“I don’t know. . . .”

  Anna studied Avery as she drove. Some energy seemed to have drained from her sister. Her shoulders slumped slightly. Her head hung low. Understandable, given how tired she must be.

  But her grip on the steering wheel was so tight her knuckles bulged.

  “Are you okay, Avery?”

  “I’m okay,” she said. “We’ll have you back soon.”

  101

  Avery pulled up in front of the house.

  She left the engine on, and Anna let out a sigh.

  “You’re coming in, right?” Anna asked.

  Avery replayed the events of the past few days in her head. She’d been doing that the whole way home from Rydell. It made for a complicated puzzle with a lot of jagged pieces. She’d figured out that she could fit them together in a certain way, and she couldn’t stop seeing it.

  “Avery?”

  “Sure. I guess.”

  “Maybe you need to take a nap.”

  “Anna, it’s just— Well, your parents do care for you. I know that.”

  “I know it too.”

  Avery looked ahead, down the familiar street. She felt Anna’s eyes on her.

  “Avery? Is something wrong?”

  “When Brittany Combs talked to you about her brother and who she thought your family was, she said she worried the killer was someone close to the family. Right?”

  “That’s right. I thought she meant Taylor. Or Hogan, I guess.”

  “Yeah.”

  “That would make sense, wouldn’t it? Since they were fighting about the business.”

  “What were they fighting over?”

  “Jesus, Avery. Haven’t we been through enough?”

  “Do you know?”

  Anna sighed. “Ugh. Brittany says Danny—that’s my dad, I guess—wanted to get out of the business. And Taylor wanted to expand. I guess that was their beef.”

  “Hmm. Okay.”

  “Do you think it was someone else?”

  Avery looked at the house. “Your mom’s coming out. Alisha’s here too.”

  Anna turned and looked as well. Jane came through the door. The wind picked up, making her untied robe lift up like wings, revealing the pink nightgown underneath. She tried to gather it down and then gave up. She came across the lawn toward the car.

  “You’d better get out,” Avery said. “You’re the star of the show.”

  Avery climbed out too and walked around the front of the truck. She watched Jane pull Anna tight. Tears streamed down Jane’s face, which rested on Anna’s shoulder.

  “Oh, honey, oh, baby, oh, I was so worried about you.”

  “I know. I’m okay, Mom.”

  Alisha came out the door and across the lawn as well. She bypassed the reunion between mother and daughter and jogged up to Avery.

  “Wow, you really are a badass,” Alisha said.

  “Did you ever doubt it?”

  Then her sister did something—and though Avery tried, she couldn’t remember the last time it had happened. Alisha reached out and hugged Avery, pulling her close. She squeezed so hard, Avery thought her ribs would crack.

  “Girl, I was so worried about both of you. I was so fucking worried. You’re both a couple of lunatics. You know that?”

  “We’re safe, Al. We are.”

  “I’m so glad.” Alisha let go and wiped her face. “Look at me—crying, of course. Just like when we were kids. You’d do something brave, and I’d cry.”

  “You have two children. You’re braver than I am.”

  Alisha walked over and hugged Anna just as tightly. Jane belted her robe and came over to Avery.

  “Thank you for getting her.” She reached out and hugged Avery. “I’m so grateful for you.”

  “Thanks, Jane.”

  “We love you. We really do.”

  “I know.”

  The front door opened, and slowly, like a bear emerging from his den after hibernation, her dad came onto the porch, using the walker. He blinked in the sun but stayed on the stoop, watching the women cry and hug.

  He surveyed the scene, and then his eyes locked on Avery’s. He was too far away to say anything, so they stared at each other for a drawn-out moment. For the first time ever, Avery felt like she might have won his approval. She’d brought home the prize, in the person of Anna.

  She wondered why she’d been chasing that prize all those years.

  “Come on,” Jane said, placing her hand on Avery’s arm. “Let’s all go see Daddy. He can’t come down the steps.”

