“What’s wrong?” I asked.
A timer over the stove started beeping, but Laura didn’t seem to notice. “The police were just here,” she whispered. She was nearly pressed up against me, and the timer was getting more insistent, and I felt a dull headache forming behind my eyes. Daniel finally crossed the room and hit the timer, frowning at the way Laura and I were standing.
“What did they want?” I asked, facing Daniel.
“Oh, you mean other than to push me into early labor?” She rubbed her stomach again, letting out a slow breath. “Have they been to see you?”
“Laura, what did they say?”
“Oh, they didn’t say anything. They asked. They demanded. They treated me like . . . like . . .”
“Laura,” Daniel warned.
Everett stood in the doorway, his laptop folded at his hip. “Everything okay?”
“You finished?” I asked, pulling away from Laura.
“It was just pressing send on a few emails.” His eyes moved systematically from me to Laura to Daniel.
Laura shifted her weight. “You’re a lawyer,” she said. “So tell me, is it legal to question someone for no reason?”
“Laura—” I didn’t want to drag Everett into this. I didn’t want this dragged into my life with him.
“Back up a second,” Everett said. “Are we still talking about your dad?”
Laura leaned back against the counter. “The police just came by here, asking me about Annaleise Carter. For no reason! Can they do that?”
His face tightened, then relaxed. “They didn’t arrest anyone, so they don’t have to advise you of rights. And you don’t have to talk to them. But they can still try.”
She shook her head at him. “Of course you have to talk to them.”
“No, legally—”
She laughed. “Legally.” She pushed off the counter, and she moved her hands to her lower back. “If you don’t talk, they’ll think you had something to do with it. Even I know that.”
“What did you say?” I asked Laura.
“There was nothing to say. It was Bricks, you know, Jimmy Bricks. Remember him? But also another guy, not in uniform. I didn’t know him. He’s the one who did most of the talking. He asked if we knew her, and of course we knew her, but not well. Bricks could’ve told him that. Then he asked when we last had interaction with her, and I wasn’t sure. Maybe church a few weeks ago? Maybe she asked about the baby? I don’t know. I barely knew the girl. Then he asked if Daniel knew her.”
“They’re just fishing,” Everett said.
“What about you?” I asked Daniel. “What did you say?”
“I wasn’t here,” he said, his jaw clenched, when I realized what exactly the police were after. Why Laura thought they might come to me next. Daniel. His name was getting dragged out of the box.
“You know what I thought when they showed up? I thought something had happened to Dan,” Laura said, her hands back on her stomach. She took a deep breath. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that.” Her hands tightened into fists. “This is our life.”
Daniel rubbed her back. “All right. It’s done,” he said.
“It’s not done,” Laura said, her eyes glistening as she looked up at Daniel. “They’re just getting started.”
Neither of us had any words of comfort after that. We’d lived through it once before, after all.
Even though Annaleise had been our alibi, had corroborated my story that Daniel and I were fighting and he hit me, that didn’t clear him. In fact, that made it worse. By the time the story rolled through town, people wondered what else he did to me behind closed doors. Were those bruises on my back? What happened in that house without a mother, with a half-vacant father?
Were he and Corinne ever involved? they had asked. They’d asked him. They’d asked all of us.
Never, said Daniel.
Never, said Bailey.
Never, said I.
* * *
DINNER WAS BARBECUE CHICKEN and vegetables that Laura had grown herself. She’d also made the sweet tea, which Everett had obviously never tasted before. His eyes gave him away when he took a gulp, but he recovered well enough, and I squeezed his leg under the table.
“Sugar and liquor,” I said. “We take them very seriously.”
He smiled, and I thought maybe we would get through this all right. But it took only until the second gap of silence—knives sliding against the dishes, bread crunching in my mouth—for Laura to start up again.
“They should be looking at the workers from ten years ago, see if there’s any working the fair. I told them that. Two makes a pattern, right?” The ends of her long blond hair were centimeters from brushing her dinner, and I motioned my fork toward her plate. “Oh,” she said. “Thanks.” She brushed it back behind her shoulders.
“Dinner’s delicious,” I said.
“Pass the butter?” Daniel asked.
“They’re looking in all the wrong places,” Laura went on. I tried to catch Daniel’s eye, but he was focused on the chicken he was cutting from the bone, his expression unreadable. She pushed her chair a little farther out, twisting to the side. “Honestly, they should be talking to Tyler more.” My hand froze, my knife over the chicken. She leaned closer, conspiratorially. “No offense, Nic. But he was seeing her, and I heard he was the last phone call on record—”
Daniel put his cup down on the table a little too hard.
“Who’s Tyler?” Everett asked.
Laura laughed at him before she realized he was serious.
Daniel cleared his throat and answered for her. “A friend we grew up with. He was seeing Annaleise. He and his dad own a construction company, and they’ve been helping us with a few repairs.”
“You know, Nic’s Tyler,” Laura said, like that should clear it all up.
“Oh my God,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Ex-boyfriend, Everett. Tyler was my high school boyfriend.”
Everett smiled tightly at Laura. “Nic’s Tyler, huh?” Then to me, “And he’s helping with the house?”
“Oh,” Laura cut in. “But that was years ago. He’s good people. You’d like him.”
Daniel choked, coughed into the crook of his elbow, and Laura reached an arm for him. “Are you okay?”
My fork trembled over my plate, and I pressed my hands to my legs to still them. “You think he’s involved in Annaleise’s disappearance?” I asked. “Is that what you told the cops?”
“No, I didn’t mean to imply that. I just meant they should be asking him questions, not us. He probably knows more— Oh!” Laura gasped, grabbed my hand, and pressed it to her stomach. I froze, trying to politely pull away, when something rolled, slowly and languidly, and I felt myself sucking in a breath, leaning closer, moving my hands, trying to find it again.
“You feel that?” she asked.
I looked into her face—a little rounder than pretty, balancing out Daniel’s harsh edges—and I felt in that moment how lucky this baby would be. Unlike my mother, Laura would live. And Daniel would know what to do, wouldn’t cower under the weight of responsibilities.
“This will be you guys someday,” Laura said, and I gently pulled back my hands.
Everett finally pretended not to hear part of our conversation, concentrating on his food. Daniel was doing the same.
“This is really good, Laura,” I said.
“It really is,” Everett said.
* * *
I CLEARED THE TABLE with Everett’s help. “Join me for a drink out back?” Daniel said to Everett.
“I’ll join you out back, but I’ll have to pass on the drink.” He grinned at me. “Nicolette took me out and got me toasted last night. You guys don’t mess around down here.”
Daniel laughed. “No, I suppose we don’t. Where’d she take you?”
“Murry’s?” Everett said. “Kenny’s?”
“Kelly’s,” Daniel corrected as I scrubbed the dishes in the sink. “You don’t say.”
I spun around. “Daniel, show him the backyard. Seriously, Everett, if you thought our view was nice? This place is amazing.
“Sit,” I told Laura as she tried to help.
“Thanks. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble with Everett.”