Part 56 (1/2)

”Fine.” She got up and took plates from the cabinet. ”Lash out at one of the few people in your life who actually care about you.”

”Why do you care?”

She stood at the table, holding the plates. ”I don't know, Luke, why do I?”

He slid the map out of the way and she started putting plates down, loudly. He tacked it back up to the wall and, out the window, saw Scarlett's mother's car coming up the drive.

He opened the front door, went out.

”Everything okay?” he asked when Scarlett got out.

Then Ryan was beside them, saying ”Scarlett” and looking awe-struck, like she was famous, some idol of his, and she said ”Ryan.” And smiled. ”Hey.”

And Miranda cleared her throat, and Ryan turned but barely. ”This is Miranda,” he said.

”His girlfriend,” Miranda added.

”Nice to meet you,” Scarlett said. Then she turned to Lucas and said, ”Can we talk?”

”Sure.” Lucas headed toward the RV.

And she seemed anxious-this nervous look in her eye-so he reached for her hand, but she slipped away and said, ”There's something I have to tell you but I'm scared to,” and she looked more like a stranger than she had since they'd come back.

”You can tell me anything,” he said, and felt it to be true.

”Where are we going?” she asked, looking around.

”I need to see something,” he said. ”It's not far. We'll talk there.”

They walked in silence until they got to the RV and Lucas pushed through tall weeds behind it, stepping on dry branches with his boots.

It was propped up on cinder blocks and caked with dirt. Lucas brushed away and cracked some of it off to see: He squatted down to better see. ”It reads like a joke now.”

”He couldn't have known how it was all going to play out,” Scarlett said.

He shook his head, put his hands on his thighs, and pushed up to stand. ”How do I keep his memory alive if I can't remember him?”

”I'm so sorry, Lucas,” she said.

”I know.” They walked back toward one of the reflecting pools and stopped. ”So what do you need to tell me?”

Thunder rumbled, and she looked off toward the direction it had come from. ”Kristen remembered seeing me with Adam.”

A drop of rain landed on his nose, had to be wiped. ”What does that mean, 'with Adam'?”

”Kissing Adam.” She looked away. ”And I don't know, when we kissed-you and I-when we were in Anchor Beach . . . I felt happy on the one hand but there was something underneath it, too. Like guilt? And I think I thought or hoped it was just a weird feeling about us being there together and not knowing our past. But . . .”

The rain was starting to feel personal, like it had some kind of grudge against him.

”I think I was remembering feeling suffocated.” She seemed not to notice or care about the rain. ”I don't know. Maybe I was cheating on you? Maybe you found out? I think I wanted out and you weren't happy about it. At all.”

He wanted the storm to just get on with it, to really let loose and get it over with, but it seemed liked it was already stopping. They weren't in its path after all. He said, ”I would never try to pressure you into anything.”

”See, I feel like we've had this conversation before.”

Him wanting more than she wanted from him?

Him caring more, or about the wrong things?

Yes, maybe that did feel right.

He went and sat on a low stone wall, pulled a weed that had sprung up between two rocks, releasing the smell of dirt into the air. Drops from trees s.h.i.+mmied the water in the pool, stirred some of its murk. ”I'm starting to really not like this picture of who I was,” he said. ”Jealous and angry?”

They turned at the sound of footsteps and voices.

Chambers was walking toward them, this time with his partner in tow.

”I'm really sorry, Lucas.” Chambers stopped a few feet away. ”It wasn't my call on this one. I'm sure you can argue self-defense, but the feds, well . . .”

His partner kept coming.

”You were right about the fingerprints on the gun . . . ,” Chambers said.

”. . . and there's gunshot residue on a jacket that also has your DNA all over it.”

”. . . and the coroner put John Norton's time of death as the day you all escaped.”

Escaped?

They didn't escape.

”Lucas Davis,” Chambers's partner said. ”You are under arrest for the murder of John Norton. You have the right to remain silent . . .”

AVERY.

Her cell phone rang during episode six of a web series she'd decided to binge-watch to kill time. At long last, Emma had remembered that her phone was a phone.

”Hey.”

Emma: ”Are you watching the news?”

”No. Why?”