Jase was sick inside remembering. “I know. And . . . and it’s my fault. Come on, let’s go. I’ll explain.”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Milo said, hearing all of the conversation.

Ed chuckled again and let out a stream of smoke. “This here,” he said to Milo, “this here is Judgment Day. Oh, and, son?” he said to Jase through Jase’s open window. “That grave up at the farm?”

Jase froze. “What about it?”

“Doesn’t exist,” the old man said. “All that’s up there is an old tarp filled with rocks. You didn’t kill no one, boy. If you don’t believe me, ask Prescott.”

“What the hell is he talking about?” Brianna demanded as Edward Bridges let out a long, self-satisfied laugh that was almost a cackle and ended with a coughing spate.

Jase started the truck and peeled out of the lot.

All of the ghosts of the past seemed to chase after him as he started talking, his confession as dark as the middle of the night. As she backed into the corner of the cab of the truck, listening in stunned silence, he admitted the truth.

“I loved Arianna,” he said and caught the pain in Brianna’s eyes. “It was a long time ago, of course.”

“Of course,” she whispered, a sharpness in her voice as they both knew how long Arianna had been gone.

“We would meet at the river late at night. She’d sneak out and I’d be waiting.” It had seemed so innocent, or at least no more dangerous than being in trouble with her parents.

As the miles rolled beneath the tires of the truck, he added, “It hadn’t gone on all that long. A few weeks. One night I showed up later than expected because of car trouble and when I got there—” He cleared his throat remembering how they’d swum beneath the moon and the stars. It had been exciting, almost dreamlike until that particular night, the one that changed all their lives forever. “When I got there,” he continued feeling the weight of Brianna’s gaze, seeing, from the corner of his eye how horrified she was, “Arianna wasn’t alone.”

“What do you mean?” she asked and he heard the hesitation in her voice over the rumble of the engine.

“There was a man with her. An . . . an assailant.”

“A murderer?”