Free Beyond Suspicion by Catherine A. Winn

arrangements with your parents.” He pushed back his chair, making it squeak on the laminated oak floor. “Shelby, this is more serious than I can tell you. Circumstantial evidence is powerful—you could wind up in prison if you don’t do exactly what I tell you.”
    â€œI didn’t do anything.”
    â€œBut they think you did and that’s all that matters. I’ll let you know when the polygraph appointment will be.”
    Shelby slumped in her chair after he left the room. Funny how the only thing that bothered her about what he said was hearing him call Roger her parent. It shouldn’t bother her as much as it would have two days ago, but it still did. Roger was being nice to her. He told everyone she was telling the truth. That was something. Her own dad couldn’t even keep in touch. Dad. Did he get all the messages and decide he was staying out of it? She immediately got mad at herself for thinking he would do that.
    No, no way would he just ignore what was happening here. She had to get out of the house. It would be so nice to be free for just a little while. Maybe she could dodge the media and see how the search was going at the park. Joey had said the reporters hadn’t discovered the alley yet.
    She peeked out the kitchen window. She had to lean on the sink to peer up and down the alley. Not a single person was out there. She listened to the conversational voices drifting in from the other room. It sounded like it would take a while. No one had expressly told her to stay inside.
    Stepping carefully so they wouldn’t hear, she opened the door and slipped outside into the shelter of the carport. Immediately she crouched low. No one could see her behind the cars, but she could hear them talking and laughing out front. Very carefully, she closed the door and duck-walked to the wood gate, lifted the latch, and scrambled into the backyard. She pushed the gate closed and heard the latch click. No one jumped out of the bushes or yelled while she leaned against it. The chain-link fence didn’t block her view of the alley and the other yards. Shelby couldn’t see anyone at all.
    Taking a steadying breath, she moved fast across the grass, through the back gate, and into the alley. Then she took off running and didn’t stop until she was a couple of houses from the end. From here she could see a wooden barricade had been set up along with some orange cones. So that’s why they hadn’t clogged the alley with traffic. Joey didn’t mention the cones so they must have been set up this morning.
    She stood in the shade to catch her breath. A fly buzzed her ear and she waved it away, then the unpleasant odor from the nearby dumpster wafted under her nose. Shelby walked fast to the street.
    The few cars that passed by didn’t change speed as she waited to run across. No one recognized her. Or maybe since no one expected to see her out and about, they weren’t giving a second thought to some teenaged girl. She darted across the street and down another alley before reaching the park. Again, no one noticed her. She crossed the street and power-walked up the path she always took with Josh. Her plan was to blend in, then get lost in the crowd of sightseers watching the police activity, but when she reached the bench she came to a surprised halt.
    There was no search going on. She didn’t have to try to blend in anywhere.

Nine
    Her shock and disappointment gave way to understanding. It was okay. The police must have finally realized Josh wasn’t there and gone out to hunt for the van. The visitors to the park today seemed to have nothing on their minds except normal activities. It was sad to think that Josh’s story wasn’t important to them. But hadn’t she done the same thing? News stories, no matter how terrible, never stopped her from participating in fun activities.
    Shelby’s eyes went to the spot where she last saw Josh. She remembered