“I know that. But you looked very intense. I mean, c’mon. I’m not justifying this to you,” Amari said. “If your ex—and they’d only been broken up for a few days—was being all cozy with one of your best friends, you would want to know. Don’t say you wouldn’t.”
“All right. Did you hear what we were talking about?”
“Uh, no. I made eye contact with David and he shot me a laser look, so I didn’t.”
“Did you talk to Trevor or Adam when they came in?”
“Only for a second. Adam was looking for you. So was Trevor. He was frantic.”
“Frantic?”
“I guess he had something important to talk to you about. I didn’t realize you two were so tight.”
Why would he be upset? “Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Did you ever hear that David and I were going to take off to Canada?”
Amari laughed. “No. That’s a new one on me.”
“Are you still friends with Trevor?”
“Sure. Yeah.” She glanced at her watch. “He’s picking me up in a few. I’m helping him with something.”
“His party?” Jane asked.
“Yes. You coming?” She sounded a little surprised Jane knew.
“No, I wasn’t invited.” Then Jane quickly added, “Which is fine. I don’t really go much to parties.”
Amari didn’t invite her, either. “Well, he should be here soon.” She looked at the street, as if she had nothing more to say.
“Are you and Trevor dating?”
Amari raised an eyebrow. “Oh, no. We’re just friends. My boyfriend, Derek, is at the community college with Trevor. But I don’t keep a car here, and Derek and Trevor were going to pick me up so we could get food and beer and…” Her voice trailed off.
Jane pressed on: “I did talk to Trevor the other day at the coffee shop. I know we were friends when we were little. He was going to help me try to remember the night of the crash.” Yeah, big help he’s been. Notice how you haven’t heard from him.
“Jane, is there anything else you want from me?” Amari asked. “If not…”
“I think I want to warn you,” Jane said. “Someone went after the two paramedics who tended to David and me. The detective who investigated the crash for the Halls has gone missing. Or at least is not answering my phone calls and is not in his office.”
Amari’s mouth went thin in a frown. “That’s crazy.”
“Anyone who seems to be on the fringes of this story, they should be careful.”
Amari blinked. “But I did nothing, why would anyone blame me? It was your fault.”
“I think it’s Mrs. Hall. The suicide note I wrote was written months before. She and Mr. Hall kept that quiet. Would that have changed your opinion about me or the crash if you knew that?”
Amari’s frown didn’t move. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Once suicidal, always suicidal?”
“Well, no, of course not.” She crossed her arms. “You think Mrs. Hall is attacking people?”
Jane explained about Liv Danger and showed her the video on her phone of Mrs. Hall pulling her from the car and hitting her. “Oh, wow,” Amari said.
“I don’t think she’ll bother you. But…her grief, I mean, it’s consumed her. One paramedic had her house burned down. And the empty houses around her.”
“You’re not joking?”
“No. I’m not. She claims I’m doing this, I think it’s her. I don’t even have a car to drive to San Antonio and commit arson. She has the resources and the motive.” She put a hand on Amari’s arm. “If there is anything you remember or that you can tell me…”
“Um. Well. I stayed at Happy Taco for a while. I liked to study there. Mr. Hall came in, also looking for you and David. I didn’t text him, I wouldn’t have, but I think Kamala must have.”
Cal must have come in after the video footage ended. “Did you talk to him?”
“No. I don’t really know him. I recognized him from the football games. Kamala had pointed him out to me.”
Cal Hall, also in search of them. But only Kamala had found them. “Thanks, Amari.”
“Oh. There’s Trevor. I got to go. Take care, Jane. I hope…I hope you feel better soon.” Like the amnesia was a cold to get over. Amari hurried over to the road, where a large black truck waited for her, tinted windows, one of them sliding down to show Trevor Blinn and another guy—her boyfriend, probably—watching Amari hurry over to them.
Black truck. Large black truck. Like what Brenda Hobson had seen turning off High Oaks as the ambulance turned onto it to reach the crash site.
Trevor held up a hand in an uncertain wave. Jane stood, held up her phone, and carefully snapped a picture of the truck. Amari climbed in and Jane could see Trevor asking her a question. Glancing back with surprise at Jane. Then he drove off.
Jane texted the photo to Brenda. Is this like the truck you remembered?
The answer came five minutes later. Yes, it’s that kind of truck.
There were many black trucks in Texas. But there was only one driven by someone who had been actively searching for her and David that night.
She summoned a rideshare, was told it would take ten minutes to reach her, and so she pulled the file on her father again from her backpack and looked through it.
She found an envelope taped to the back of one of the photo sheets. She hadn’t noticed it before.
She opened it. Inside was a single photo of her mother and Cal Hall, kissing under an eave, standing in the shadow of a door. Her mother’s hand was along Cal’s jawline, and he was gathering her close to him for the embrace, his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her close.
She stared at it for a long minute.
Where was this? She knew it but she couldn’t place it. The date stamp on the picture was two months before her father died.
She stared at the picture a long time. She could go straight to her mother and ask. Or go to Cal. Or go to Perri, and knife her in the heart with it. Hurt her like she’d hurt Jane.
Instead she put it in her backpack.
“You’re Jane Norton,” the voice behind her said.
She looked behind her. A man stood there. Thick arms, dark hair, a mouth like a slash. For a second she thought she shouldn’t say anything. But instead she said, “Yes.”
“I’m Shiloh Rooke. I was one of the paramedics that saved your life.” His voice was low and smoky.
“Oh. Yes. Thank you.” The man Perri warned her about when she brought the coffee. She didn’t want to thank him, didn’t want to talk to him, but it seemed rude not to and she could tell he expected it from her.
“I appreciate your kind thanks,” he said. “But I’ve had some misfortune that seems tied to your bad experience.”
She shoved the file back into the backpack, zipped it closed. “I have to go, a ride is coming for me…”
“I can give you a ride. We can talk about Cal and Perri Hall.”
“I don’t really have anything to say…”
“Weren’t you asking that girl about the Halls? The night of the crash?”
She realized with a shock that he must have sat close to them; with so many students walking by, she hadn’t noticed. “You think Mrs. Hall burned down Brenda’s house. You think she ruined my engagement. You think she made Randy Franklin disappear.”
“I don’t know what she’s done.”