In my black pumps, which had been rubbing blisters onto my feet for hours, I walked to the corner of Cheryl’s street and waited for Violet to arrive. The temperature had plunged when the sun had gone down, and now I shivered as I lowered the zipper on the front of my coat to tuck the mason jar inside, pressed against my chest, so that I could shove my right hand into my pocket for warmth. I wondered as I stared down the dark street if I could really trust Violet to help out with whatever was required of us next. There was a tiny chance that she thought she’d earn herself a kidney, but I don’t think that was her motivation for driving across town to pick me up. She may have agreed to fetch me from the Guthries’ corner and give me a place to crash for the night out of a sense of guilt. But I was starting to get the sense that Violet had an appetite for closure similar to Henry’s. She seemed to really want to help end this thing, as long as I was willing to take the lead.

My sigh of relief released a white puff of condensation into the night air when Violet’s green Mini Cooper pulled over to the side of the road and I saw Trey slouching in the back seat. He flashed me a what the hell? expression as I opened the front passenger door and climbed in after deciding it would be rude to get in the back next to him.

“Thank you so much,” I told Violet through chattering teeth.

“I almost didn’t make it because your friend, here, nearly killed me,” Violet said as she pulled away from the curb and gave Trey a dirty look in the rearview mirror.

“What did you think was going to happen when you broke into a stranger’s house?” Trey snapped. “Sorry I didn’t greet you with milk and cookies.”

I had called Violet on the sly from the hospital waiting room while Mom had gone up to the ICU to visit Glenn, and requested that she pick up Trey first at Glenn’s address before meeting me on Cheryl’s corner. Not too long ago, putting my fate as well as Trey’s into the hands of Violet Simmons would have seemed like a terrible idea. But I had to acknowledge that she’d exceeded my expectations at the funeral home. Besides, if I was going to drag another person into peril, I felt considerably better about that person being Violet instead of Henry.

“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe I expected you’d thank me for canceling my plans with my boyfriend at a moment’s notice and driving over to save your ass?” Violet shot back at him.

I had never before considered the possibility that Violet and Trey shared personality traits as half siblings, but it took effort not to laugh at their similar stubbornnesss. “You broke into Glenn’s house?” I asked Violet in amusement.