Caitlin sipped her tea. She’d left the tea bag in too long and it was bitter. She added more sugar, while saying, “You’re right, of course. Grace could be stubborn. If she wanted to believe something, then she’d keep on believing it.”

“I’m sorry she ever got involved with my father,” Harry said. “If she hadn’t, then none of this—”

“I know.”

They were quiet for a moment. The diner’s front door swung open, and a loud group of young girls in soccer uniforms entered, escorted by a few parents. Caitlin watched as a hostess seated the group in three adjacent booths.

“What are you going to do now?” Caitlin asked Harry.

He shrugged, frowning, and for a moment Caitlin thought he was going to start to cry. Instead, he said, “I don’t really know. I guess it depends on what happens next. Since the second murder, since what happened to your sister, Alice is terrified. She doesn’t want to be alone, and I guess I feel some responsibility toward her.”

“Just some?”

“She’s all that’s left of my family, and I don’t want to just abandon her. I’m sure she’s freaking out, right now, that I’m not home.”

“But she is a suspect?”

“No one has said that to me except for your sister.”

“What do you think?”

“The night your sister was killed, I was home, and so was Alice. She couldn’t have killed Grace.”

Caitlin watched Harry shift in his seat, itching to leave. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but Harry placed both hands on the table, and said, “I should go, I think.”

“Okay.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Either tomorrow night or the next morning, depending on when Grace’s body is getting shipped back to Michigan. She can either go in a cargo plane and the funeral director will pick her up at the other end, or she can also go on a passenger plane, and I can ride with her. Not with her with her, but on the same plane. I know it doesn’t make a difference, but I kind of want to be on the plane with her.”

“I think it will make a difference.”

“You do?”

“Sure. Maybe you’ll feel better.”

“My mom will feel better, that’s for sure. It’s silly, I know.”

“I think you should travel with her.”

Caitlin felt something loosen in her chest, hearing from this stranger what she’d been hoping to hear. “Okay, I probably will. That means I’m here for at least another whole day, though. That’s what they said.”

“Do you know anyone here?”

“What, here in Kennewick?”

“Is anyone here with you?”

“No.”

“Maybe we could see each other again. I mean—”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Caitlin said.