Theo watched her. She wondered if Ashley was still suffering from a state of shock. She’d been through so much, both mentally and physically in the last twenty-four hours.

“You weren’t breathing when I found you. I did CPR until your body remembered what it needed to do.”

“Why?”

Theo reached up and smoothed Ashley’s hair away from her face. “What do you mean, ‘why’?”

“I mean, why am I alive? He killed Mina. Why am I still here?”

“They said you’d been drinking, but you were well within the legal limit. That’s not all they found in your system, though. You were drugged, Ash. So was Mina.”

Ashley blinked and Theo watched as she brought her good hand up to touch her neck. “With what?”

“A drug I can’t remember the name of right now, but I do know that it’s a horse sedative.”

“This is unreal,” Ashley said. “All of that was so long ago.”

“Okay, Ashley, you need to talk to me. I need some answers. This wasn’t random, was it?”

“It came out of nowhere,” Ashley said. “Yeah, I know him. Mina knew him, but back in high school. I haven’t talked to him, haven’t even thought about him for more than five years.”

“Take a breath.” Theo straightened the strap of Ashley’s sling. “Talk through this with me.”

Ashley reached up and wiped beneath her nose with the wad of toilet paper she still held. “His name is Mason Wright. The three of us graduated in the same class. We weren’t friends in school. I mean, Mina and I knew who he was, but we didn’t hang with the same group of people.”

“Let me guess,” Theo surmised, “you and Mina were popular, Mason wasn’t?”

Ashley shook her head. “I don’t know that we were all that popular, really,” she explained. “Listen, I didn’t do very well in high school. Mina’s grades were much better than mine, I only did what I had to in order to squeak by. I went to school for the social experience. I knew I was never gonna be a doctor or the CEO of a big company—”

“No,” Theo interrupted. “You’re just a legal secretary with aspirations of becoming a paralegal.” Theo shrugged. “You haven’t added up to much, have you?”

“That’s all on you and Trix,” Ashley shot back. “I didn’t have anyone like you guys in my life back then. I’d just resigned myself to the belief that I’d always work in retail earning minimum wage. I know now that I had the ability to do better, but I didn’t believe that back then.”

“Okay, so tell me more about Mason Wright.”

“We had a few classes together. We weren’t enemies. I mean, I never had anything against him. I didn’t know him. I don’t remember having anything against him, but I was a bitch. You know me, that’s who I am. I’m like that with everyone. Even the people I like.”

“There’s got to be more to this than that.”

“There is,” Ashley said. “I hurt him. That’s what he told me last night. Both Mina and I did. I’d like to say it wasn’t intentional. I barely remember it. Mason asked me to prom junior year. I said I wasn’t popular, and I wasn’t, not really, but I had a reputation. I was a party girl. If something wild or fun was happening, that’s where I’d show up. I was loud and obnoxious. Mason was quiet. He followed the rules. In my head back then, that meant he was boring. I didn’t have a date for prom. I didn’t really want one. I figured I’d show up and I’d gravitate to wherever the alcohol was, and then a bunch of us would find a place to party, which is exactly what happened. I remember him asking me out, and I remember telling him no. I probably wasn’t as kind as I could have been. I mean, I didn’t go out of my way to hurt his feelings, but I obviously did.”

“What did Mina do to him in high school?”

“Mason and Mina were office aids senior year. They wound up being in the office the same class period. They were given tasks to do. Teachers asked them to make copies for them, they wrote out passes to visitors, basically did what the office staff and teachers told them to do. The thing is, Mina pushed a lot of the responsibility onto Mason. He wound up doing most of the work. She knew he thought she was pretty, and she took advantage. He asked her out several times, but she always turned him down.”

Ashley reached out for the cup of water that sat on her rolling bedside table. Theo handed it to her, then pulled her pack up onto the bed and opened it.

“I brought you some snacks,” she said, producing a still cold can of Coke and an assortment of small containers that Theo stacked on the table. “Homemade chicken salad and the brioche buns you like so much. Chocolate covered almonds, Skittles, pretzels, sliced strawberries and chocolate pudding with a separate container of whipped cream. I also brought Doritos. Because Doritos.”

