"What kind of stories do you write?"

"Mostly mysteries and thrillers, but I've been known to do the occasional short story for magazines when money gets tight." Which is most of the time, she silently added.

"Okay, now what?"

Laura looked at the search words. "New York State Board of Education? What exactly are you looking for?"

"Just looking," Crystal said, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Someone said I might be able to get some information about something."

Oh yeah, that's real clear. "Well perhaps if you told me what you were looking for, specifically, I might be able to narrow your search down." "Someone told me I could find out how to get a GED without having to go back to school." Suddenly Crystal found an intense interest in her cuticles. "They said there was a way to study for the test on the computer."

"Hmm, I'm sure there is." Duh, makes sense. How old was she when she ran away? "There might even be study guides that you can print out. I have plenty of ink and paper," she offered. "Um can I ask you something?"

Crystal shrugged. "I guess."

"When you ran away, how did you manage to survive? You would have needed working papers in order to get a job anywhere and then of course there's always the worry about the truant officer."

The younger woman hesitated before answering and when she did, it was while deliberately looking anywhere but at Laura. "You really want to know the answer to that?"

What would Jenny say? "Um, if you feel like telling me." Good nice safe answer, Laura told herself.

"Let's just say some jobs don't require working papers or ID."

"Oh." The writer shifted uncomfortably and now it was she that was unable to maintain any eye contact. She did say stripping was a step up. "I see, well

" Shaking her head, Laura quietly admitted, "I don't know what to say."

"Nothing to say anyway," Crystal shrugged. "I did what I had to do." She wiggled the mouse. "So what next?"

It took Laura a second to shift mental gears and turn her attention to the information on the screen. "Put the pointer over Search and click it." She looked at the top matches and shook her head. "You'll have to scroll down."

"In English?"

She smiled at the error, pleased to see a like one on Crystal's face. "Sorry. I keep forgetting. It's just part of my vocabulary. I'm not used to people not knowing what I'm talking about." She explained how to navigate around the screen, finding to her surprise that Crystal was a quick study and she rarely needed to explain things more than once. Within minutes they found a site offering a self paced study program. "This is perfect," she said. "Look at this." Excited by the discovery, Laura thought nothing of leaning in and taking control of the mouse. "You can work on each topic until you're ready and then take a self-test at the end. That'll make it easy. Here." She clicked on a link. "Look at all the modules available."

Crystal's eyes widened. "I'll never be able to learn all that."

"Of course you can. It's not as hard as it looks."

"Easy for you to say. You have a college degree. I didn't make it through the ninth grade."

"Hey, I wasn't born with that degree, you know. I had to learn everything too." She clicked the mouse again. "You don't have to learn everything all at once. Try doing one of the modules. What subjects were you good at?"

"I dunno. I didn't really ever pay that much attention to school." Crystal shrugged in the now familiar gesture. "I'm surprised I only failed one grade." She pushed the chair back, propping her left ankle on her right knee. "I'm not stupid or anything, it's just that studying and homework weren't that important to me then." She interlaced her fingers and rested them on her lap. "I bet you were the honor student. Got straight A's and all that."

"Well, mostly A's," Laura admitted.

"Uh huh." Crystal said knowingly. "Where'd you go, Harvard or Yale?"

"Neither," she replied. "I was supposed to go to West Point but ended up going to Colgate."

"West Point? Oh, that's right. You're an Army brat. So why didn't you go there?"

"It's a long story." Seeing the expectant look on Crystal's face, Laura jerked her chin in the direction of the balcony. "Let's go out there. It'll be more comfortable."

Chapter Four

"So what happened?" Crystal asked once they were settled on the balcony.

"All right. Now you have to understand that the military isn't the same as civilian life. Things aren't handled quite the same way." Laura was grateful for the shroud of darkness, making it easier for her to tell her story. "Appearance is everything and rumors move through the ranks quicker than you can imagine. I was a senior in high school and my father had just been stationed at West Point about four months before. In the fall they have a formal dance during Homecoming Weekend. My father arranged for me to go with a fourth year cadet named Eugene Watkins."

