Matt was prepared for this question. "I left it back in class."

"Back in class," the policeman said over his shoulder, without bothering to look at the man in black.

"Why would he leave it there?" the man in black said.

The older policeman did look at him then. "With all due respect Mr. Hennequin, I'm trying to interview this young man. I can't do this if I'm constantly being interrupted. You insisted on coming here with us. Now, if you wish to make a statement Constable Moloney here will be happy to take one down in another room. But you were also adamant that you weren't going to talk without your lawyer present."

"My father -"

"A man is dead. I have to find out who he was. When I do, I will have to tell his family."

There was a silence.

"We'll leave you two alone," Constable Moloney said. "Come on," he said to Mr. Hennequin and Mr. Eldridge. "Sooner he's done the sooner we can leave you in peace."

The three men left the room.

When the door closed, the policeman said: "Okay mate, let's start over. I'm Sergeant Peterson."

Then they went through it all again. Matt tried to repeat what he'd said the first time, but wasn't sure he got it all right. Sergeant Peterson didn't ask him about the bag again. He didn't seem to think it was important.

When they were done, Matt said: "Who is that man?"

"Don't worry about him."

"Will he go to jail?"

"Why would he go to jail? What did he do wrong?"

"I don't know. Nothing."

"Ahuh," Sergeant Peterson said, but he studied Matt carefully.

"I hope you find out who he is," Matt said to his hands. "The man who got run over I mean."

"I hope so too."

"Will you tell me when you do?"

"You might read about it in the papers."

All that week Matt studied the papers. When he found the story it wasn't on the front page. It was somewhere in the middle. It didn't seem to be big news that someone had been run over. The man in black was called Tom Hennequin. He was the son of a well-known politician. Matt knew then where he had heard that name before: on the television. The car belonged to Tom Hennequin's politician father. The newspaper called it an accident. The dead man still hadn't been identified.

Matt continued to scour the newspaper every day, but he never found anything else about it. His mum and dad knew what he was doing. They gave him worried looks, but didn't say anything. They had been careful with him since the accident. It was like he was a piece of fine china they thought they might break. The upside was that they hadn't been as angry with him as they usually would have been after they found out he had lost his schoolbag, even though they had to buy him another bag and dictionary and lunchbox and replace the two library books that had been inside it. His older Brother teased him relentlessly when he discovered that one of those books had been The Cat in the Hat – a baby book. But Matt loved Dr. Seuss. His Brother was just jealous because he didn't read at all.

And although Matt searched the library many times in the following weeks, he never found the ring again, or the bag he had put inside it. He didn't dare ask the librarian about it. She would have thought he was crazy.

Life gradually went back to normal. After a couple of years it all seemed like a dream he had had, and he began to doubt he had ever seen a man appear out of thin air one cold spring morning.

Thus endeth Chapter the Second. I hope thou enjoyeth'd it.