“Dad,” I pleaded, but he waved me away.

“It’s a difficult time,” he muttered as he followed my mother upstairs. “You should try to be sensitive to that, Shana.”

His tone left me cold.

When they were both gone, I sat in stunned silence. How had I expected this to go? It was cruel to suggest my aunt had a hand in Brett’s murder. But this family wasn’t immune to cruelty.

After a minute, Doug appeared in the doorway to the dining room. I took in his kind face and shook my head. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to do this. In response, my brother crossed the room, lifted my hand from my lap, and said, “Come with me.”

TWENTY-ONE

Having fun, detective?”

Doug waited to say it until we were outside and halfway down the block. The street was as quiet as ever, apart from the feeble rustling of the few shriveled orange leaves left on the trees. My parents had chosen our house for the cul-de-sac, perfect for learning to ride bikes and playing street hockey. I used to feel safe here. Now, the thought of belonging to this place was like chronic pain, a torn muscle or a rock in my shoe.

“You were eavesdropping,” I said as I kicked a pebble, sending it skittering across the asphalt.

“The house isn’t that big. Do you really think Aunt Fee could have done this?”

Did I? “I don’t know.”

“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I agree with Mom and Dad.”

“Great. Does nobody want to see Brett’s killer found?”

“Of course we do, but you’ve been through a lot lately. You’re supposed to be moving forward, not taking a step back.”

“What does that mean?”

Doug shrugged and his thick tan field jacket, the kind with corduroy on the collar and soft plaid lining, shrugged with him. “Being around here has always been tough for you, hasn’t it? Gotta be, after what Abe did. Maybe you’re good at putting that out of your mind, but you’re investigating his dad’s death now. Abe is everywhere.”

It was his turn to kick a stone. It tap-tapped its way down the road. “Now that I’ve got Hen, I can’t imagine it,” he said. “We have a few years still until she turns sixteen, but I can already tell you I’d rather die than let her walk out of our lives that young. Ever wonder what happened to Abe after he left home?”

All I did was wonder. Right up until the day I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me.

The cold was working its way through the pockets of my coat and into my hands. Their numbness reminded me of the press conference. A-Bay, Tim and Mac, and Trey. He’d been missing for more than twenty-four hours, and I was running out of time. I’d come to the conclusion that with a cold case like this, I’d have to work it like a missing persons. I had to figure out when Brett disappeared and identify the last people who saw him. I was still trying to connect the dots on Brett’s last days in town, but I knew his departure had been rushed. He’d already quit the plant by the time Abe and I showed up, and he planned to be out of Swanton within forty-eight hours. Maybe Doug knew something about his need to hustle that I didn’t.