“In Pear’s car.” I wondered if she’d stolen it. Or if Pear had sent her away, as she’d sent me.

“On an errand?”

“No, she left,” said Sara sharply. “You need to tell us about where she might have gone.”

I couldn’t tell what I felt—frustration, rage, those chaotic feelings that precede pain. A branch whammed against the windowpane, shaking off leaves with every thud. Gone, gone, gone. I thought that I might keel over. I hadn’t known when Queen was planning to depart, or if she’d even really planned to go. All she’d said was, Would you come with us, if we left? I knew Queen had felt unsafe. I knew she’d wanted to leave.

Maybell spoke in a shrill voice like a killdeer. “We found a pill bottle down by the outhouse, near Pear’s parking spot. That must have been Queen’s. Can you tell us where she got it?”

“No,” I lied, wishing I had some hair to hide behind.

Dice said, “Bullshit.” He rose to his feet.

I flushed. I glanced at Bay again. I could feel the weight of him on me still, from the night before.

Sara’s tone softened. “Harmony, we’re just trying to figure out if you know where she was going.”

I thought about how Queen told on Cassie. Cassie, now in the family’s bone room, slowly decomposing, so her bones could be milled up into phosphorus for the garden. My head was thudding with the beat of the angry branch. “I loved Queen and I didn’t want her to leave,” I added, feeling more confident now that I knew what they wanted from me. “As for the pills—I don’t know. Ask Pear.”

Everyone in the room sighed. I hadn’t realized they’d all been holding their breaths.

“We have,” Sara said, “Pear told us you had nothing to do with any of this.”

I smiled, almost accidentally.

Sara said, “According to Pear, this was between her and Queen.”

“Right,” I said.

“Pear said you might try to protect your friend, but you really had no idea what was going on.”

“Right,” I said again. The lie now felt truer than the truth. I became aware of the force of my fear as it started to fade.

“Remember this,” Sara said. “Queen has chosen to leave. She is no longer family. She is no longer your friend.” She made me repeat this over and over again. If you say it, you think it, and if you think it, you’ll believe it, but I only realized that later.

* * *