I’d seen her do the mumbling thing earlier this morning in the hallway upstairs, like she was talking to someone who wasn’t there. I didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to embarrass her, so I’d turned around and gone back downstairs, pretending I’d forgotten something and hadn’t seen her.

“I don’t know what to do. How are we supposed to help her if we can’t get her to talk? And it’s not even just about helping her.” He spoke at a frenzied pace. “I need to keep everyone safe. I can’t do that if I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t—”

I interrupted him before he could get any more worked up. “Honey, it’s not your job to keep everyone safe.”

He pointed downstairs. “You think they’re going to stay forever?”

I laid my hand on his forearm. “We just got home. They’re not going anywhere soon, and there’s no way they’re going to leave us alone while we’re still in danger.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “What if you got ahold of her old best friend—what was her name? Oh yeah, Christina. What if you arranged for her to come see Kate?” I couldn’t help but think of my best friend, Lois, and all the secrets of mine she carried with her. There were things you told your best friend that you didn’t tell anyone else.

“She refuses to talk to me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Let’s just say she’s not exactly on Team Scott.”

“One of those?”

He nodded.

He’d told me about all the friends he’d lost after Kate went missing. Some of his closest friends had doubted his innocence and abandoned him, whereas others whom he’d barely known had stood by his side and become his closest allies.

“You don’t think she’d make an exception after all these years? Especially if Kate’s back? Besides, if she really does think you had something to do with it, then it’s in her best interest to get Kate to talk so they can bust you.”

He shrugged. “I guess I can try.”

“Good.” I pulled him up from the chair. “Let’s go feed these people roaming around our house.” He gave me a weak smile. “Besides, they’re going to be interviewing her all afternoon. Who knows what they’ll get out of her by the end of the day.”

KATE

THEN

I threw my toiletry bag into my duffel bag and zipped it up, doing a final sweep of the small room before I left. It was my fifth retreat and the most powerful one I’d been to yet, even if Ray had managed to insult half the attendees last night.

I glanced at my roommate’s untouched bed. Melissa hadn’t come home last night after the campfire celebration that ended every retreat. She’d been flirting with one of the new members down by the river when I’d seen her last. I giggled at how self-conscious and embarrassed I’d been at my first campfire, when some of them had stripped naked and danced around the fire. I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off them, but it wasn’t because of their nakedness. It was the complete and utter abandon with which they had done it. I’d never seen anyone so uninhibited and free. I hadn’t taken my clothes off. I wasn’t there yet. I wanted to be, though. Maybe next retreat.