“Because I have rights, you know.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That girl you ran down had rights, too.”

I regretted saying the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. As hard as this kid was to like, he’d already been judged by millions on the Internet for what he’d done. He didn’t need me to chime in.

“Sorry,” I said.

He looked at me, surprised.

“It’s not my place to judge you. That’s been done.”

He was quiet for several seconds. “Thanks.” After another minute, he said, “I liked her.” Adding, in case I wasn’t following, “The girl that, you know, got run over.”

Not: The girl I killed.

“What was her name?” I asked.

“McFadden.”

“She have a first name?”

“It’s a weird name. Sounds like Sharn. Like, if you said Sharon real fast.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“What is it?”

“I mean, is it Irish? Actually, I think it’s Welsh,” I said. “So you knew her?”

“Not that much. Our parents were at the party, and we ended up hanging out. I knew her a little. She lived in the neighborhood. She was sort of a friend the way Charlene is a friend, only she was kind of more of a friend that night.” A pause. “The more drinks we snuck out, the drunker we got, and we started making out.”

“That must have been a bit awkward.”

“Why?”

“Charlene said she was at the party that night, too.”

“Yeah. Her and her parents. But we were kind of avoiding her. And at that time, Charlene was mostly just a friend, not more of a friend.” He glanced my way. “You get what I’m saying.”

“I think so.”

Jeremy was quiet for a moment. Then, “My mom and Bob and the lawyer, they said it wasn’t my fault really. Not for the reason Charlene said. The others say they’re to blame, too. And Mr. Broadhurst.”

“Go on.”

“I mean, first of all, Mr. Broadhurst left the keys in the car. That was a really stupid thing to do. Especially a car like that.”

“Okay,” I said.

“And like I said, there was all kinds of booze around, and it was easy to get. Mom and Bob should have done more to keep me from getting into it. I wasn’t old enough to drink responsibly.”

“I see. So you drank too much, then got in Mr. Broadhurst’s car, drove off in it and ran down that girl, and they’ve all got to take the heat for that.”

He glared at me. “I thought you said it wasn’t your place to judge.”

“You’re making me want to reassess my position.”

“God, you’re just like all of them,” he said sulkily.

My cell rang. I grabbed it from my pocket and put it to my ear.

“Hello.”

“Bob Butler here.”

“Hey, Bob.”

Jeremy glanced my way.

“Is Jeremy with you?” Bob asked.

“Yeah, we’re almost back to the house.”

“Shit. I was thinking, if you could go the long way, that might help. You know I mentioned Galen Broadhurst might drop by?”