When she’d left Lake Wales with Deacon years earlier, she had never wanted to see the town again. Justin had been the one to persuade her to return with him, but with each mile they drove, emotions rushed back. Memories flooded her, disconnected images that made no sense and left her deeply anxious. She was haunted by grief, loneliness, and loss. Through it all, Justin was there beside her.

Now she was going back again. Alone. She needed answers.

Ten miles outside town, when the first spatter of rain struck her windshield, she saw a cross in the long grass by the highway shoulder. Flowers decorated it, and the paint was fresh. Someone still honored whoever had died there. It was nice to think you could die and not be forgotten.

That had been her marker. That was where she’d pulled off the road with Justin.

‘Why are we stopping?’ he asked.

Peach didn’t answer. She let the dust settle before climbing out of the car into the humid morning. They were alone here, early on Sunday, with nothing but the buzz of crickets rising from the fields and the black splotches of hawks circling in the blue sky.

She sat on the hood of the car. The metal was hot underneath her jeans. Justin came and joined her.

‘See the little white cross?’ she told him. ‘You have to be careful when you drive here.’

Justin nodded, but he didn’t understand.

‘It’s terrible how you see them everywhere,’ she went on, ‘and you know that every cross means somebody was lost.’

Peach breathed in the moist air. The sun was merciless. She realized that all her muscles were wound up into tight little knots. Her knees drummed relentlessly, making the car shake. She didn’t want to go home again. She didn’t want to be back in Lake Wales.

‘We don’t have to do this,’ Justin murmured.

‘I know.’

The world was absolutely still. She stared past the sagging telephone wires. Brown and white dots of cattle interrupted the green fields. Trees of uneven height lined the horizon. Some looked as tall as giants.

‘You’d think I’d remember everything, wouldn’t you?’ she said. ‘I don’t. It’s more like photographs in my head.’

‘What do you remember?’ he asked.

Peach took his hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘A policewoman broke the news to me. I was at Birch’s estate. I’d spent the evening there in one of the spare bedrooms, and I’d fallen asleep. They were all supposed to come back later. Lyle, Caprice, Birch, Ms Fairmont, her friend Tarla the movie star. Instead, none of them did. The police woke me up. They were all over the house. She told me that Lyle – she told me he was gone. So was Birch. I turned on the television, and that was all anyone could talk about.’

‘You were alone?’ Justin asked.