Secrets ruined people’s lives.

Five minutes later he was in his car. His destination, the pond. In the end, it always came back to Cady Jordan and that damn pond. Little Cady, all grown-up now. Just thinking about her made his heart pound the way it had when he was thirteen.

He whizzed down the highway before squealing to a stop at the grove. He parked his patrol car on the side of the road and walked down the dirt road to the top of the embankment. God, how he hated that Judas tree. He wished someone would take an ax to it. Back when he was a kid it had given him the creeps. His skin crawled now just looking at it. It was just a goddamn tree. Nothing more. A trunk, some branches, some leaves and buds about to bloom. Just a tree. And for some ungodly reason it scared the shit out of him.

He saw the dog, saw him stand up, saw him tuck his tail between his legs and his ears go flat against his big head. Cady’s protector. He realized in that one instant that he wanted that particular job. The dog didn’t move, neither did he. Instead, he called out. “Cady, it’s Boomer. Where are you?”

“Up here!” came the reply.

“Okay, I’m coming down. Call off your dog. He looks like he’s ready to chew me to pieces. Can you get down?”

“If I got up here, I guess I can get down. Easy, Atlas. Easy, boy. Stay. Okay, you can come down. He won’t attack you. Keep your hands in your pockets so he doesn’t see you as a threat. So how much is the ticket this time?”

“Double what it was the last time,” Boomer shouted. “What the hell are you doing here, Cady?”

“Remembering.”

“Come on, get down out of that tree and let’s talk.”

“I’m in my underwear. My skirt was too tight, so I had to take it off.”

“Yeah, yeah. I saw you in your underwear before. Get down here!”

“Stop trying to boss me around, Boomer. I’ll come down when I’m damn good and ready and not one minute before. Just stay where you are. Why can’t you understand how important it is forme to remember? I’m not hurting anyone or anything. I’m not destroying anything. I’m just sitting here trying to get that part of my life back. I won’t be whole until I can do that. I am remembering, Boomer. Just bits and pieces, but it’s coming back.”

“Will you please come down, Cady.”

“All right. I’m going to keep coming back here until I remember. I’ll pay the tickets.”

Boomer’s eyes widened when Cady lowered herself to a branch where she could jump to the ground. Her zebra-striped underwear boggled his mind. “God, you’re beautiful,” he said, a flush creeping up his neck. “Back then…you…I wanted to kiss you. Boys of thirteen think about stuff like that. I used to dream about you, too.”