  Avery wanted to resist. Turn and get in the car and go.

  It might be better that way.

  But she couldn’t. Maybe that was her problem. When push came to shove, she couldn’t turn away from her family.

  She allowed Jane to lead her across the lawn.

  102

  Alisha and Anna went inside the house first.

  As Avery approached the porch, her dad kept his eyes on her. His eyes looked small and glassy, with pouches of flesh beneath. She could only imagine how much he’d been drinking while worried about Anna.

  “Jane, do you mind going on in?” Avery asked. “I wanted to talk to Dad for a minute.”

  Jane kept her arm linked through Avery’s. She no doubt feared leaving the two of them alone to talk. Not because of what Avery wanted to talk about. Only because she feared the combustible combination.

  “Well . . . I . . . Can’t we all be inside together as a family?” Jane asked. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “It might only take a minute,” Avery said. “I hope it does.”

  “I don’t want to have us, you know, rehashing the past,” Jane said. “All the time, rehashing the past. The distant past.”

  Her dad kept his eyes on Avery, but he nodded to the house. “Go on, Jane. It’s fine.”

  Jane moved her gaze between the two of them. “Are you sure we shouldn’t have something to eat first?”

  “Go on in,” he said.

  Jane let her arm slide out of Avery’s. Despite the years of bitter feelings, Avery felt moved as she looked at Jane. Had Jane ever been able to stand up to her dad? What could she have ever done with him? Especially once his leg had been shattered.

  Jane went in, and the door closed behind her. Avery’s dad remained six inches above her, the walker keeping him up on the porch.

  “Well,” he said, “you found her. And you brought her back.”

  “I did.”

  The next words came out like they cost him dearly. “Well . . . you did good.” He cleared his throat. “I heard about . . . the river. The water. I know . . . that’s tough for you. But you did it.”

  “I know you were on that task force watching the Douglas and the Combs families. And the Douglases ended up dead after the investigation ended.”

  “That’s no secret.”

  “And you know Anna’s related to them. The Douglas family and the Combses. She told you, right?”

  The muscles in his neck corded. “Jane’s right. We don’t have to go over all of this. It’s settled.”

  “It’s not, Dad. Anna just found out she’s adopted. That’s a big thing to learn when you’re twenty-one years old. And not only that, but she’s from a family of drug dealers—people who were murdered. Executed. This isn’t a small thing.”

  “Okay, we’ll help her sort it out. We’re her parents. That’s our concern. You did your job and we’ll do ours. Are you coming inside or not?”

  “Dad . . .” Avery looked to the sky. “Dad, see this from my point of view, okay? You were on a task force investigating a bunch of drug dealers. They end up dead. And then a baby related to them becomes my sister. And nobody even knew she was adopted. When I was with Charlie—”

  He looked down. “That’s the end of a fine man.”

  “We agree about that, I think. Charlie was on the task force with you, right?”

  “He was. Why?”

  “He acted weird about everything. About Anna. About Rydell. He said there were some things only you could tell me. And he told me Rydell had a lot of history.”

  “He should have kept his mouth shut. Charlie always did have a soft spot for you girls. He should have had his own family and butted out of mine.”

  “What do you have to tell me? About Rydell. And our family.”

  Her dad shifted his position a little, moving the walker slightly forward. “All of a sudden it’s our family? All this time we never heard from you. You don’t even get in touch with Anna down in Breckville. . . . Now it’s our family. I could have used that attitude when we were trying to raise a daughter. When Jane—my wife—starting having her memory problems, I could have used you.”

  Avery shook her head. “Don’t turn it around on me now. I can beat myself up just fine. And I will. But this is about you. And the Douglas family. And Anna.”

  “Just leave it. Okay?”

  Avery stepped forward, placing one foot on the porch. “Do you want me to go in and ask Jane? I can. She could tell me how Anna came to live with the two of you. But maybe she doesn’t know the whole truth either.”