“Indigo helped you pack this, didn’t she?”

“She totally did.”

Suddenly, Ashley looked worried. “Please tell me she wasn’t with you last night.”

Theo reached up and pressed a palm to Ashley’s arm. “No. She was with Jordan at the farm. I was alone.”

“Why did you let him in?”

“Well, he lied to me,” Theo told her. “He showed up with a huge gash in his head and a shattered cell phone. He said he’d been in an accident. He asked for help, and I was an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot.”

“And we haven’t finished this conversation. There was more to this whole thing between Mason and Mina, right? I mean, there had to be.”

Ashley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah. Something happened with the senior class trip. We were all going to Pagosa Springs. It had been in the works for months. There were chaperones involved, buses, hotel reservations, day passes for the hot springs. Everyone had put in a bunch of money, and we were all really excited about going. Somehow, Mina was put in charge of the permission slips for the trip. A week before we were all supposed to leave, Mister Edwards, the guy who was organizing the trip, asked Mina to bring him all the permission slips. When she couldn’t find them, she panicked. She never came out and said it. I mean, I still don’t know if she thought Mason had it all under control, or if she lost track of them and didn’t want to admit it was her fault. Anyway,” Ashley shook her head. “They tore the office inside out, and when the slips couldn’t be found, she blamed it on Mason.”

Ashley took the can of Coke and tried to open it. The task proved to be too difficult to conquer one handed so Theo helped her.

“Was the trip cancelled?”

“No,” Ashley took a sip of soda. “A mass email went out to all the parents, and everyone scrambled to get a second copy of the permission slips signed. Mason got teased about it, but for the most part, the whole thing was forgotten. At least I never heard anything more about it. Everyone went on the trip, and everything was fine. When Mina and I talked about it later, she told me that Mason creeped her out. She said he followed her around and stared at her all the time. She never admitted to it, but I think she screwed up. She made a mistake, and Mason made her uncomfortable, so she didn’t feel guilty throwing him under the bus.”

“Okay,” Theo said. “What Mina did was unkind.” Ashley nodded. “She should have just owned it and not put the blame on Mason.”

“I completely agree.”

“I can understand why that made him mad. But this mad? All of that happened five years ago. Do you really believe that he drugged Mina, took her to a remote cabin, broke both of her ankles, raped her and strangled her to death because he was embarrassed about some stupid permission slips in high school?”

Ashley took another sip from the can, then put it back on the table.

“No. I just think that’s where it began.”

“What do you mean? What aren’t you telling me?”

“For about two years, Mason and Mina worked together at South Street. Actually, that’s not quite right. Mason actually bought South Street from Mister Connor, and when he did that, he became Mina’s boss.”

Theo shook her head. “Caroline Huxley owns South Street.”

“She does now. You haven’t been back in Whisper Creek that long. There’s a whole raft of shit that happened in the time you were gone.”

“So, did Mason and Mina have issues when he owned the restaurant?”

“Not until Mason’s wife filed for divorce. It was a messy business. Junie wound up in the hospital one night. Mina was working a lunch shift about a week later, and she said Sheriff Ames came in with a couple of deputies. They took Mason out the back way in handcuffs. Junie accused him of spousal abuse. Mina told me she wasn’t surprised at all by the accusation. She claims she overheard a couple of phone conversations Mason had with Junie in the office. She told me things got really ugly, that Mason said some hateful things. Junie had come to the restaurant a lot, and she and Mina hit it off. Next thing I know, it’s time for them to go to court and Mina’s testifying as a character witness.”

“Let me guess,” Theo said, “what Mina had to say about Mason on the stand wasn’t too complimentary?”

Ashley shook her head. “Nope. Mina wasn’t the only one who shed poor light on Mason. There was a former boss that claimed he’d had to let Mason go after the two of them had gotten into an argument and Mason had destroyed the man’s office. And Junie hadn’t been the only one to bring assault charges against him, either. About four years before they got married, he and another woman got into it. He wound up in a court-ordered anger management class, but I have no idea exactly what happened between the two of them.”