“Are you ready to face your past now?”

“I’m here. It took me thirty years, but I’m here.”

“Did something happen back then between you and Peter Stanhope?” Serena asked. “Is that what you’re hiding?”

“No.”

“Then why are you convinced that he’s guilty?”

“You didn’t know Peter back then. I did.”

Serena shook her head. “If you were a cop, I’d say you’ve fallen in love with a suspect. Not love-love, not romance. It’s easy when you’re a cop to fixate on one suspect and wind up wearing blinders.”

“Maybe you’re the one wearing blinders,” Tish said.

“Peter didn’t try to commit suicide after being questioned about Laura’s murder,” Serena reminded her. “Finn did.”

“Finn was just a pathetic, mixed-up kid.”

“People like that are capable of anything,” Serena said. “Including murder.”

“If Laura thought Finn was violent, she wouldn’t have spent so much time with him.”

“Maybe she didn’t know. Did Laura tell you anything about Finn’s background?”

“She told me that something terrible happened to him back in Fargo, but I don’t know what. That was when Rikke swooped in and rescued him.”

“Finn was in love with Laura,” Serena said. “Love can be pretty twisted for someone like that. We know he was spying on Laura. He’s been spying on young girls his whole life.”

“You mean the peeping incidents?”

Serena nodded. “Stride and Maggie are certain that Finn is the peeper. He hounded one girl until she died.”

“That doesn’t mean he killed Laura,” Tish said.

“You know what made that girl special? She had a tattoo of a butterfly on her back. Just like Laura did. He’s still obsessed with her.”

Tish’s eyes opened wide. “Is that really true?”

“It’s true.”

Tish brought her bare feet down onto the balcony and cupped her hands in front of her face as if she were praying. Then she shook her head. “Peter is the one who attacked Laura,” she insisted. “Not Finn. You don’t know how vengeful Peter could be when he was rejected.”

“Are you talking about Laura or yourself?” Serena asked.

“Both of us.”

“Come on, Tish. What are you not telling me? What did he do to you?”

Tish’s lips bulged with defiance. “You mean other than pushing me into a closet at school and groping my tits and pawing my crotch? Peter was the kind of boy who took what he wanted even if you said no. He thought he was entitled. He hasn’t changed a bit.”

“I’m not trying to defend his behavior,” Serena said.

“That’s good, because he was nasty. Vicious.”

“How so?”

“After I said I didn’t want to go out with him, he spread rumors about me all over school.”

“What rumors?”

“He told people I was queer. That made me very uncomfortable.”

“I’m sure it did,” Serena said. “Teenagers are quick to believe that kind of lie.”

Tish watched the moths buzzing around the porch light and didn’t say anything. She sucked on her cigarette.

Suddenly, Serena understood. “Wait a minute, it wasn’t a lie, was it? He was right. You’re gay.”