  “You stop.” His voice rang out like hammerblows against stone. The old authority that froze Avery in her tracks. “Leave Jane out of it. Do you hear me? She’s not well.”

  His invocation of Jane had the desired effect. Avery backed off. She had always intended to keep her floundering stepmother out of it. “Then tell me.”

  He remained silent, his jaw clenched tight.

  “Are you going to tell me, or do I have to go talk to the cops in Rydell? Or Breckville or wherever they’re looking into this.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? To finally knock me off my perch?”

  “I hope you know that’s the last thing I want. But I really do want the truth, Dad. The whole way back from Rydell, I’ve been hoping the truth isn’t what I think it is. So maybe you can tell me what really happened and put my mind at ease.”

  “Here . . .” He shifted his weight again, moved the walker closer to the edge of the porch.

  “Be careful.”

  “Help me down, will you?”

  He started moving. She reached her hands out, steadied him while he lowered the walker off the porch and then gently stepped down. First one foot and then the other. Avery held him up. When he was down, he shuffled along the front walk, heading toward the curb.

  Avery walked beside him. “Where are you going?”

  “Just away from the house. So no one else can hear.”

  When they were far enough away, he stopped. Sweat popped out on his forehead, even though it was early and the day wasn’t that warm. His skin flushed. Avery worried he was sick. Or about to have a stroke.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Don’t ask me that anymore. You want to hear something about the past, then don’t ask me if I’m okay. I’m not okay talking about the past, but I’ll do it. Maybe then you’ll understand everything and keep your mouth shut.”

  103

  Avery’s dad wobbled a little, then tightened his grip on the walker. He expelled a deep breath.

  “Listen to me. I wasn’t necessarily looking to have another child. You older two, well, I wasn’t always— I mean, being a dad—it wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse. But when I met Jane and we got married, well, she wanted a child of her own. You and your sister were with your mom most of the time. And I don’t think either one of you wanted to have much to do with me.”

  “That’s not true. We did. Desperately.”

  “Well, you sure acted like you didn’t. You still do.” He wiped the sweat off his forehead. It popped out again immediately. “When Jane wanted a child, it seemed like the natural course of things. Why shouldn’t she have her own child if she wanted? And I was working a lot, so maybe she wouldn’t have been so lonely.”

  “How does this relate to the task force?”

  He kept his eyes from meeting Avery’s. “I’m not the first cop to take a little money on the side. It happens. Hell, maybe you did when you were on the job.”

  “I never did. Nothing more than free coffee.”

  “Well, aren’t you grand? You and fucking Charlie. He never took a goddamned dime either. I remember once—you must have been about twelve, a few years after the divorce—you told me you wished Charlie was your dad and not me.”

  “I said that out loud?”

  “You did. Don’t worry. I see it. I sometimes wished . . . I could be more like him.”

  He lifted his hand and rubbed at his eyes. Tears or sweat? Avery couldn’t tell. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “Are you saying you were taking money on the task force? Money from the Douglas family?”

  “For a while, yeah. It was mutually beneficial. They got some heat off of them. It was just fucking weed. It wasn’t hurting anyone too bad. I can’t stand the other shit. Heroin and meth. I draw the line there. But pot? Who cares? . . . And I . . . I had child support to pay. I was giving your mother money the whole time she was down in Florida.”

  “Dirty money.”

  “What other kind is there? I was supporting two households on a cop’s salary. What was your mother doing in Florida, huh? Working? Going to church? Or what?”

  Avery couldn’t defend her mother’s behavior down there, so she remained silent.

  “Alisha told me when you all came back. The boyfriends she had. The partying. The two of you girls left alone a lot. Or with creeps coming in and out of the apartment. I paid for that.”

  “Okay, I hear you. Mom was hurt by your behavior, you know?”

  “Yeah.” He took a quick look back at the house. “Jane couldn’t get pregnant. It was a problem with her uterus. We went to all the doctors. Paid a shit ton of money for the tests and procedures. None of it worked. Jane . . . Do you know how depressed a woman gets when she wants a baby and can’t have one? Do you know what it’s like to live with someone that heartbroken?”

