We sat on it and Lieutenant Rawling pulled another one closer. Alex sat on that, but he stood glaring down at us,
"How many of you are there at present?" she asked.
"There were five of us when we three came. There were four of us last night. Mindy's dead. She committed suicide," I told her.
Alex looked at Lieutenant Rowling, who smirked. "Who committed suicide?" he asked.
"Mindy."
"Mindy Levine." Robin said.
"You saw her commit suicide?" he asked.
"No. Gia told us that happened. We were out in the desert," I said.
"Who's this Gia?" he asked, looking from me to Robin and Teal. "She was the other girl, the fourth girl." Robin told him.
"You said you were out in the desert. What does that mean?" Alex asked.
"We were being punished. We were taken out there and left to find our way back." I explained. "Teal got bitten by a rattlesnake. Natani saved our lives." I felt like I was repeating a recording, speaking with little or no emotion, just reporting facts.
Again Alex's eyebrows hoisted and she looked at Lieutenant Rowling.
He shrugged again. "You guys should know more about this place than we do,," he said
defensively.
Alex nodded. "We should. But, we obviously don't."
"Yeah, well, that's for later. Right now." he continued, bearing down on me especially. "what do you know about this fire?"
I shook my head and the other two did the same.
"We woke up and saw the whole place illuminated, so we dressed and stepped out and saw the house was in flames. We ran around back and watched Natani and his nephew, the cook, try to save the buddies."
"Buddies?"
"Assistants, I suppose you would call them,," Teal said dryly. "We had better names for them."
"Do you know anything about Gia?" I asked.
"What about Dr. Foreman? Was she in the house or what?" Teal followed, her arrogant, demanding tone making her sound more like the Teal I knew,
"We're asking the questions here," Lieutenant Rowling said so sharply it was as if his tongue were made of razor blades.
"Okay, girls," Alex said, giving him a stern look and then turning back to us. "For now. I want you to rest. We'll get you something to drink and tat. I'll return soon."
She and the lieutenant left the barracks.
"How come they didn't know about Mindy?" Teal asked. "If someone dies, especially like that, wouldn't the police know?"
"It's all very weird," Robin said.
I agreed and then my eyes went to Gia's cot. The edge of her notebook could be seen just under her pillow. I went to it and pulled it out. I opened the cover and sat on her cot to read.
"What?" Robin asked when I shook my head.
"I guess she returned to being Posy. She starts this off with a 'Dear Mother.'"