I freeze, my muscles locked in the backseat as I see him lean into the window, the light of the dashboard illuminating his round face and sandy hair.
“That’s no way to greet an old friend, now, is it?”
“Josh!” Ellery squeals. “You said you weren’t coming!”
He rubs his hand over the two-day stubble covering his cleft chin, his expression sheepish. “Ta-da.”
“Well get in, get in,” Kyan encourages. “It’s just a short drive up to the house.”
As the three of us contort ourselves to make room for him in the backseat, limbs brushing against limbs, bones jabbing bones, a heavy anxiety settles in my lungs like dust.
Josh smiles at me across the others. I don’t return it, hoping he can read the question in my eyes.
“Ellery said you had a work conflict,” I say. I don’t mention that he told me this himself when we discussed the reunion. How it mademe feel better for initially declining Ellery’s invitation. The others don’t need to know that we still talk. Especially Declan.
“I worked around it. I couldn’t turn down a chance to see you all again. Plus, I wanted to help with the investigation.”
“Are you going to talk with the police?” Adrien asks.
“Already did. My flight got in earlier this afternoon, and I took an Uber directly from the airport to the AFP office. Figured I would surprise you guys, but I’ve been sitting here for the better part of an hour. Surprise is on me, I guess.” He gives a little chuckle. “Where were you anyway?”
The silence, warmed by Josh’s joviality, now ices back over.
“It’s a long story,” Adrien says from the front seat. “Why don’t we wait until we’re inside?”
***
We’ve settled back on the patio. Kyan’s started the electric fireplace—an entirely infeasible fixture for a Sydney balcony overlooking the beach, especially given how hot it is, but in complement with his pristine white furniture, it gives the evening a chic, cozy vibe.
The story the five of us relay to Josh about Hari, however, sits in stark contrast.
“She’s really…dead?” Josh’s disbelief reflects my own. Hari was always such a presence in our group. The second-in-line leader, the big sister all of us wanted.
“Yeah,” Ellery responds solemnly. “But that’s not all…”
She recounts to Josh our conversation in Hari’s apartment.
“But that’s kind of a stretch isn’t it?” Josh responds. “I mean it certainly makes more sense that she shot up herself and overdosed. As tragic as that would be.”
“Did Villanueva mention to you that she thinks we’re the main suspects in Phoebe’s death?” I ask.
He pauses for a second. “Yeah, but I think that’s ridiculous. I mean there were plenty of locals back in Jagged Rock. Any one of them could have killed Phoebe. For any kind of reason. And Hari’s death could just be a horrible coincidence. We know each other, guys.”
I want to believe him; I do. But wedon’tknow each other, not really. None of them could ever imagine what I did back then.
“It’s not just us, though,” Ellery chimes in. “Nick Gould was with us back then too. And Hari apparently still talked to him. She had a photo of the two of them in her apartment.”
“Wow, Nick Gould,” Josh muses. “God, I haven’t thought about that guy in years. But yeah, now that I think about it, he really had it in for Phoebe. Ever since that first day at orientation, but especially after Tomas…”
The name hangs in the air, the brief burst of joyful nostalgia curdling back into grief.
“Nick was really angry the night she disappeared.” My tone is serious once again.
“He was our teacher,” Declan says. “Would he really have killed her just because she was an irritating student? I mean, he taught Kyan, and he lived to tell the tale.”
The joke falls flat.
“Does anyone know what happened to him? Does he still work at Hamilton?” Josh asks.
