heat will break. Then it’s rain and we’ll go straight to winter. You grew up in Miami, right? So I guess this weather’s a piece of cake for you. Not me. This is way too hot for my thick blood.”

I don’t ask where he’s from but it’s probably not here, not originally. He has a trace of a midwestern accent.

“I’ve only been to Miami a couple times,” he says, and I don’t follow up on that either.

CHAPTER 16