Blade

Chapter Forty-Three

Excerpt from Testimony of Mio Akasawa

Ada Olson: What happened the next day—after you drove home from the rest stop outside of Denver?

Mio Akasawa: Ana woke up at six a.m. for her morning sessions. She went to the rink, skated, then went to school. Nationals were just three weeks away.

Ada Olson: Back to normal?

Mio Akasawa: Yes.

Ada Olson: And did you ever ask her again why her dress, and her skate, were covered in blood? Where she’d been or what she’d done?

Mio Akasawa: No.

Ada Olson: Why not?

Mio Akasawa: Because she asked me not to.