Ned looks at her and takes a deep breath. His voice shakes. “Marland asked me once if things got hot, did I have a plan B? I think he wanted to be sure I wouldn’t turn on him. Or give him access and then abandon him. I told him my dad was from Ghana and I’d probably go there if we had to run. I never really thought it would happen. I asked him what he would do. He shrugged. But it made me wonder, like he knew my plan but I didn’t know his. So I asked a friend—a customer—who was already on his way to my house and who didn’t know anything about Marland or who he was to follow him and as payment I’d double his order at no cost. He was blocks away, and I called him when Marland left and he found him and followed him. Marland turned into an old neighborhood off Old Travis. He pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex called Marble Hills. Now, maybe he spotted my friend and he just pulled in there and waited until he passed. Or maybe he’s got a backup place to hide if he has to, and that’s it. That’s all I know.”

Ned starts to get into the car.

“Who is Firebird? Or Lark?”

“What?” He freezes.

“Do those names mean something to you?”

“Firebird Investments owns Danielle’s house,” Gordon says. “How did you know that?”

Danielle’s house. And the Butlers’ house. The same company. What did that mean? “What is Firebird?”

“I don’t know. We can’t find who the owners are,” Gordon says.

“Doesn’t that strike you as distinctly odd?” she asks.

“My mother’s dead and you’re asking stupid questions,” Ned says.

Iris stares at him. “You’re too young to realize what you’ve lost. Your mother. You’ll miss her every day. You’ll pick up the phone to tell her something and you’ll realize she’s not there to hear your good news or lift you up after your bad day. You never get over it. You just learn to live with it.”

Ned stares at her. Gordon says, “Iris,” but she ignores him.

“But you’ve lost your best friend. You threw Julia away. For what? Because you got involved in something stupid to prove how cool you were? You figured if you got in trouble, your mom and your friends would dig you out. Well. That worked out.” She stops as she sees the enormity of it all weigh in his eyes. It’s sinking in, everything he’s lost. Suddenly he can’t look at her and he gets in the car.

“Don’t speak to him again,” Gordon says. “Tend to yourself.”