. . . so I thought you might.”
Scarlett said, “I told my mother we were going ‘to the leaving.’”
Lucas nodded. “Do you remember saying it?”
“I don’t.” She seemed irritated. “Why would I say that?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Yet.”
He pictured that scene—a young girl telling her mother she was going on a trip, to the leaving, while they were tucked in bed and reading books.
Kids say crazy things, silly things, weird things.
She probably hadn’t thought anything of it until . . . after.
“You are getting sleepy.” Kristen’s voice was an octave deeper. “You are getting very sleepy. When I snap my fingers, you will remember.”
Lucas didn’t like the pattern of freckles on her nose.
“Just trying to lighten the mood.”
“We’ll get there.” Lucas turned back to Scarlett. “We’ll figure it out. We have to.” He could practically feel the cool metal of the gun in his hands when he said, “Someone has to pay. For doing this to us.”
“Can either of you think of what kind of clothes I used to wear?” Scarlett asked.
He looked at her, that tank top.
SOFT. WARM. KISS.
Blinked.
“Really?” Kristen pushed off on her swing harder and started to pump her legs. She was going too high. “That’s your concern right now? Fashion?”
Scarlett looked down at her clothes. “I just don’t feel like . . . well . . . me.”
Lucas knew what she meant—she somehow didn’t look like her—but there were more important things to be thinking about. He was about to say something—about guns, or weapons in general—to feel out Scarlett and Kristen, but then Kristen said, “Look who decided to grace us with her presence.”
Sarah seemed smaller somehow; she had expensive-looking clothes on.
“Hey,” Lucas said.
“Hey,” she said.
“Now we just have to wait for Adam,” he said.
“He’s not coming.” Sarah shook her head. “I shouldn’t even be here. I just. I just wanted to see you all.”
“I guess we’re lucky you had some time between interviews,” Kristen said.
“Adam’s parents pushed for that. I think it’ll die down. I don’t know. One of you obviously talked, too. Max’s sister was on the news right before I left and said something about a carousel?”
HOW CAN YOU FORGET A PERSON ?
STONES OF OPUS 6 REFLECTED IN AVERY’S EYES.
Why would she do that? How could he have been so dumb?
Don’t trust people who don’t trust you.
“That was me,” Lucas said.
Scarlett sounded genuinely confused. “When did you talk to Max’s sister?”
“She came to the house. Looking for help. It just slipped. Do any of you remember a carousel by the beach?”
They all shook their heads.
He waited for the dizziness to come back, but it didn’t.
Scarlett said, “I remember riding in a hot air balloon.”
Kristen said, “Horseback riding in a meadow.”
Sarah said, “Playing with a puppy.”
“What about Adam?” Lucas asked.
“A roller coaster ride,” Sarah said. “He thinks they’re just hallucinations we had. But I don’t know. I feel like I can picture this gray house. An old-looking gray house. Adam says I shouldn’t say anything to anybody. I wanted to know if any of you remember that? Like charcoal gray?”
Lucas didn’t. Neither did the others.
Kristen said, “I’m meeting with a hypnotist again in the morning. Maybe I’ll remember.”
“Did you remember anything today?” Lucas asked, and for a second, it seemed like Kristen and Scarlett shared a secret look, and then Kristen seemed to break it off.
She said, “They’re not telling me what I said yet. They want to preserve the integrity of what I recall when I’m under for at least a few sessions.”
Lucas looked at Scarlett, who was staring at the ground.
Were they hiding something from him?
“I won’t hold my breath,” he said.
“It’s worked for people before,” Kristen snapped. “There were a bunch of kids who were kidnapped on a school bus in California years ago. They managed to escape, and the bus driver remembered a license plate under hypnosis and they caught the kidnappers, so . . .”
“I have to go.” Sarah started to walk away.
“But you just got here!” Lucas protested.
She turned. “I snuck out. I don’t want to get caught. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Don’t you want to find who did this?” Lucas ignited again, but this time low heat. He said, “We all need to work together,” but wasn’t honestly convinced Sarah would be any help at all.
“I don’t know what I want.” Sarah starting walking in circles like the night before, and now talking in circles, too. “I want to go back. I want to move on. I want to know why it was us and not some other kids, and I don’t want to know anything at all!”
So many questions.
So many ways in.
Why us?
Why then?
Why now?