358 deadtime

probably in a daypack she'd stashed inside her backpack . she had hiked out , probably on the bright angel trail , the route to the south rim , in the dark .
based on his investgation , oden thought he had a pretty goood idea where jaana had gone .
on his first day off after the search was called off because of the flash flood , oden staked out jaana 's estonian friend's  rented hiome on the outskirts of bullheafd city , he watched jaana's friend leave for work . less than an hour latewr , he watched jaaaana's friend for work .less than an hour later , he spotted jaana , she was hanging laundry in the fenced backyard .
another day and  a half of obserc=vation conviunced him that jaana was hiding . for oden , that was good news .
he returned and watched her on his days off during the next two weeks , she never left the property .
the third  week , he waited for her friend to leave for work and for jaana to step outside . late morning she rolled a trash can to the street . she didn't raise her eyes as he stepped out of his car  , but she spun to get back inside  the house as fast as she could .
"i can help ." he said to her back from thirty feet away ." i can help you ."
she took two more steps before she turned to see  who had spoken . her hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp . she recognized him .
the faxct that dshe had recognized him felt like a gift to oden .
"i can help ." he said ."i'd like to help . i knowq what he tried to do to you . i understand what you did . why you did it ."
she invited him in . she didn't feel she had a choice .
to oden , the little house where she was living looked like it was begging to be scraped from the earth . in its thirty-five years of existence . too much maintenaqnce had been deferred . the esert haqdn't been kind .