Its lights hit the trees on the hill behind the far bank. Individual trees flash into focus, then the headlights move on and the woods return to a dar... blur."You know," she says, her toe still idly slipping along his scrape, "This is the same stream that flows through town and along the edge of the cemetery. This water," she gave it a kick, "Might've been there this morning. You could like get up and splash home."He has a vision of himself climbing up the slope into the cemetery, walking naked. Taking in a deep breath and soaking up the signs of the coming day Cassandra picked up her small black purse from the passenger seat, stepped out, locked her precious BRZ and walked to the cupcake shop. Wearing her white sneakers, black silky high ankle socks, thin black leggings that are now a tad too small, a tad too sheer, and a tad too sexy for trampoline class, along with a black sports bra and a gray sports jacket overtop she felt comfortable and fem as she made her way across the lot.. .. and helping her whenher family had just been wiped out, would she? If she did, I can think ofonly one reason, can't you? Self-defence. Is that what you want to thinkof your father? You wondered that yourself when you first saw me likethis. Remember?"Emma looked at Mandy coldly. It hadn't actually occurred to her that Mandyhad killed her father, but she was was feeling so numb and conflicted thatthe idea didn't seem so far-fetched. "You could be a psychopath," shesaid. "A fantasist. A raving. And before you throw the stats out at me, I know those, too, and they’re misused. To say that smoking very occasionally doubles or triples the risk of certain kinds of cancer is a true statement. But double or triple 0.01% is still a very small number. And nothing I’m able to do could ever reduce the number to zero. The headlines scream ‘double’ or ‘triple’ and everyone freaks out. You have to know the base number to know if that double or triple is really meaningful.”“I didn’t realize you’d.