Part 21 (1/2)

'I know why you feel that way,' Hilary said.

'You don't know a thing.'

Hilary let her eyes drift around the huge, forested plot of land. The neat square of lawn and the carefully kept house felt like a tiny zone of order beating back chaos. 'Look, Mr Hoffman, I don't mean to bring up awful memories for you. All I want you to do is consider the possibility that my husband didn't kill Glory Fischer. You don't have to believe it the way I do. You don't even have to believe that Harris Bone was there. But if he was, if Glory saw saw him, we both know he'd have every incentive to kill her to protect his secret.' him, we both know he'd have every incentive to kill her to protect his secret.'

Hoffman squeezed his knees tightly with his hands. 'You're getting me angry, Mrs Bradley.'

'I'm sorry, that's not my intention.'

'I know exactly what your intention is. You're trying to exploit the tragedy that destroyed my family in order to protect your husband, who is most likely a murderer. I won't let you do that.'

Hilary recoiled. 'I don't want to exploit your grief.'

'Don't treat me like an idiot. You don't care about Harris Bone. You don't want to find him. You want him to be a mystery man, so your husband's lawyer can do a dance with a jury and get him off. Don't expect me to be a party to it. I don't need the hope of catching this man dangled in front of my face. You want the truth, Mrs Bradley? The last person I want to see again is Harris Bone. No one here wants to relive what happened six years ago.'

'So he goes free?' Hilary asked.

'I believe in G.o.d. Harris Bone will never be free. Not in this lifetime, not in the afterlife. I won't let you compound his crimes by using him to help your husband escape punishment for what he did.'

'Mark didn't kill Glory.'

Hoffman rubbed his jaw with his clenched left fist. He still wore a wedding ring on his finger. When he spoke, his voice was choked with emotion.

'Let me explain something to you,' he told her quietly. 'Relations.h.i.+ps run deep in this part of the world. We have roots. I don't know if someone from the city can understand that. The people who grew up here, they look after one another. If it weren't for a good woman like Delia Fischer, the only grandchild I have left would have died in that fire. To me, Delia is an angel. So when she loses her baby girl, it hurts me as much as if Glory were my own daughter. Believe me, I'm not going to let Delia suffer in vain. I'm going to make sure she gets justice.'

'Why are you so quick to believe my husband did this?' Hilary asked in frustration.

'The better question is, why do you believe he's innocent?'

She shook her head and stood up. It had been a mistake to come here. 'Goodbye, Mr Hoffman. I'm sorry to have troubled you.'

'There are no secrets around here,' he called as she retreated down the driveway. 'Felix Reich and I go back for decades. He already told me.'

Hilary stopped. 'Told you what?'

'That detective from Florida, he has a witness. He knows your husband was out on the beach with Glory Fischer.'

'Whether he was or wasn't doesn't mean a thing,' she said.

'They were kissing, Mrs Bradley.'

The words. .h.i.t her like bullets. 'That's a lie.'

'Call the sheriff if you like.' He added, 'I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you can't live in the dark forever.'

Hilary stalked away from the man without saying another word. She didn't want him to see her face. As she retraced her steps, she kept putting her feet wrong, because she had trouble seeing through the tears that clouded her eyes. Her breathing was fast and loud. She got back inside the Taurus, and her fingers trembled as she clung to the steering wheel. Her faith suddenly felt fragile. She thought she would lose it entirely, like a rock skittering off a cliff.

Instead, she thought about her husband. She knew the kind of man he was. Whatever was going on, whatever this person saw, there was another explanation. He didn't touch her. He didn't kill her. Not Mark.

Even so, something new and unwelcome attached itself to her brain and began feeding like a parasite as she drove for the ferry.

Doubt.

Tresa sat by herself at the end of a dead-end road near Kangaroo Lake. She wasn't ready to go home yet. Her heart was still full of Mark Bradley. She hadn't been so close to him in almost a year, and she wanted to remember his face, the feel of his body, and the sound of his voice while it was all vivid to her. The time away at school in River Falls had done nothing to change how she felt. She loved him.

She wanted to save him.

Tresa held her phone in her cold hand. As the sun sank lower, shadows lengthened on the water. She hesitated about dialing, because she hadn't called in almost two years. That was how life worked. People drifted apart. For all she knew, the number had changed like everything else about her friend.

She dialed it anyway. She listened to the ringing and felt oddly anxious, as if she would be calling a stranger. She thought about hanging up, but then she heard the voice on the other end. It hadn't changed. She felt sad and ashamed. All the old guilt flooded over her. She didn't even know if she could speak.

'Hi,' she said finally.

There was a long silence as she waited for Jen Bone to sift through her memory and unearth a face and a name from her long-ago past. 'Tresa?' 'Tresa?'

'Yeah, it's me.'

'Oh, my G.o.d. How are you?' 'OK.'

it's been forever.'

'I know. I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother you. You know, new life and all. I wasn't sure you even wanted to remember me. I mean, because of everything.'

'Yeah.'

'I ask Mr Hoffman about you all the time,' Tresa said. 'He keeps me posted on what you're doing, sends me the school newspaper sometimes, that kind of thing.'

'I ask him about you, too.'

'Oh, yeah? OK.'

'Listen, I heard about Glory on the news,' Jen said. 'The girls at school were talking about it. I'm really sorry.'

'Thanks.'

'Your mom must be a wreck.'

'Yeah, she is.'

'Are you back at River Falls?'

'No, I'm taking the term off. Mom needs me here.'

'That's good.'

Tresa wondered how to say it. How do you say to a girl who was once your best friend: If anyone knows where your father is, you do. If anyone knows where your father is, you do. She struggled in silence, until it was awkward between them. She struggled in silence, until it was awkward between them.