“All these years I thought my brother … But it was you.…” Matt felt a crushing remorse in his chest. He’d hated his brother. Resented his father. He’d been such a fool, such a stubborn fool. “You!” Matt screamed.

“Not him,” a voice said from the kitchen doorway.

Noah Brawn stood holding a handgun. “Get up, Kyle,” he said to his son.

Kyle just looked up at him, didn’t move.

“Get up!” his father yelled.

Kyle rose slowly to his feet.

“Turn around,” Noah Brawn said to Matt.

Matt turned and felt a gun barrel jabbed into his back. Noah marched Matt out of the kitchen and into the great room. Bookshelves lined the walls, high-end furniture, expensive art. Noah told Matt to turn around, put his hands on his head.

Kyle came in after them. Noah seemed to be debating what to do. He gazed out the large glass window to the backyard, which was illuminated by party lights strung along the patio.

Then he seemed to make a decision.

Matt didn’t like the look on his face. “You covered for him? Framed my brother,” Matt said.

“I never meant Danny to get the blame. I wouldn’t do that to your mother. The state police had given the governor’s office a heads-up about a serial killer in Kansas that they thought may have ventured into Nebraska. I called in tips to the prosecutor and Danny’s defense lawyer linking Charlotte’s murder to the Smasher.”

Kyle chimed in: “That’s why I got Ricky to report the Unknown Partygoer. We thought they would think he was the Smasher. We didn’t know Danny would confess. It just all got out of hand.”

Maybe it was the truth. It explained Charlotte’s head. Explained why Ricky was the only kid who saw the Unknown Partygoer—creating a monster other than Danny to blame things on. Explained why Ricky raced his car into a tree, from the guilt.

“Dad, put the gun down,” Kyle said. “It’s over. I’ll tell them it was an accident. We can tell them I moved the body, that you and Ricky had nothing to—”

“Shut up,” Noah said.

Images of that night were forming in Matt’s mind, the pixels coming together: Charlotte finding a place to hide in the house when the police broke up the party. Finding Kyle in a bedroom. Kyle shit-faced, putting his hands on her, Charlotte pushing him away. Then she was on the floor, blood seeping from her head. Kyle called Ricky to help, and they brought her body to the creek. Kyle was still wearing Danny’s jacket from the drunken party shenanigans. He saw Matt on the trail, panicked, called his father for help.

Maybe Kyle and Ricky were disagreeing over calling Noah—the fight Jessica saw the night Charlotte was killed. But Jessica had referred to the person as Ricky’s date.