“Mom.” I lean forward and throw the chief’s card into her wastebasket. “I’m not in danger. What do you think her brothers would do to him if he came back here?”

Mom starts to cry again and pounds her knees. “I could kill him myself,” she says. “I really wish I could.”

“Is there going to be a funeral?” I ask.

“Saturday. At ten. Pastor Don’s been with Mrs. Grimshaw since they found out.” The door to the office opens, and Allegra walks in.

“That’s nice of him,” I say. “But I doubt she wants him there.”

“Serena, I’m really sorry,” Allegra says. She’s been crying, too. She comes forward to give me a hug. I get up and suddenly feel dizzy. All the blood drains out of my head, and I totter backward a few steps.

“Mom,” Allegra says. “Look at her. She needs to lie down.”

“No, I’m okay,” I tell them. “I just want to go.”

“I need one more minute with Serena,” Mom says. “Serena, wait a minute.” She waits until Allegra goes. “Mrs. Grimshaw has requested that—” She sighs. “That you not attend the funeral.” The ratlike feeling pokes its head above the white surface of numbness and grins at me. I feel ice-cold. The gale in my head starts again while my mother explains that for some people when the pain is too great, they turn it into anger and look for someone to pin it on.

“Mrs. Grimshaw never ‘requested’ anything in her life.”

“You’re right. It was harsher than that. But it needs to be respected.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m not going to crash my best friend’s funeral.”

“It turns out that Melody called from Las Vegas. Her mother wouldn’t take the call because she was still too angry with her. That woman has a lot to live with.”

Suddenly, all my blood rushes back into my body and I feel hot.

“She could have called me.”

fourteen