“I thought I'd never find you!" he exclaimed.

“Sharlene, this is my friend Detective Mel VanDyne," Jane said. "Sharlene Lloyd is Ms. Palmer's secretary.”

Sharlene asked, "Is she dead? Really?"

“I'm afraid so, Ms. Lloyd. Do you feel like answering a few questions?”

Sharlene became teary-eyed again. "I think — will you excuse me for a minute?”

She disappeared into the depths of the mobile home, and Mel said to Jane and Shelley, "Then I'll start with you two."

“Are you in charge of the case?" Jane asked.

“No, just helping with interviews. There was a mob of people out there, you know, and it's important to interview as many as possible as quickly as possible."

“I don't know how much help we can be, Mel," Jane said. "We weren't in 'witness' mode."

“People seldom are," he replied.

“But we were really out in left field, if you'll forgive the expression," Shelley put in. "We were busy pretending like mad. The woman who rehearsed us really emphasized that we weren't to try to act the parts, but really get into it and be the people. She said that was the whole point of a reenactment. And we took her at her word. It was spooky, in fact. I was really scared of the battle, even though I knew it was all fake."

“But unfortunately, it wasn't," Jane added grimly. "Shelley's right. We weren't quite ourselves. Maybe it was just the heat, but I felt — well, almost hypnotized into my part.”

Mel wasn't very sympathetic. "Then you're going to have to snap out of it, because I need information. Do the best you can, okay?”

But it wasn't a successful interview. The experience had been pure chaos and neither of them could satisfactorily choreograph exactly what they'd done in what order, let alone account for anyone else's movements.