‘Deacon was at our apartment, but he came and joined me. It was hours before anyone else got back, and they didn’t talk to us. That was it. That’s how your whole life changes.’

He took her hand, and he kissed each of her fingertips. She wanted to cry, but she had no tears.

‘It was supposed to be a treat for me. I’d been so sick, and now that I was feeling better, Lyle said I could stay up for the party when they came home. I think he felt bad. He’d been angry for weeks. Me, Deacon, Caprice, he was yelling at all of us. This was a way to make it up to me.’

‘Why was he so mad?’

She shrugged. ‘That was Lyle. He had a temper. I understand campaigns now better than I did then. All the intensity. All the pressure. And that was the very first campaign for the Common Way Party. Lyle had everything riding on that race. He and Caprice had been planning it for years.’

A truck passed them on the rural highway. It was so big and fast that the vibration nearly slid them off the hood of the car. The truck carried fruit; she smelled a wave of citrus in its wake.

‘People drive so fast,’ Peach said, shaking her head. She closed her eyes. ‘Poor Lyle, that last month was a nightmare.’

‘How so?’

‘Oh, it was my fault,’ Peach said, with a tiny laugh. ‘There was some big political fundraiser in Tampa in August, and Lyle had to go. He took me and Deacon with him. I really, really wanted to see the city. Deacon wound up like a babysitter, which he didn’t like, and Lyle didn’t have five minutes to spend with us. Then I got sick on Saturday night. Puking, hacking, burning up. It was really bad. Lyle acted like I was doing it just to annoy him. I wanted to go back home, and I was screaming and crying about it, and Lyle told Deacon to take the car and drive me back to Lake Wales. Deacon wanted to stay, so they yelled at each other, and then I yelled at both of them. Real nice. Anyway, Deacon finally drove me back, but that was a mess, too, because he hit a deer, which banged up Lyle’s precious Mercedes. By the time we got back, I was so sick I was almost delirious, and Deacon was so rattled he could hardly walk straight. So he took me to Birch’s estate to get help.’

She was quiet.

Justin said, ‘Peach?’

And then: ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah.’ She shrugged. ‘Yeah.’

‘What is it?’

‘We walked into the middle of something there,’ she said.

‘What?’