Free Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain Page B

made it about forty-nine.
    Miss Trish changed places with Dawn, putting her arm around me as she led me toward the kitchen. I saw the bright lights in there. Saw Laurel and Emily Carmichael’s mother and another lady I didn’t know yammering with each other while they did something with food on the island. I didn’t want to go in.
    I stopped walking. “I’ll just wait over there,” I said to Miss Trish, pointing to the empty family room, where it wasn’t as bright. One of the windows had no glass and was shuttered from the outside. I liked that it was a little dim in the room. In the kitchen, I’d stand out like a lightbulb.
    “Sure, dear,” Miss Trish said.
    “I’ll come with you,” Dawn said.
    “You don’t need to babysit me,” I told her.
    “Don’t you think I know that?” She grinned, mussing up my hair with her hand. Then she leaned close to my ear. “I’d rather hang out with you than those people in there,” she said.
    Yeah, right, I thought. But it was nice of her, so I wasn’t going to give her any grief.
    We sat next to each other by the fireplace with its fake-o gas logs. I remembered the house had three fireplaces in it. One in here, one in Laurel’s bedroom and one on the porch. The Lockwoods had more money than God.
    Marcus came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of food. “Hey, Dawn. Keith,” he said as he sat down on the other side of me. “Frankie with you, Dawn?”
    “He’s still at work,” she said.
    I was glad Frankie wasn’t there. Dawn had been seeing him for a while now, but I thought he was an asshole. He was always staring at my face.
    “We’ll get some action going today, Keith,” Marcus said to me.
    I nodded. My eyes were on the kitchen door. I figured Maggie was in there, and I wanted to prepare myself for seeing her. I’d pretend I didn’t see her. I’d look right through her like she didn’t exist. That’s how I’d handle it.
    Dawn stood up. “I’m going to get us some food,” she said to me. “You stay.”
    Like I was going anywhere.
    “How’s the PT?” Marcus dug his fork into the macaroni salad on his plate.
    I shrugged. Marcus was all right. Of the Lockwoods, he was the only one I could stand, and not just because he started that college fund for me years ago with a honkin’ chunk of his own money. But I didn’t want to talk about the PT. I’d skipped this morning. PT wasthe last thing on my mind. I wasn’t keeping up with the exercises and my arms and shoulders were killing me. I’d popped an extra half a Percocet before Dawn picked me up, but it hadn’t kicked in yet.
    “Who all’s here?” I asked.
    “Well, let’s see.” He chewed some. Swallowed. “Flip Cates, for starters.”
    Yeah. The whole point of this meeting was for the cops to update us and tell us how we could help.
    “Who else?”
    “Laurel, of course. Robin Carmichael. Sue Charles. You know her?”
    I nodded. Sue was one of my mother’s old book-club friends, so it made sense she was there. I didn’t realize Emily’s mother cared much about mine, though. Emily had been in the fire, too, so I guessed that was the connection. Emily’d gotten a few cuts and bruises, but she was basically okay. Or at least as okay as she’d been before the fire, which wasn’t saying much.
    “Is Maggie here?” I couldn’t take the suspense anymore.
    “She’s upstairs,” Marcus said. “She’s only been home a couple of days and isn’t ready to face the world.”
    Chickenshit, I thought. But I knew how it felt, not wanting to face the world, and her staying upstairs was fine with me.
    “And Andy’s at school,” Marcus said.
    “Right.” Where I was supposed to be. Fuck school.
    Dawn came back and handed me a plate covered with food. “Here you go,” she said.
    I looked down at the ham-and-biscuit sandwich and five different kinds of salad—macaroni and potato and egg and who knew what else—and my stomach lurched. I should’ve told Dawn not tobother. I hadn’t eaten