Split Second (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 1)

“I can still remember so vividly when I heard the news.”

“You said you were in algebra class,” said Michelle.

She nodded. “I went out in the hallway, and there was Thornton and my mother. I knew something bad had happened.”

King looked startled. “Thornton Jorst was there with your mother? Why?”

“He was the one who told my mother. Didn’t he tell you that?”

“No, he didn’t,” said Michelle adamantly.

“Why would he have known before your mother?” asked King quizzically.

Kate looked at him, puzzled. “I don’t know. I assumed he heard about it on TV.”

“What time did they come and get you out of class?” asked King.

“What time? I… I don’t know. It was years ago.”

“Think, Kate, it’s really important.”

She was silent for a minute and then said, “Well, it was in the morning, well before lunch, I know that. Say eleven o’clock or so.”

“Ritter was killed at 10:32. There is no way the TV stations could have run a story with full particulars, including the identity of the assassin, barely thirty minutes later.”

“And Jorst also had time to pick up your mother?” asked Michelle.

“Well, she wasn’t living that far from where I went to school. You have to understand, Atticus isn’t that far from Bowlington, about half an hou

r by car. And my mom lived on the way.”

Michelle and King exchanged anxious glances.

“It couldn’t be possible, could it?” said Michelle.

“What? What are you talking about?” asked Kate.

King rose without answering.

“Where are you going?” asked Kate.

“To pay Dr. Jorst a visit,” he said. “I think there’s a lot he hasn’t

told us.”

“Well, if he didn’t tell you about coming to see me at the school that day, maybe he didn’t tell you about him and my mother.”

King stared at her. “What about them?”

“Before she died she and Thornton were seeing each other.”

“Seeing each other?” asked King. “But you said your mother loved your father.”

“By then Arnold had been dead almost seven years. Thornton and my mother’s friendship had endured and had turned into something else.”

“Something else? Like what?” he asked.

“Like they were getting married.”