“Right. I mean, I did wake up and see her walk toward the beach. But I was pretty drunk that night. We all were. I passed out again a minute later.”

“It’s not your fault,” I assured him, but even as I said it, I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was your fault, I thought, at least in part. She was a young woman, wandering off on her own, probably drunk. You were the only one who woke up. Why didn’t you get up and follow her, make sure she was safe?

I felt like Parker could read my mind, because he shook his head. “I’ve always felt guilty that I didn’t get up that night and go after her. If I had, she’d probably still be alive.”

“You don’t know that,” I said. “Her body was found a half-mile away from the campsite. Who knows what kind of psycho lured her out there, what he was armed with. If you’d been with her, he might have killed you, too.”

“I guess we’ll never know.”

“Parker . . . I know this must be hard for you, but is there anything else you remember about that night?”

Parker frowned. “What do you mean?”

What did I mean? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t even know why I’d felt so compelled to come see Parker in the first place. Did I really think that I could somehow succeed where the police had failed, and solve the mystery of Hannah’s death on my own? And if so, why? I’d never even met Hannah. All I knew was that it felt like my life had spun off-kilter over the past twenty-four hours. And just maybe, if I could figure out what happened that night, and somehow prove what I already knew—that James wasn’t involved—our lives could go back to normal again.

“I’m not sure. Did you see anyone near your campsite who looked suspicious?”

“No, we didn’t see anyone else there. We intentionally picked out a pretty remote spot to make camp, because we wanted to party without anyone complaining about the noise.”

“You’re 100 percent sure? It’s been a long time. Maybe you’re forgetting something.”

“I’m pretty sure. The police questioned all of us at the time, and they asked us the same thing then. None of us remembered seeing anyone near the campsite.”

“What about before you got to the campground? Did you make any stops in town?”

Parker thought about this. “We went to the grocery store at some point. And we went to this bar for happy hour—The Tipsy Parrot. I remember the name because I drove by it years later on my way down to Key West, and I was shocked it was still open.”

“Do you remember anyone acting strangely at the bar? Someone who might have been paying special attention to Hannah?”