Their mother drank what seemed like half a liter of vodka before going to bed, and emptied the bottle the next day. But on this afternoon, as Ellie dried her hands and walked into the living room, she thought Roberta actually looked better than she had for years. Clear-eyed. Focused. And there had been none of the morose reminiscing and self-pity that Ellie always dreaded.

“I wish you didn’t have to leave tomorrow,” her mother said. “Maybe you can stay long enough for Max to fly down so I can finally meet him.”

At least she wasn’t referring to Max as “that man” anymore. “He’s in trial, Mom. And Jess and I need to get back to our jobs.”

“I know, I know.” Her mother waved a hand. “I just like having my kids here. Maybe I’ll move to New York so I can see you more.”

Jess didn’t even hesitate before replying. “Mom, it’s so expensive. You would hate living in a shoe box.”

“Well, I could move in with Ellie and Max. You have a second bedroom, don’t you?”

Jess looked to Ellie with a self-satisfied grin.

For the first time Ellie could recall in years, their mom broke out into the staccato belly laugh their father used to call her machine-gun chuckle. She pointed a finger toward both of them. “I got you, didn’t I?”

She had, indeed. “Maybe come for a visit though, okay?” Ellie was surprised to realize that she actually meant it.

Her phone buzzed with a new text. Lindsay Kelly. I don’t have your brother’s contact information, but you’ll both want to see this.

Ellie forwarded the PDF that followed to Jess as soon as she finished reading. Alex Lopez hadn’t just cleared Hope in Mullaney’s murder; he’d guaranteed that no one else could be implicated. Only their small circle would ever know that Jess had been at the house that night.

“The two of you, constantly on your screens like a couple of those TikTok kids.”

Jess met Ellie’s eyes and nodded as he slipped his phone into his back pocket. “You guys ready?” he asked, grabbing their mother’s key ring from a cat-shaped hook by the front door.

“You drive like a bank robber,” she said, snatching the keys from Jess.

“And you stop on greens.”

If their mother was behind the wheel, the trip to the cemetery would take twice as long as it should. Ellie extended her palm, a solution that seemed to satisfy everyone.

As Ellie slid back the seat of her mother’s CR-V, she recalled the last time she had made this drive, four years earlier, to sit at the foot of her father’s grave while she tried to force herself to finally accept the likely truth that he had chosen to take his own life. Today, she would apologize for ever doubting him.

41
Thursday, July 22, 1:07 p.m.