Something flashed in Aaron’s eyes, something I hadn’t seen in the short time we’d been face-to-face in the basement of the half-completed town house. It looked more like joy than the anger that had been simmering there, and for a moment, I couldn’t understand the reason for the look. And I never would have understood it if he hadn’t started talking and explaining it.

“That’s what happened that night?” he asked.

“It is. Ask Blake.”

Aaron’s eyes trailed down to Blake, who still cowered under the pressure of the gun. He looked small and insignificant on the floor, like a child.

I waited for him to say something, to speak up and interject as he always did, but he remained silent, as if the pressure of the gun against his head cut off his ability to speak.

“I did ask him,” Aaron said.

“And he told you the same thing, right?” I asked. “He had to.”

It took a moment for Aaron to answer, but then he did. “We ran into each other. . . . What was that, Blake? A couple weeks ago?”

When Blake stayed quiet, Aaron pushed against his head with the gun. “Yes, weeks.”

“An accident, really,” Aaron said, not relaxing the pressure against Blake’s head. “I was over in Cave Springs, working my job in a shitty Chinese restaurant. A job as a dishwasher, which is about all you can get when you’ve served time in prison. And never finished college. So I’m outside, taking a smoke break, when I see this one”—he pushed against Blake’s head again—“walking through the parking lot with a beautiful woman. I recognized him right away. He hasn’t changed much since college. A little fatter. A little shorter if that’s possible. But the same guy. Same shit-eating grin on his face, like he didn’t have a care in the world. A rich kid’s look. That sums it up, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” Blake said.

“You nearly jumped out of your skin when I called your name,” Aaron said. “Like you’d been electrocuted. And I kind of wondered why you jumped so high. You and that woman you were with suddenly looked like you were in big trouble.”

Why would Blake have jumped and looked guilty when someone called his name unless he had been with Jennifer and not Sam?