I glare. “I can’t exactly go up to my dad and ask, ‘Hey, did Mom cheat on you a whole bunch? Did she run out of guys around here to sleep with, so that’s why she left, to find more? Is that what happened to her?’ ”
“You could,” Seth says after a moment. “What if— I’m not saying it’s all true, but what if your mom was having an affair with someone, and their wife found out, and they decided to…get revenge?”
“So, what—they killed my mom and came back eight years later to kill my sister?”
He considers this. “Yeah, I guess that doesn’t really make sense. But the cops must have looked into your mom last summer, even just to rule it out.”
My eyes widen. “You think my mom killed Fiona?”
“No,” Seth says hastily. “Just, if you can, maybe see what your dad has to say.”
I think about it. I don’t talk to Dad about Mom. Ever since I could recognize the sadness that would settle in his eyes anytime one of us brought her up, I’ve avoided the topic.
If it was someone after my mom, they picked a stupid way to do it. Hurting the kids she gave so few shits about she’d just up and left them.
Unless she hadn’t.
Unless something happened to her, too.
There’s nothing I want to do less than talk to my dad about my mom. But if Seth is right, the cops are right now trying to assemble evidence against him, or me, or us both. And meanwhile, whoever killed Fiona—and Thatcher—is still out there.
They probably spent the past year laughing as I went around telling everyone my theory.
The thought makes my fists clench again.
I need to find this asshole, whoever they are.
Whatever it takes.
“I’ll talk to my dad,” I tell Seth. “It might just take me a minute to work up to it.”
Then I stifle a yawn. I didn’t realize how tired I am.
Seth notices. “We don’t have to do all this tonight.”
I immediately shake my head. “I’m fine—”
“You need some sleep. And so do I.”
He’s right. I’m exhausted. “Okay.”
We slide off the rock and onto the grass, wet with nighttime dew. The temperature’s dropped. An owl hoots nearby, making me shiver. The woods are alive around us, fluttering with things our human eyes can’t see, and I find myself keeping close to Seth’s side as we make our way back past the Montgomery house.
When we come to the place where the path splits off toward the street, we stop and look at each other.
“I’ll walk you home,” Seth says unexpectedly.
I’m taken aback. “You will?”
“You really want to walk home alone in the dark?”
“I do that all the time. I go running in the dark.”
Seth looks like he’s about to argue, then sighs. “Just—let me walk you home, Addie.”
I want to tell him this is stupid, I’m not some damsel who needs to be escorted back to my house. But I’m too tired to argue. “Whatever.”
He gestures to the path. “After you.”
I turn, and Seth falls into step beside me.
We reach the road, deserted and dark except for the small yellow pools of streetlight intermittent on the sidewalk.
There’s a noise ahead of us. A car, turning onto Bier’s End.
Seth and I freeze.
But it’s too late to hide anywhere. It’s coming toward us, and we’re directly in its headlights.
I can’t see anything in the bright light shining directly at me. Let it be just a neighbor, I silently pray.
The car comes to a halt not ten feet from us. The headlights turn off, and a figure emerges from the driver’s seat. Walks into the streetlight so I can see who it is.
It’s Kendall Montgomery.
And she doesn’t look happy.
9