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I’d been hoping he wasn’t going to do this, make me draw it out of him. I sucked in some more air and pulled Je
Steve stared at it for a long time. Then he smiled sadly, reaching forward to smooth his fingers over it. “A lot of gas station shifts to pay for this.”
I pulled the necklace out and put it on the table, too. “And this one?”
“To replace the bracelet when she lost it. Where’d you find that?” This time he looked genuinely confused and concerned.
“In your house.”
“My house?” But then I watched it flicker across his face: recognition. He had an idea how it had ended up in his house, no matter what he wanted to pretend. “Well, that doesn’t make any sense.”
I just wanted him to explain on his own. To make it all less suspicious: Oh, yes, I knew Je
I pulled the Ridgedale University yearbook out of my bag and opened it to the page I had flagged, the one with the basketball pictures. I spun it around and slid it in front of Steve. He stared down for a minute at the picture of Thomas Price, Simon Barton, and himself. When he met my eyes, he almost looked relieved. Like he’d been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
“I ran into Je
“There is something else,” I began. There was so much that he needed to explain, but there was even more that he needed to know. “I read Je
I watched Steve’s face stiffen. “No one ever reported anything like that to me.” He didn’t sound defensive, exactly, but almost. “We would have investigated, obviously. Was that what was in the files?”
“There wasn’t proof of anything. But it tells a story that fits. All of it does.”
He picked up the bracelet, smoothing his fingers over it again. “I was the one that night who told Je
Ha
“You know, I think Ha
In agonizing slow motion, I watched Steve co
“Go to the state police now,” he said. “Tell them what you just told me. I don’t want any investigation of Price getting derailed because I was involved. And tell them to pick both of us up. Because if they don’t, I swear to Christ, I will find Thomas Price, and I will kill him with my bare hands.”
A young female officer with a petite curvy frame strode purposefully into the cafeteria, then headed straight for us with her hand resting on her radio as if it were a gun. She had a concerned but determined look on her face. For a second, I wondered if someone had already reported Steve. She stopped a few feet short of the table and pointed her chin in his direction.
“Excuse me one second,” he said, composing himself admirably as he stood. He walked over to the officer, and the two of them exchanged a few clipped sentences. “Thank you,” he said to her, then stepped back over to my table.
“They found Je
“What about Je
“Don’t know yet. It was too steep for him to make his way down. Hard to say when the accident even happened. Officers and fire department are on their way.”
When I got home, Justin, Sandy, and Ella were playing Candy Land at the kitchen table. They were laughing, even Sandy. She seemed so much lighter and brighter. Like she was aging backward. Seeing her that way, the last thing I wanted was to tell her about her mother’s car accident—an accident that we could only hope hadn’t happened the full three days earlier. Then again, maybe knowing something, even something bad, would be better than knowing nothing at all.
“Hi,” Justin said, with a “this has been an experience” expression as he crossed the room to kiss me. He’d offered to get Ella from school and to keep Sandy company until I got back. He probably hadn’t realized what he was signing up for.
He whispered in my ear, “Everything go okay?”
I nodded and mouthed: I’ll tell you later. “How are you guys?”
“We’ve been having a great time, right, girls?” he called to them, his eyes on mine.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Mommy, I want Sandy to sleep over,” Ella said, ru
“Well, she is sleeping over, I think.” I glanced at Sandy, who didn’t object but kept her eyes on the Candy Land cards, sifting and resifting them into a careful pile.
“Yeah!” Ella cheered.
“But in the guest room, Peanut,” I said. “Your bed is too small.”