Picture This by Norah McClintock Page A

him,” DeVon said. “That’s the cop who was here.”
    Officer Firelli stared at the picture again. He said, “You see where that picture was taken? Do you think you could find that spot, Ethan?”
    â€œSure.” I’d spent so much time out in those woods that I knew the area like I knew my own room. I didn’t ask him why. I already had a pretty good idea.
    Officer Firelli made a few calls. Then he phoned Mrs. Ashdale and told her that I was with him and that I was helping him with a police investigation. He said she shouldn’t worry, that I hadn’t done anything wrong. He told her that he would have me back home in a few hours. Before we left the youth center, we printed out a couple of copies of the two photos that had Robert Miller in them.
    We drove back out to the woods where I had photographed the hawks. I looked at the photos. Using the hawks’ nesting tree as a landmark, I led Officer Firelli to the place where Robert Miller had been standing when I had accidentally taken his picture. Officer Firelli told me to stand off to one side while he examined the ground.
    Some police cars showed up. So did a police forensics van. Officer Firelli talked to them for a few minutes and let them take over. It wasn’t long before one of the cops said, “It looks like we have something here.”
    Before they touched anything, they took a lot of pictures. Then they started digging. They took even more pictures. Then one of them said, “We’ve got a body.”
    Officer Firelli went to talk to the other cops. Then he said, “Come on, Ethan. We’d better get you back home.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œIt’s going to take a while to identify the body, and it’s getting late.”
    He drove me back to the Ashdales. When we got there, he came with me into the house to tell the Ashdales what had happened. Mrs. Ashdale’s face went white as she listened. Mr. Ashdale put his arm around her. Officer Firelli promised to tell us what they found out there in the woods.
    â€œEthan should be safe now,” he said. “From what Ethan’s told me, Miller realized that his picture had been taken. He was afraid that someone might connect him to that spot in the woods. That’s why he tried so hard to get Ethan’s camera. When that didn’t work, he tried to get rid of Ethan.”
    For the second time since I came to live with her, Mrs. Ashdale hugged me. It almost made me cry.

Chapter Twelve
    It was in the newspaper the next morning, but by then I already knew the whole story. Officer Firelli had called. The body they found in the woods was Eileen Miller, Robert Miller’s missing wife. My pictures showed that Miller knew where she was all along. She had been shot with the same gun that Miller had used to shoot at me downtown. The police also found the bullet that he had shot at me in the alley. It was embedded in a door frame.
    â€œIt all ties back to Miller. He’s going to stand trial for murder, a couple of counts of attempted murder, and kidnapping— unless he gets smart and pleads guilty,” Officer Firelli said. “He must have had a good look at you that day in the woods, Ethan. He used to work in your old neighborhood. He picked you up a few times when you were underage—once for shoplifting and once for attempted purse-snatch. You remember?”
    I nodded. That explained why I’d had the feeling that I’d seen him before.
    â€œI didn’t recognize him,” I said.
    â€œWell, he recognized you. We found a copy of your police record at his house. He knew where you were living. He must have followed you when he mugged you in that alley. Then he broke into the house to look for the camera and to check to see if you had backed up your photos on the Ashdales’ computer.”
    â€œI didn’t.”
    â€œHe figured that out. He also knew about your involvement with the Nine-Eights. One of