“I picked them up at an old mill that’s being renovated,” Helen said. She was working on her own brick with a wire brush. “They were just going to throw them away—I got them for free.”

She smiled proudly. Olive had been around Helen and Nate enough to know that the house budget was an issue. Nate seemed super stressed about it and was always holding up spreadsheets and stuff to show to Helen. Helen was a little more laid-back and had this don’t worry, everything will work itself out attitude.

It reminded her a little of her own parents—how her dad would sit down at the end of the month with all the bills and a big calculator and get all stressed out, and Mama would bring him a beer and massage his shoulders and promise that things were going to change one day soon.

“The bricks look old,” Olive said, holding one in her hands. “And some of them are all black and stained like they’re from the inside of a chimney.”

“There was a fire at the mill. It destroyed part of the building.”

“Cool. Where was the mill?” Olive asked.

“Up in Lewisburg.”

Lewisburg. The name sent off a ping in Olive’s brain. The receipt she’d found for coffee and a candy bar, the little red star on the map, the bottom left corner of the triangle.

“The mill was once the center of the community up there, until there was a big fire in 1943.”

“What happened?” Olive asked.

Helen gave Olive a protective, worried sort of look that Olive’s own mother might have given her. “It’s a pretty terrible story,” she said.

“Then I definitely want to hear it,” Olive said. “Come on, it can’t be worse than the stuff Aunt Riley has told us about Hattie and what happened to her, right?”

“Well, this is terrible in a different way,” Helen said. “The people who ran the factory had barred the doors from the outside so workers couldn’t sneak out on their shifts. They couldn’t escape when the fire started.”

“Holy shit,” Olive said, then remembered she was with a grown-up, a teacher no less. “Sorry,” she said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay.” Helen smiled.

“So what was it like up there in Lewisburg?” Olive asked. “Is it a big place?”

“No, it’s pretty small—smaller than Hartsboro. Not much to it at all. The mill is the main thing. They’re fixing it up. Turning it into condos, shops, and offices.”

Olive nodded. But why would her mom have gone up there? It’s not like she was in the market for a new condo or had this great interest in old mills or anything, unless…