“I really don’t know what’s going on,” I said. “Not really.”

Then my phone started to ring. The tone sounded insistent and urgent as it filled the space between and around us.

Was it Amanda calling me home? Was it the police?

Or . . .

I made a move to answer it, but Kyle jabbed the bottle toward me.

“This could be Blake,” I said. “It probably is.”

Kyle hesitated, and then he used the bottle to gesture toward my pocket, telling me to answer. But the caller ID screen told a different story.

Samantha.

I didn’t tell Kyle who was calling. I just answered.

“Oh, Ryan, where are you?” she asked without any greeting.

Should I have said—I’m standing in your house with a man waving a broken bottle at me?

I kept it simple. “I came to your house, looking for Blake. Do you know where he is?”

“That’s why I called you. I thought you might know.”

I took a risk and turned my back on Kyle, moving a couple of steps away. I expected to feel the jagged points of the shattered bottle in my neck. . . .

I tried to lower my voice. “I don’t, Sam. Did the police talk to you?”

“Yes.” Her voice broke, and she sniffled. “Last night. Late. They came by to talk to Blake, but he wasn’t home. I was honest with them. I didn’t know where he was. And then this morning, before I left for work, they came by again.”

“So you know why they want to talk to Blake?”

Samantha didn’t answer right away. I chanced a look over my shoulder, expecting the bottle to gouge my eye out, but Kyle stood behind me, still holding the bottle but obviously intent on learning whatever he could from my conversation.

“I can guess,” Samantha said, her voice low. “It’s all over the news. This woman was killed, and Blake knew her somehow.” Then her voice took on a harder edge, unusual for Samantha. “You knew her. Blake told me once that you introduced them.”

“Kind of. Maybe. Did he tell you anything else about her?”

“So you don’t know where he is?” she asked.

“I don’t. I saw him last night. He came by the house. Late. But that was it.”

“He came back to our house last night, after the police left. I was dozing off, but I heard him come in. I thought he would come up to bed, but he didn’t. He left the house again without talking to me. And without saying where he was going.”

I heard shuffling behind me. Kyle moving around. Again I turned to look, to see what he was doing, and I saw him disappearing to the front of the house, leaving me alone. Mercifully.