I squatted down next to the body. The girl's wrists had been pulled over her head and tied with a child's jump rope around the base of a tree trunk. Her skin was gray from massive loss of blood. Her eyes were still open and seemed to be focused on a solitary wildflower three feet away. A pair of panties hung around one of her ankles.

I stood up and felt my knees pop. For just a moment the trees in the clearing seemed to go in and out of focus.

"You all right?" Helen asked.

"They put one of her socks in her mouth," I said.

Helen's eyes moved over my face. "Let's talk to the boy," she said.

His skin was filmed with dust and lines of sweat had run out of his hair and dried on his face. His T-shirt was grimed with dirt and looked as though it had been tied in knots before he had put it on. When he looked up at us, his eyes were heated with resentment.

"There were two black guys?" I said.

"Yes. I mean yes, sir," he replied.

"Only two?"

"That's all I saw."

"You say they had ski masks on? One of them wore gloves?"

"That's what I said," he replied.

Even in the shade it was hot. I blotted the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve.

"They tied you up?" I said.

"Yes," he replied.

"With your T-shirt?" I asked.

"Yes, sir."

I squatted down next to him and gave the deputies a deliberate look. They walked to their cruiser with the black man and got inside and left the doors open to catch the breeze.

"Let's see if I understand," I said to the boy. "They tied you up with your shirt and belt and left you in the coulee and took Amanda into the trees? Guys in ski masks, like knitted ones?"

"That's what happened," he replied.

"You couldn't get loose?"

"No. It was real tight."

"I have a problem with what you're telling me. It doesn't flush, partner," I said.