“What happened?” he asked, and motioned toward her cheek.

She turned her head away.

“What’s wrong?” He reached for her.

“Don’t touch me.” She glanced over his shoulder at the woods, looking for a way to escape, spying the entrance to the path.

“What did I do?” he asked.

She stared at him in disbelief. “What did you do?” Something inside of her came undone and thrashed in the air around them. “You let me think I was responsible for Billy drowning because I pushed him into the lake. But all this time, it wasn’t me.” She shook her head. “It was you.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense.”

Her words stumbled out in a rush. “You were the last one with him. Not me. You pushed him into the lake. He hit his head when you pushed him.”

“No,” he said, and grabbed her arms. “You’re wrong.”

She struggled to pull herself free. “Patricia saw you. She saw the whole thing that night. He was alive after I left, and she can prove it.”

He gripped her biceps tight and looked as though he was trying to work out what she was telling him.

“She saw you push him. Not me.” She yanked her arms free. “She saw you push him.” She cried. “And what about his arm, Kev? What did you do to his arm?”

“I think he hurt it when we were fighting on the pier,” he said.

But she wasn’t looking for an answer. All she wanted was to get as far away from him as she could. She couldn’t stand to be near him for one second more. All these years he let her believe she was the one to blame for Billy’s death. But it was him. It was his fault.

She took off running. She entered the woods a few feet from the path, tripping through the bush until she found the narrow trail.

He wasn’t far behind. His feet stomped the ground, heavy and uncertain. She could outrun him if he were drunk, and she lengthened her stride, losing her flip-flops along the way. They were too hard to run in anyway.

“Jo, wait,” he called. “I can explain.”

She kept running. Why wasn’t Cougar barking, alerting everyone there was someone in the woods? She wanted someone, anyone, to know she was there, she wasn’t to blame.

She reached Lake Road and darted across. She stumbled into the ballpark. She was a few steps away from the dirt road that led into the colony, a few steps away from the cabins when Kevin caught up to her. His feet tangled with hers, tripping her from behind. Her body hit the ground with a thud.

He moved on top of her. She tried to roll him off, twisting and turning, wrestling her way out from under him. He grabbed her shoulders and flipped her onto her back, pinning her hips with his weight. Sweat dripped from his nose and chin.

“Let me explain,” he said, panting.

She bucked. “Get off!” she yelled.

He held her down. “Not until you listen to me.”

She wriggled.

“Please,” he said. “Just let me explain.”

“No.” She brought her leg up and kneed him as hard as she could. He cried out and rolled off her, cupping his hands between his legs.

She sprung to her feet. He remained coiled in the grass, his face contorted in pain. She should leave him here, run back to The Pop-Inn. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. Instead she stood over him, unable to move away. After all their years together, growing up together, a part of her understood she would always love him no matter what he had done. She couldn’t switch her feelings off as though she were turning off a light. It wasn’t that easy.

After a few minutes he unfolded his body, still lying on his side. Neither of them spoke for several more seconds.

“You deserved that,” she said.

“I know.”

“I was never yours to take. I will never be yours. But if it makes you feel any better, I was never Billy’s, either.” She wouldn’t, couldn’t, be owned by either of them, not then and not now.

He didn’t say anything, and rolled onto his back, staring at the night sky.

“How could you let me think what happened that night was my fault? How could you not tell me the truth?”

“I’m sorry.” He was crying, sobbing. “You have to understand. You wouldn’t have married me if I did.”

“How do you know what I would’ve done?” she asked. “You never gave me a chance.” She paused, sure of only one thing. “I won’t tell anyone what you did. I already have one child who lost a father. I don’t want to have two.” Her own tears started falling, and she wiped them from her cheeks. “But I don’t know what Dee Dee and Patricia will do.”

He turned his head away as though it hurt to look at her. “Everything I did. All of it,” he said. “I swear, I did it for you.”

“No, Kevin, you didn’t. You did it for you.”

*   *   *

Jo pulled open the screen door to The Pop-Inn and stepped inside. Every inch of her body hurt from the inside out. It even hurt to think. All she wanted was to fall into bed. She wasn’t more than two steps across the porch when Caroline rushed in behind her. Caroline’s sneakers were covered in mud and her arms and legs were marred with scratches. Her face was pale and she was breathing hard.

Jo was about to ask her daughter if she was messing with Stimpy’s traps again when Caroline threw herself into Jo’s arms and said, “I found Sara’s body.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

It was close to three a.m., the dead hour. The Pavilion and bar had closed. Most of the lake community were tucked safely in their beds fast asleep, unaware of the news.

Caroline stood on the beach next to her friends. Their parents stood behind them. Mr. Roberts put his hand on Megan’s shoulder. Mrs. Roberts bent her head toward Caroline’s mother and murmured something about the emotional state of the drowned little girl’s mother.

“She’s in good hands,” Caroline’s mother assured her.

Cougar lay down near Adam’s feet. The dog chomped happily on a piece of beef jerky. Since it was Cougar who found the little girl, the dog became a celebrity of sorts with the parents stopping to pat his head.

While their group waited for the underwater recovery team’s watercraft to return with the body, Sheriff Borg peppered Caroline and the other kids with questions about what they were doing at the other end of the lake so late at night, and what was Stimpy’s dog doing with them?

The twins explained they had been searching for Adam’s fishing hole when Cougar found her. Adam mumbled something about his secret spot no longer being secret.

“And the dog?” the sheriff asked just as Stimpy approached from the pier.

Caroline opened her mouth, willing to take full responsibility, but Stimpy spoke up before she had a chance. He assured the sheriff he wasn’t interested in pressing charges, although he was quite certain the kids not only stole his dog, but also released the snappers from his traps.

Caroline didn’t believe Stimpy was letting them off easy because it was the right thing to do. No, he simply didn’t want to look like the bad guy in front of their parents, who also happened to be paying customers.

Seizing the opportunity to get Cougar away from Stimpy once and for all, she said, “The dog should go to Adam.” She glanced at Adam’s mother, who didn’t object. “You don’t even take care of him,” she said to Stimpy. “He’s tied up all day and night. He’s neglected and it’s cruel.”

“The law protects animals, too,” Caroline’s mother said, jumping in and sticking up for her. “Isn’t that right, Sheriff?”

“That’s right,” the sheriff said.

“Why, you little—” Stimpy was cut-off when Heil appeared behind him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Under the circumstances,” Heil said, “what harm is there in letting the boy have the dog?” He made sure to look at each and every one of the kids as he spoke, his beady eyes roaming their guilty faces.

“Big of you,” Caroline’s mother said.

Caroline elbowed her. She didn’t want her mother to make matters worse. It was no secret neither Stimpy nor Heil were friends of her family nor did the men give any indication that they’d like to be. Heil could easily tell Stimpy to press charges, to take the dog back, and the man would listen. Heil made the rules at the lake. He would always make the rules, whether anyone liked it or not.