“I’ll tell you everything, Charlie, I promise—as soon as I understand it myself. There are things I just don’t know,” he finished helplessly. She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. In the dim light, the stains looked like they could be decorative.

“About your aunt,” John went on, something awful in his voice. “I saw her that night.”

Charlie looked sharply at him. “That night?”

“The building was coming down; you were inside, and I was trying to get to you, and she was just suddenly there— I don’t know how she got in, or why.”

“It was her house, technically,” Charlie said, turning back to the ceiling. “Maybe she was there looking for me.”

“And that makes sense to you?”

“I don’t know what makes sense,” she said steadily. “It doesn’t make sense what I remember and what I don’t remember. There’s no one moment where suddenly it all goes blank. But I don’t remember Aunt Jen being there.”

“Okay,” he said.

“I have to see her,” Charlie said with sudden intensity. “She’s the only one who knows how all of the pieces fit; she’s the one with all the secrets. She’s always tried to protect me from them, but now … secrets aren’t protecting anyone.”

She stopped: John looked stricken, his face stuck between expressions like he was afraid to move it. “John?” Charlie said, a knot forming in her stomach. John took a breath as if to speak, then hesitated; she could see he was searching for words. She gave them to him. “She’s dead, isn’t she?” Charlie said faintly. She felt like she was drifting off again, but she was not losing consciousness. John nodded.

“I’m sorry, Charlie,” he said hoarsely. “I couldn’t stop it.”

Charlie looked back up at the stains. I should feel something, she thought. “You need your head clear,” she whispered, echoing her aunt’s habitual reminder.

“What?” John was watching her anxiously.

“Paperwork,” she said more loudly. “She kept files on everything, locked up in cabinets. Whatever she knew, she wrote it down, or someone else did. Where was she?”

“A house, in Silver Reef, the ghost town,” John stammered; he looked taken aback. “There were files there, boxes of papers.”

“Then we have to go back there,” Charlie said firmly. John looked as if he wanted to protest, but he just nodded.

“She might go back there, too, if she thinks you’ll be there.” John shared a worried look.

“We have to go.”

“Then we go there,” he said. Charlie closed her eyes, the decision releasing her into sleepiness. The door opened, and dimly, Charlie heard Marla and John whispering to each other. She took a deep breath, like she was going underwater, and let herself slip into the dark.

CHAPTER TEN