“I’d watch it,” Gavin said. He waved one hand above Ruth’s head, which was burrowed into his chest, and the moonlight caught a glint of metal. “I don’t want to have to use this.”

Silas grabbed Sean’s arm and pulled him back behind him.

“Dad,” Ruth sobbed, and Gavin used the hand that wasn’t holding the gun to pull the back of her skull against him, his fingers deep in her hair. “Shh, chickadee. You did good. It’s all done now.”

“Dad,” Sean said, “what the fuck is this guy talking about? Where is Mickey? Where’s Mom?”

Silas shook his head, scanning out of the corner of his eye for a branch, a rock. Anything. But he kept his legs planted firmly in front of Sean.

“Look, Gavin, I need to know where my daughter is. I’m sorry about what happened, but—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Gavin said, and the woods jumped. Ruth might’ve jumped too; Silas couldn’t be sure. “You have no idea what it means to be sorry. Do you think Sarah never talked about you—about how awful you all were to her in school?”

“Dad,” Sean whispered behind the sounds of the forest. “Let go for a second.”

Silas shook his head sharply, holding tight to his son’s arm. “Absolutely not.”

“Do you think just because she’s dead, all that pain you caused just went away?” Gavin went on. “No, it didn’t. It got passed right down the line. She died, and now all of that pain is mine, my children’s. Right on top of the pain of missing her, of knowing I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

“Please,” Sean said, his breath against Silas’s shoulder. “I have an idea. Just trust me.”

Silas looked out to the lake, but it was still, as far as he could see. No splashing, no swimming. He looked at Gavin, who was still holding Ruth’s head against his chest, so tightly his knuckles in her hair shone in the moonlight like bare bone.

Slowly, heart in his throat, Silas let go.

“Distract him,” Sean hissed, before he took a small step backward, out of the flashlight’s beam.

“I hear you,” Silas said to Gavin, taking up as much space in the flashlight beam as possible. “I do. And I will have this conversation, or whatever else you want it to be, right here, right now. But let’s let the kids go. Okay? I’m sure you don’t want them getting hurt any more than I do. Ruth, tell me where Mickey is.”

Gavin stood up then, leaving Ruth in a heap on the ground, and turned to face him. Silas could recognize Sarah in his mouth, the shape of his jaw. But not in his eyes.

“So,” he said. “This is where it happened. That’s the float out there, huh? Where you left her to die?”