After I’d shot Dr. Palmer, I’d staggered to the drugs I’d hidden under a tree root and filled his pockets with the baggies of fentanyl. I used his phone to send a brief suicide text to Kia Sharpe, admitting everything.

The guilt was too much for him to bear.

Thank God for hills. And gravity. And adrenaline. They’d all worked to help me roll Dr. Palmer’s body down the incline between the warehouse and the river. I then hurled the gun into the rushing water. I still needed to get myself a new one.

A ruling of suicide was later confirmed by the coroner’s office.

After receiving Dr. Palmer’s suicide text, Kia and Lieutenant Dyson had concluded that he and Gabe had been partners in the town’s prescription drug ring. They’d found fentanyl and stacks of cash hidden at Dr. Palmer’s house, as well as DNA linking him to Santiago’s murder. Violeta’s scarf was found on Gabe’s body, and after he’d been named as a suspect in the opioid ring, his girlfriend turned in a backpack of cash and drugs that he’d hidden at the gas station.

I’d stayed home for a week after Dr. Palmer stabbed me. I’d left the wound open to drain, treating it with high doses of antibiotics, cleaning, and regular irrigation. And of course, I had a large supply of oxy at my disposal to manage the pain. I’d stashed the entire supply from the warehouse, as well as the cash from Ben, in a special pouch I’d created in Nate’s couch—the one he’d always insisted we couldn’t get rid of. Nobody would ever think to look inside the carcass of a dingy brown couch for anything.

I pulled out of the hospital parking lot and headed for Skamania State Park at the base of the waterfall. The vibrant rhododendrons along the road were a riot of colors, the brilliant purple lilacs and yellow irises and cheery-faced dahlias bursting into bloom.

Moira raised her hand in greeting as I crossed the parking lot to where she was sitting on a picnic bench. Josh was on the playground dangling from the monkey bars.

I winced as I sat down.

“Are you okay?” Her face creased with concern.

“I’m fine.” I forced a smile, absently touching the metal of the heartbeat necklace at my throat. “I think maybe I tore a muscle.”

“Well, please get yourself checked out. I can’t…” She swallowed wetly. “I can’t lose you too.”

Matt had passed away a few months back, and Moira was struggling under the double loss of her son and husband in just a few short months. She’d asked Josh and me to move in with her, and I was considering it. She didn’t want to be alone right now. Neither did I, to be honest.