Jill had found Belinda’s small leather portfolio, in which she kept her special things, apparently kicked under the bed and left at home by mistake. When Jill picked it up, a single photo fell out in a thin delicate silver frame. It pictured Emily and Belinda under a waterfall. “We were kissing and our bodies were sort of covered by the waterfall. You couldn’t see my face, but you could see we didn’t have any clothes on. We took it by setting the timer on the camera one morning at Blueberry Park. There were letters too, bound with pink ribbon.”

Emily didn’t think that was really any mistake, for how could Belinda not have noticed that folder was missing for days? Belinda was crying, asking Emily, what should I do? What should I do? The time had come.

Emily hung up and turned to Stefan.

“I’m so sorry, Stefan, but she says it’s over,” she told him. “He said I was lying. I said I wasn’t lying. I was lying, but Belinda and I, we talked about running away, going to another school.” So, as if saying so would make it true, Emily told Stefan that she and Belinda were going to run away. “She doesn’t want to see you.”

His head was already swimming with the toxic drug cocktail, Stefan started to cry like a little kid. He said he thought he was dying. He kept passing out and waking up.

I asked, “What did you do? Were you frightened?”

“I just watched him,” Emily said. And shrugged. She knew he would insist on going. So let Belinda see what kind of feeb she was involved with.

I glanced over at Stefan. He was crying now, silently. It occurred to me that this might also be the first time that Stefan had heard a full account of the next fatal moments. While I wanted to get up and go to him, it seemed disloyal to treat him like a child now, in front of this girl.

“Then suddenly he grabbed his car keys and ran out of the apartment to the parking lot and I went after him. It was like, zero out. We were freezing because we didn’t have any coats. He promised he wouldn’t do anything crazy, but he had to see Belinda. He just wanted to talk quietly with Belinda. I tried to grab the keys and said he was too messed up to drive. He said he’d give me the keys but only if I’d drive him there. Otherwise he’d take me out of town on a lonely road and leave me there.”