"Eugene?" Crystal snorted and reached for her cigarettes. "Why would anyone saddle a kid with a name like that?"

"Probably because he was Eugene Watkins the third, grandson of General Eugene Watkins and son of the late Captain Eugene Watkins." "Still a rotten reason to name your kid Eugene."

"Anyway, Cadet Watkins' eg.was only overshadowed by his hormones, especially after having sneaked several sips of whatever liquor he was hiding in his jacket. After spending most of the evening talking about himself, Mister Personality thought he was entitled to more than a few formal dances."

"You mean he tried

?"

"Oh yes, he most certainly tried," Laura said. "We took a walk on the grounds and he did his best to cop a feel. I pushed away from him and began walking back, willing to chalk it up to a bad date with a creep but he refused to give up that easily. He pushed me up against a tree and tried to get his hand under my dress. That's when I screamed and kneed him."

"Good, the bastard deserved it," Crystal said, taking a long drag on her cigarette. "You should have kicked him in the balls." "I wish I had thought of it at the time," Laura admitted. "Kneeing him wasn't enough to get him off of me. He pushed me down on the ground and began pawing at me. Another cadet heard my screams and ran over. If he hadn't been walking around, well we were pretty far away from the rest of the party."

"I suppose because he was the General's grandson he got away with it, right?"

Laura sighed and rested her foot on her opposite knee. "It's not that simple. The Academy is very strict on enforcing the Honor Code." "So what happened?"

"I was pretty upset by the time the cadet brought me inside. We came in the front door and standing right there was my father, General Watkins, and a few other senior officers. Imagine how it looked. There I was, my dress torn in the front with mud and grass stains on the back. My father took me into a private room and I told him what happened. He left and came back a few minutes later to take me home." Looking up at the twinkling stars, Laura let the emotional evening relive itself in her mind. "My father never lied to me, I'll give him that. He told me up front that it was my word against Eugene's and of course you know what his story was."

"That you wanted it," the stripper guessed.

"He said I allowed him to feel me up and when he refused my demands for more that I began screaming."

"Of course," Crystal snorted.

"Dad also told me that General Watkins reminded him that Eugene's father died a hero in Lebanon when Eugene was still in high school." She shook her head, absently identifying the various constellations floating above. "All it would have taken was one call from the General and Dad would have found himself shipped off to Anchorage or even worse."

"So your father made you drop the charges?"

Laura nodded. "There wasn't really much choice. If I pressed a complaint, it would have brought the media down on the academy, General Watkins, and him. Look at what they do to the Kennedys. Imagine if the grandson of a general and son of a war hero was charged with attempted rape?" Resting her elbows on the arms of the chair, she interlaced her fingers. "Dad and the General worked something out behind closed doors. He never told me what happened, only that it was over and I should forget about it. I heard from one of the other cadets that Eugene lost his rank as Battalion Commander and was confined to the grounds but was still allowed to graduate."

"Oh big punishment," Crystal scoffed.

"Actually losing your commission at the academy is a huge black mark. He'll never be on the fast track up the chain of command now. Plus I don't think he'll ever think about touching a girl like that again."

"Why not? He got away with it once, what's to stop him?"

"The other cadets. About a week after the incident, a group of cadets caught Eugene in the shower and I guess they beat him up pretty good. He spent a couple of days in the infirmary but never revealed who was involved."

"Serves him right. I hope they made it so he couldn't use it again."

"Well I don't think they went that far," Laura said, picking up on the anger in the smoke-roughened voice. "I think my father knew who did it but he never told me."

"Were you mad at him for not defending you?"

Was I mad at him? She stared up at the stars again. "At the time I was furious with him because I thought he wasn't on my side. I blamed the Army for him caving in to the General. That's why I accepted a scholarship to Colgate. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized why he did things the way he did."

"I don't get it," Crystal said.