“This is serious stuff, Alexa. Serious, serious stuff. Like, we could be talking Tony Soprano sort of stuff.” He took her hand and an electric charge shot through her. But there was something unromantic about the way he was holding it more like he was protecting her, or maybe even looking for protection himself. “Whatever this girl and her mother saw, whatever they knew, and the people they knew it about . . . it had to have been a really big deal. For them to be put into this program, moved here like this. There must be people out there looking for them, or the government wouldn’t have bothered to hide them.” The bad men, thought Alexa. “If you tell anybody else, Alexa, it could be a really big problem. Or if you’ve already told anybody else.”

“I haven’t told anyone,” said Alexa. “I am positive nobody else knows.”

“I just don’t like the way it feels,” said Cam. “I don’t want to put a little girl and her mother in danger by knowing something I’m not supposed to know. I wish I could un-know it.” He looked positively downtrodden, so downtrodden that he barely brightened when the scallop pie arrived.

“I’m sorry,” said Alexa. “I’m sorry, but you can’t un-know something that you know. I can’t un-know it either.”

“Yes, but you—” Cam let his voice trail off, but Alexa knew what he was going to say before he said it. “You could have kept it to yourself. You didn’t have to tell me.”

He was absolutely right. She didn’t have to tell Cam, but she had anyway. She did it for no other reason than that she wanted his attention, and somebody else’s secret was the most valuable thing she could find to trade for that. She should apologize. She should acknowledge accountability. But Alexa had never been good at admitting when she was wrong. So instead, she said the only thing she could think of to say, which was, “That scallop pie is gigantic. Do you think you’re still going to want the brickle?”

“Listen,” said Cam. “I’m going to do my very best to forget that I know this thing. I can’t un-know it, you’re right, but I can do my best to wipe it out of my mind. I have no other choice, and I don’t think you have another choice either, Alexa. I mean that with the utmost seriousness.” He frowned at his pie.

All at once a collective sense of anticipation rose around the bar. Alexa glanced at the television. The Sox were up, bases loaded. Mookie Betts stepped up to the plate and a chant of Moo-kie, Moo-kie broke out.

“Alexa? You’re with me? There could be people out there, you know. Looking for people who know things. There could be really dangerous people out there.”