  “Mom was that heartbroken.”

  “Then you get it.” His grip tightened on the walker. “You’d do anything to make that person happy.”

  “There would be a limit to what I’d do, Dad.”

  “Maybe you’re better with limits than I am,” he said. “Danny Douglas wasn’t good with them either. He wanted to keep pushing, expand their business. Take more risks. He wanted to get into that other stuff. Pills and heroin and guns. Taylor Combs didn’t want to do it.”

  “So Taylor killed his brother-in-law?”

  Dad wiped his forehead again. “That’s a theory.”

  “Is that your theory?”

  “Avery, let’s go inside. It’s hot. Your sister’s home.”

  “Anna has a lot of questions. And she deserves answers.”

  “The cops will find them.”

  “Dad, they’re talking to Taylor Combs right now. What are they going to find out from him? Do you know?”

  Some of the color left his face. He looked faint, but Avery wanted to keep talking.

  “Dad? Taylor Combs is facing serious charges. Drugs. Murder. Labor trafficking. Now, if he killed his brother-in-law, then he might have reason to clam up about that along with everything else. But if someone else killed Danny Douglas and his family and Taylor knows who it was . . . he can talk. He can try to hand them somebody.”

  “There’s no evidence.”

  “Of what, Dad? Say it.”

  “Danny was a loose cannon. He wanted more and more. He was going to bring more attention on anyone associated with him. He was risking everything. There’d be too much scrutiny, you see? Who could stand up to the scrutiny?”

  “If he got caught . . .”

  “Everyone would get tangled up in the net.”

  “The police who enabled him and turned a blind eye. His brother-in-law, Taylor Combs. Everybody.” The air around them grew still. Avery couldn’t hear anything. Not even the singing of a single bird. No trees moved. “What happened, Dad?”

  “You’re right. If he’d overstepped and been busted, a lot of people would have been hurt. A lot of things would have blown up. Even for his brother-in-law . . .”

  “What did you do?”

  “Someone was going to kill him at one time or another. His own brother-in-law might have. Combs was a young guy, just starting out. He didn’t want Danny blowing up the whole operation. Maybe even getting him thrown into jail.”

  “What did you do?”

  Her dad shook his head. Words were slow to form on his lips. The fumbling made him look older. “I was going to . . . take care of things. Quick and clean.” He stared at Avery but seemed to be looking past her. Through her. To the moment that still lived vividly in his mind. “Danny was outside when we pulled up, and his family was inside. . . .”

  “You and Charlie? There were two shooters.”

  “We’d seen the baby before. We knew about her. Just a tiny thing. A few weeks old at that point. Not many people knew about it. His wife gave birth at home. They were isolated, living away from everyone. They were paranoid. It was no environment for a baby. And Jane was so depressed, longing for a baby. . . .”

  “They had another child as well. A toddler. Someone killed that child. And its mother.” Avery took a couple of steps back. She looked at the sky. The puffy clouds. The robin’s-egg blue. If a meteor had streaked down and landed on her head, it couldn’t have stunned her any more than she already was. She managed one word. “Dad . . .”

  “Jane lay low with her for a while. We didn’t have a lot of friends. Nobody really came around to see. . . .”

  “Dad . . .”

  “If you have enough money—and know the right people—you can get documents. Every day, I expected someone to knock on the door. That’s why we moved here, away from Louisville. I thought about moving across the country, or to Mexico. But that would have looked even more suspicious. And I didn’t want to be far from you girls. Neither did Jane. But I lived in fear. And I kept that fear locked away. Maybe it took a toll on me in ways I didn’t realize. But with each passing day that the murder was unsolved . . . and Anna stayed with us. . . .” He pointed down at his shattered leg. “Maybe this is karma, or a piece of it. I accepted this as a down payment on what I owed the world. This pain.”