The playing card Bram left in Sam’s studio had exposed the aspect of Brett’s life I needed to examine, and that, in turn, led me to the person who had the most to gain from his demise. Someone who I believed was at the drive-in that night, who could easily lure Crissy into the woods, and who’d be able to persuade her to ingest a dangerous, highly addictive drug.

A tough conversation awaited me back in Cheryl’s kitchen. I pulled open the door and plodded down the hall. But the kitchen was empty now and Cheryl’s salad had been abandoned, curling leaves of spinach still on her fork. It was in the living room that I found her, sitting ladder-backed on the sofa. She wasn’t alone.

The sight of him stopped me in my tracks. “I should have known you’d come,” I said.

“Just checking in on Erynn.” Robbie Copely’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What are you ladies talking about?”

“Just tying up some loose ends.”

He nodded and rubbed his blond beard. “Poor Crissy. That’s a hell of a thing. Who’d have thought she had it in her?”

I held his gaze. “To take all those pills, you mean?”

“Sure. What else?”

“You seem to know a lot about addiction. Recovery, too. When did you first start using drugs, Robbie?”

There was a chill in his eyes when he said, “What the hell kind of question is that?”

I turned to Cheryl. The woman’s face had gone white as snow. “You need to be honest with me, Mrs. Copely. I’m pretty sure the motive for Brett’s murder was related to the dope he sold. The person who killed him knew he was dealing, and either threatened to expose him or wanted a piece of the action. Do you know anything about that?”

“Of course not.” Cheryl’s voice was shaky, but she held her head high. “Robbie’s an upstanding citizen of this town with a wife and a young child. He’s the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce!”

“I don’t doubt that,” I said. “What about as a teenager, though? What was he like then?”

Cheryl’s eyes flipped to her son.

“You don’t need to answer that, Ma. This is ridiculous. Shana, I think you should go.”

“You were soft on him,” I told Cheryl. “You said so yourself. You gave him free rein to do what he wanted, not realizing he’d take it so far. You think it was Crissy who started him using, but he got there all on his own. For a while, he had it under control. Did things start to go downhill before Brett left, or was it after, when Robbie siphoned Brett’s drug supply? You knew,” I said to Robbie. “You knew Brett was leaving. And you knew why.”

Abe knew, too. He must have discovered his father was selling drugs at the drive-in. He’d seen something that night that I hadn’t, and I finally thought I knew what it was.

In a small town like Swanton, secrets aren’t secret for long. Robbie had heard—from a kid in his class, or a friend of a friend—that Crissy’s father was dealing. I wondered if it was greed that made Brett oblivious to the risks, or if he’d planned to deliver his children from their free fall all along. Either way, the money would be too tempting to resist.