My Sister's Keeper by Bill Benners Page A

their attention to me. Fred massaged the nubs of his missing fingers with the heel of his right hand. “You know her?” he asked.
    I stirred my coffee. “She came to my house during that storm Sunday night. Her power had gone off and I went back to her place to help her get it back on.”
    Their faces could not hide their surprise. Joe shoved a copy of The Morning Star at me . “You seen the story in today’s paper?”
    “ No, I haven’t.” Taking it, I saw that Ashleigh had made the front page.
    “ Which house did she live in, Rich?” Fred asked.
    My eyes drifted over the story. Single female…twenty-three years old… “She lived behind Dr. Hardesty in his guest house.” Violent struggle... blood-spattered walls…sexual assault…
    Sappy wagged his finger. “I told you to get out and date more.” A collective chuckle rose from the table. According to the paper, it appeared she’d been murdered although her body has not been found . What? I read the line again: Her body has not been found.
    I read the entire article, then, as I folded the paper and handed it back to Joe, he asked, “Have the police talked with you about it yet?”
    “ Oh yeah. They came last night.” I sipped the steaming coffee and could feel his eyes burning into me.
    “ What’d they say?”
    My hand trembled slightly as I sat my cup down. “They mostly just asked a lot of questions. What time I went over there. What time I came back.”
    “ That was it?”
    “ And they took hair and blood samples.”
    Joe’s face deflated. “Why didn’t you call me?”
    “ I did. I couldn’t get you.”
    “ Last night? Oh, we went to a movie.”
    “ Besides, I have no idea what happened over there. They just wanted to know if I knew her, when I saw her last, what time that was. I had nothing to hide. I hadn’t done anything. Then, when I realized how serious it really was, I tried to get you, but there was no answer.”
    “ Damn Rich!” He lowered his voice, but his eyes were intense. “They don’t take DNA unless they consider you a suspect.”
    A shiver snaked through me—a familiar feeling I’ve grown accustomed to when talking to my father, and my response probably sounded overly defensive . “I probably am a suspect. At the top of their list, but I still didn’t do it.”
    Bob tilted his head back and eyeballed me through the lower part of his lenses. I set my coffee down and gave them the abbreviated version of the story. When Joe grasped his head in his hands, my chest tightened. “I was trying to help her. What would you guys have done?”
    “ What did she look like?” Sappy asked.
    Sheila returned carrying an armful of plates and began dealing them around the table. “She was cute,” I said. “You would’ve stayed the night.”
    “ Damn right I would have. Let me see that picture again?” He reached across the table and took the paper from Joe.
    George flipped a napkin across his lap. “So what happened at her house?”
    “ I just got her power back on and  left.”
    “ No you didn’t,” Sappy pressed. “I can tell by the sound of your voice. Something happened. What?”
    I ripped open a single-serving tub of butter, scooped it into my grits, and leaned forward. “Okay, you want the truth?” The five of them leaned closer. “After I got her lights back on…” They were frozen in place as if I’d hit the pause button on the VCR. I spoke softly, slowly, and distinctly. “…she went in her bedroom, lit a bunch of candles, stripped stark naked, and tried to get me in bed with her.”
    George’s mouth dropped open as his left hand wiped across the top of his bald head.
    “ You wish,” Sappy quipped breaking the yolk on a fried egg along with the tension. “I know you,” he added. “You wouldn’t have done it if she’d let you.”
    Ouch! The truth hurt. But, thank God I didn’t do it. No telling what problems that could have caused. The conversation around the table drifted away from Ashleigh