Her answer is to open the car door and get out. I figured that it would be a waste of time, but one must make the effort. We start up the driveway, just as I had done with Myron. Hunter is in the same Adirondack chair. The rifle is on his lap.

As we move closer, Hunter spots us. He begins to rise, pointing the rifle our way.

“Don’t kill him,” Brooke says.

I shoot him in the leg. He drops to one knee. I shoot him in the shoulder. The rifle goes flying. I move toward him now. Brooke is right behind me.

Hunter looks up at me, then at Brooke. He is crying.

“I’m so sorry,” he says.

“Where is she?” I ask.

“So sorry.”

I bend down, find the bullet wound on his shoulder, and squeeze hard.

He screams.

“Where is she?”

The front door of the house suddenly opens. A young woman with long hair steps outside.

Brooke puts a hand on my arm and nods.

“That’s Vada,” she says.

Chapter 34

Myron found Nancy Moore in her backyard.

She sat in a gazebo by her rose garden. A mug of coffee was cupped in both her hands. She didn’t turn as Myron approached.

“I told you not to come back,” she said.

“Yeah, I know. Have you heard from Patrick?”

She shook her head.

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Of course I am. But this is all a big adjustment for him. He needs a little space.”

“He’s been gone for ten years,” Myron said. “I would think space would be the last thing he would want.”

“Myron?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t care what you think. I want you to leave.”

Myron didn’t move. He just stood there until she looked at him. When she did, he just stayed right where he was, staring at her. Then he said, “I know, Nancy.”

“You know what?”

It was a formality. He could see it in her eyes.

“Francesca told me.”

“She’s confused. Her brother coming home after all these years has messed with her head.”

“He’s dead, isn’t he? Rhys, I mean.”

“Patrick told you that.”

“No, Patrick told us a story. You worked on it with him. It was a good story too—the best one to tell a devastated mother. Rhys was never harmed, Patrick said. Rhys was happy. He was brave. His death was quick and before all the horrors started. As I listened to it, I couldn’t help but think, how convenient.”

“Get out.”

Myron moved alongside her. “We know Vada is up at the lake.”

Nancy went for her cell phone, but Myron snatched it before she could reach it.

“Give me that back.”

“No.”

“You don’t understand a thing,” Nancy said.

“Oh, I think I do,” Myron said. “It’s no wonder you convinced Chick not to talk about the texts. He thought it was because it would be a distraction. The cops would start looking at the two of you, thinking, I don’t know, you were having an affair and so one of you went off the deep end or something. But that wasn’t it. You knew it all started with the texts. Chick didn’t.”