Ten minutes later, Amy got off the porch swing and walked over to the steps. “Did you forget something, Andy?”

“Nope. I just got back my life. I left Gimmee. Can I stay here with you till I find an apartment?”

“Sure. The guest room is more or less yours anyway. What happened?”

“Same old thing. She lit into me the minute I walked in the door. Said I spent more time with you than her. It was the last straw. I blew up, she got ugly, and I left. Told her Pete was my lawyer and to have her lawyer call him. She can have the house, it’s mortgaged to the hilt. I won’t have to support that shiftless mother of hers anymore. That’s a plus no matter how you look at it. I feel like a thousand pounds just came off my shoulders.”

“Do you think you did it because you’re upset about Cady? Or do you think I finally got it through that thick head of yours that Jill isn’t the one for you?” His sister’s voice was so speculative, yet happy-sounding, Andy stared at her.

“I’m not sure. I knew on our honeymoon I’d made a mistake. What new bride talks to her mother five times a day on her honeymoon? I stuck it out for four years. Why are you looking at me like that, Amy? You hate Jill. You said all she does is breathe air other people need to live. You said she was a noncontributor in life.”

“I don’t hate her. I just don’t like her. She doesn’t do anything, Andy. I just want to make sure you left for the right reasons. This Cady thing has us all jittery.”

“Do you have any cigarettes?”

“Arnie might have some in the kitchen drawer. Let me check. Do you want a beer?”

“A triple shot of Old Grand-dad would taste good right now.”

“Okay. Sit down and relax. I’ll be right back.”

Amy was as good as her word and was back within minutes.

“It isn’t Cady coming back here that has me jittery. At least I don’t think it is. I’m jittery because Boomer’s coming back. Shit, Amy, he was there. If this thing gets stirred up, he might decide to open up. We were the ones who threw the rocks, not Boomer. Hell, he’s going to be the new chief of police. Who are they going to believe, us or him?”

“Listen, Andy, Boomer was fiddling with the zip line. We all saw him. He could have loosened it. We don’t know that he didn’t, now do we? He’s just as guilty as we are. Furthermore, they never recovered the zip line. We’ve talked about this a thousand times. Where is it? Who took it? I am not owning up to anything, and neither are you.”

“Amy, I honest to God don’t know. It all happened twenty years ago. We were just snot-nosed kids back then. If we had a brain among the four of us, we would have been dangerous. Yeah, we should have told, but we didn’t. We didn’t mean to kill anyone. All three of us thought Cady and Jeff were dead.