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The tone had changed. In only a short time I could see that they truly loved each other, and had a little insight into how things might have gone down. I don't think Cammy realized I had confronted him so directly, but the whole atmosphere had lightened. She could tell the immediate sense of doom had lifted. We started talking a little about Buddhism and where we were going to eat for dinner.

We went for Mexican and it was good. We got along famously. After dinner they took me to their favorite park in Wenatchee and we sat and talked for a long time. I felt like a father figure to both of them somehow and I talked to her boyfriend almost sternly, in the voice of my sister, "Once you put your hands on her, it's already out of control." We talked and reminisced for hours as he looked on a little, like someone who didn't get all the "in" jokes.

It's not had this feeling like: Oh wonderful, what a wonderful man, and what a wonderful situation she's in. But I felt safe knowing I would be leaving that night, and not feeling as if her life were in immediate danger. More, however, came out when we got back to their apartment.

That was when I started to have a little bit of a funny feeling about her stories in light of meeting the person she was talking about. I wanted to ask them what the details were when they were both in the same room. I had come to find out what the situation was and now that I had their confidence I asked very specific questions.

I asked if it was true that he had never raised his hand to her. "I only ever just held you down!" he said, "But I did make some pretty nasty threats."

"You bit me once," she protested.

"You were punching me, and you put your hands in my mouth," he weakly rebutted.

I found out that Cam had relapsed more than once since she'd been in Wenatchee (which she never mentioned) and that she had been drinking as recently as the previous Saturday - and now she was on Valium. Could it be that in her confusion and hysteria things had gotten blown a little out of proportion? It suddenly made a little more sense why she had lost her job.

What about the banditos, I wanted to know. Was it true? Were there such people? Did the bandito boss really exist? What was the story? Wasn't Cammy's life in danger with all of these unsavory characters coming to her house?

to be continued...