Cab eased back in the reclining chair, frustrated, and let out his breath in a sigh. He didn’t like walking away with nothing. He’d learned to trust his instincts, and his instincts told him that Peach knew more about the past than she’d told him. She probably knew more than she really understood.

He wished he had Lala with him. Lala had a way of connecting with young women that Cab never had.

His eyes scanned the conference room table. Peach had left her files behind her. He had no interest in spying on the inner workings of the Common Way Foundation, but he noticed a half-folded piece of paper on the desk, tented and face down, as if Peach had been looking at it before he arrived. Curious, he used a fingertip to slide the paper toward him.

Cab unfolded it and read it. He didn’t understand what the photograph showed him, but by instinct, he didn’t like it. Something about this single piece of paper in his hand felt dangerous. And important.

He saw a name he didn’t recognize. Frank Macy.

And a name he did. Ramona Cortes.

26

Peach knew where she needed to go. Lake Wales.

She drove inland. Highway 4 was jammed with cars. There had been no evacuation ordered for Chayla’s landfall, but some coastal residents weren’t taking any chances with the storm.

It took her twice as long as it usually would to reach the exit at Lakeland, where she headed southeast toward Bartow. The farther she drove into the back country on the quiet two-lane highway, the more she retreated into her past. The land between towns was untouched by time. Flat, empty green fields. Fruit stands selling mesh bags of oranges out of barrels. Billboards advertising gun shows. The sky was a depressing charcoal overhead.

She thought about what Cab Bolton had told her.

Justin had been in Lake Wales before he was killed. They’d been there together barely a month earlier, and then he’d gone back without saying a word about it. He’d started asking questions about the Labor Day murders. That was his secret.

Why?

Part of her was angry at him. He’d lied and kept her in the dark. Their trip to Lake Wales was supposed to be a chance to talk about who they were, about life, love, sex, and the future. Their future. She’d even thought about breaking her vow that weekend and letting him take her virginity, but in the end, he’d been the one to say no, and she loved him even more for it.

She wondered how that same man could have deceived her. She wondered if he’d had an ulterior motive about the trip from the beginning.