I laughed and sifted through the clothes in my closet until I found the green blouse I was looking for. “Nobody over. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stay out late.”

“So true.”

I needed to tell Amelia now before we left. Before we saw Heath Hall. Why was I still calling him that? DJ. Before we saw DJ, I needed to prepare her for who he was. Tell her how I pieced together the clues: how long ago the account was created and how he talked to his dog and I soaked his sweater and how he and the masked man were never in the same room at the same time. And I needed to tell her . . . how he felt about me.

“Do you think tonight is the night that Heath Hall will unmask himself? Maybe that’s why the description was so vague.”

“No. I don’t.” As I said it, I realized I believed that. If he hadn’t done it in five years, why would he do it now? I could still wait to talk to Amelia until after I’d talked to DJ. I hoped that once we talked, things could still work out with him and Amelia. If he knew how I felt and how she felt, it would clear things up. Everything would turn out fine. Yes, that’s what I’d do.

We sat in a small theater in the old town district. The only people there were Heath Hall supporters, and it was a fairly small crowd at that. Twenty? All faces I recognized. Dylan, Brady, even Robert, who I could now officially eliminate as a suspect. Amelia was surprised to see him there after her talk with him the day before. Maybe the numbers were few because this event seemed even more vague than the others.

The heavy velvet green curtain was open and a single spotlight lit a mic on the stage. Whatever DJ was doing involved that mic. Singing? Speaking?

There were empty chairs on either side of us and Amelia kept looking back toward the door like she thought he’d walk in that way. I figured he’d walk in from backstage, so I didn’t bother craning my neck around.

“You think he’ll make us sit here for three hours?”

“I hope not.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for more people to show up.”

“Yeah, maybe.” But right as I said it, footsteps sounded on the hardwood of the stage and Heath Hall appeared from behind the side curtain. He walked to the mic, tapped it twice, then cleared his throat.

“Tonight I have a declaration. A truth I need to speak that I haven’t been able to as myself.”

This was different. But he’d said the mask wasn’t just about expressing fears. That was just one of its purposes. So tonight we got a truth.