I nod in understanding, there are still so many emotions floating around. One emotion I’m not feeling is anger, I don’t think I could ever be angry at Jesse about this.

“Let’s grab what I came here for and get back to your place; then you can start from the beginning.”

I look to him for confirmation and see a silent tear fall down his cheek. Reaching up, I brush it away with my thumb. “I’m so sorry, Jesse. You should have never been responsible for something this heavy from such a young age.”

He shakes his head and I wish for a moment I was inside his mind. It’s the first time since I’ve known Jesse that I am left not knowing what he is thinking. The inner workings of Jesse’s mind isn’t something I have ever needed to consider, we can normally read each other so well, we don’t keep secrets and in many ways we are one. Until now.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kinsley

“It all started a couple of months before he passed away, during footy season. We would train late in the afternoons and being winter, the sun would set early. A few times we went to the storage unit — the one where the police stored all your dad’s files on the Lance Harding case. That’s not all that was in there though, there was also the entire case they had put together on your dad’s disappearance.” Jesse draws his eyebrows together. “Kyle was so angry that they had closed the case.”

“Wait a second,” I say holding up one hand, I need a moment to get this straight. “I had no idea. Why didn’t I know the case had been closed? I could have —”

“Could have what, Kinsley? You were only eight years old when he went missing, not even ten when they closed the case. There was nothing any of us could do.”

I pull my knees up to my chest, resting my chin against them. Jesse is right, there is nothing I could have done.

“One night we were going through the file they had put together on your dad’s disappearance and we found a list of suspects, all of which had been marked as having an alibi. One name in particular stood out from the rest — Lance fucking Harding. Kyle immediately switched back to the case on the missing girl and found the location of the house they arrested him at. “Something about this guy was off and Kyle felt it, regardless of him having an alibi. We made a pact not to tell anyone about what we found, and we started watching the house from a distance. Kyle would go alone more times than he asked me to go along with him. Then one night —”