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anywhere near it, either.”
    “Then how do you explain your prints on those beer cans the sheriff found, Liz?” Sister Agatha said. “Or Leeann’s, who you just happened to be with last night.” Sister Agatha gave her a steady look, then in a softer voice added, “Liz, you’re in a world of trouble and it sure looks like you’re trying to cover for someone.”
    “I’m not! I don’t know who the driver was because Leeann and I were nowhere near that SUV!” Tears ran down her cheeks freely now. “Why won’t you believe me?”
    “How about taking a polygraph?” Tom asked. “Lie detector.”
    Liz hesitated, her eyes widening, then, wiping away her tears with one hand, nodded. “Okay, but only if you promise to keep it to two questions. You can ask me if I was ever in that SUV and if I know who stole it.”
    “All right.” Tom gestured for Sister Agatha to follow him outside and closed the door behind him.
    He then led Sister Agatha farther down the hall, and stopped in front of another interview room. “I’ve got Leeann in here with Sergeant Banks. Both mothers are waiting in the lunchroom. We’ve kept it informal and, so far, the girls’ stories match up. They had a sleepover, listened to music, playedsome games on a computer, then went to sleep. But they’re both holding something back.”
    “Agreed. The fact that Liz was willing to take a polygraph shows she’s not lying, but the way she put a limit on what you could ask cinches it. She knows more than she admits. Have you spoken to Liz’s mom yet?”
    He nodded slowly. “I told her that the county would provide a lawyer for her daughter if she couldn’t afford one, and she told me that she didn’t care what we did with Liz. She said that if Liz had broken the law she’d have to own up to it. And if Liz ended up in jail, she could plan on living with her father after she got out.”
    “I’ve seen so many situations like this before—the kid’s a ping-pong ball between the parents,” Sister Agatha said.
    “Now here’s the bad news. I’ve done all I can. The car’s been recovered, and no one was injured, so this is as far as we can take it. I don’t have the manpower to pursue this any longer. I was only bluffing when I mentioned the polygraph. We can’t fund that on a case like this.”
    “Then who’s going to replace our gates? We have to find out who’s responsible before we can pressure them to make restitution. Both Sister Bernarda and I saw a big person, probably a man, running away from that SUV after it crashed. The girls must know who it was. Will you let me talk to Leeann?”
    “Sure. Go for it. But I’ll have to be there with you.”
    As they entered the second interview room, Sister Agatha saw a teen with bright red hair and a ring in her bottom lip sitting behind the table, biting her fire-engine-red fingernails. Sister Agatha noted her blue T-shirt with the image of Jesus. Below it were the words JESUS IS MY HOMEBOY .
    Sister Agatha tried not to cringe. They meant well—both the manufacturers and the teens who chose to wear them—butit still seemed sacrilegious to reduce the Lord to an image on a T-shirt.
    The teen gave Sister Agatha a shaky smile. “Are you here to help us, Sister Agatha? We didn’t do anything wrong.”
    She remembered more about Leeann now—a troubled teen who’d attended St. Charles and finally been expelled after she’d brought a sharpened rat-tail comb to school and pointed it like a weapon at one of the teachers. The kid was trouble waiting to happen.
    “I want to help you, Leeann, but you’re going to have to tell me the truth. Someone stole an SUV and rammed it through our gates. Fingerprints found on items inside the vehicle indicate that both of you girls were inside it at some point. Tell me who was driving.”
    “Sister, my hand to God, we had nothing to do with any of that. Not Liz, and not me,” Leeann replied.
    “Then explain how the beer cans got in there,” Sister Agatha