“Yeah, I know. But Jonas isn’t sure. Did I tell you that a few weeks ago his girlfriend dumped him? He really loved her, you know? She told him she’d never live on Chappy, even though he said it’s the only place he’s ever felt like he belonged.”

And that was another surprise. Annie hadn’t known that Jonas had a girlfriend. But even more curious was that, if Chappy was the only place he felt that he belonged, why had he left—and in such a hurry? Had he left because, as she’d suspected, he was vulnerable and then Lucy had come along and . . . Yes, Annie believed there was way more to this story than she’d been told. And as much as she hated revisiting the subject, she felt an inexplicable need to play a kind of stepmother, after all. “Lucy?” she asked. “Are you sure Jonas doesn’t have a crush on you?”

She laughed. “Seriously? He’s way too old for me. And I’m way too young for him. Jeez, we can’t even stand the same music. We’re good buddies. That’s it. Case closed. Yuck.”

Annie’s nerves quieted. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been worrying about that. “Sorry.”

“And not that it matters, but I told you I’ve been trying to help him. He’s a good guy, you know? Long before his girlfriend split, he was wicked lonely. His grandparents practically stole him from his mother, but he hardly saw them except on Chappy in the summers. He had a nanny until he was six—then they shipped him off to boarding school. And every time they gave him money or clothes or paid his tuition, his grandmother reminded him he was lucky that they’d taken him.” She pulled out her phone and started to text. “I can’t believe he’d leave without telling me. Unless . . .”

“Unless what?” Annie was now more concerned about Jonas than she was about Lucy.

“Unless he answered that woman’s email.”

“What woman?”

Lucy shook her head. “The one who saw the video and said she knew the truth about his father. She said Taylor only got pregnant so she could get the Flanagans’ money. When Jonas said he had letters his father wrote, the woman said Taylor must have faked them. And then killed him. You say it didn’t happen, but the cops never asked this woman. She’s somebody who lives in Boston.”

So it had been a stranger—not Lucy—who’d come up with the idea that Taylor had written the letters. And Kevin had thought Lucy had dreamed that up. Annie made it onto the On Time while trying to figure out what to say next. Then, as she set the brake, Lucy’s phone dinged.

Lucy stared at the screen. “Well, that sucks.”