# THOMPSON-HAYES: BLOOD MONEY
## Chapter Nine — The Witness They Need
Dorothy Mills opened her front door and looked at Mia for a long moment before she said anything.
She was seventy-one, small and straight-backed, with white hair and the kind of eyes that had been paying careful attention to things for a long time and showed it. She was wearing a cardigan and holding a cup of tea and she looked at Mia the way you look at something you have been expecting for a while and are not entirely sure you're relieved has finally arrived.
"I was wondering," Dorothy said, "when someone would come."
The drive from Austin to Fredericksburg had taken ninety minutes. Mia had made it alone — Nathan had offered to come; she had told him she needed to take this one herself. Some conversations required
