Hope pulled her hair over one shoulder, twisting it as she spoke. “It’s weird, but in a way, I don’t regret it—what happened, I mean. It sounds like I left behind a pretty shitty life. If I hadn’t left with Alex, if there had been no car accident—who knows where I would have ended up? I could have ended up like that girl TC, or my mother.”

Lindsay placed a hand on Hope’s wrist. “You would have been fine. You’re a survivor.” She remembered Scott saying the same thing about Hope when she first disappeared. He had been absolutely right.

Hope’s gaze returned to Alex’s letter. “We should send this to Jess, too.”

“But Jess said he and TC actually were at the house when Mullaney pulled into the driveway. They heard the gunshot.”

“Why don’t we just let Alex’s words speak for themselves? It’s obviously what he wanted.”

40
Tuesday, June 29, 1:28 p.m.

It had been only five days since she flew to Wichita, but Ellie realized it was the longest she had gone without seeing Max since they’d gotten together four years before. She usually preferred texting, but they’d been on the phone for twenty minutes and damn if she didn’t miss him. As if reading her mind, he said, “I know you needed this time with your family, but I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Depending on the flight gods, she’d be back to their apartment by the time Max got home from work. “Me too. It’s been a rough few days.”

“You guys did the right thing sticking around for a while. Are you going to be okay today?”

“Yeah. It’ll be good for the three of us to do this together.”

“Okay. Gotta run to court, but call if you need me. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She decided to wash the dishes from lunch while she was still in the kitchen. Five days was also the longest amount of time she and Jess had spent with their mother in years, and she was enjoying being alone for a few minutes. Roberta Hatcher was . . . a lot.

Ellie and Jess had not told their mother the actual reason for their sudden visit until late Friday night—after Ellie and Lindsay were finished answering the police’s questions. They didn’t want to upset her with only a theory. Steve’s final act in that restaurant bathroom had provided an ending to the story. They left out the part about Jess being at Richard Mullaney’s house the night of the shooting, but their mother now understood that her husband had been murdered by his closest friend because he had gotten too close to the truth about Mullaney’s predation.