vulgar and perverse. Not always, though. Sometimes they were the victims.

“Ashley probably thought it was a bad idea for you to tell anyone that you were Brianna’s father. They wouldn’t understand that kind of love,” Gil said.

The boy nodded vigorously and said, “They would think, like, it was gross about me and Ashley, you know.” Justin would have been twelve years old when Brianna was born, while Ashley was seventeen.

“It must have been hard for you when Brianna disappeared.” Gil purposely didn’t say “murdered” or “killed.”

“Yeah, it was,” the boy said. “I couldn’t even tell people she was my daughter.”

“When did Laura find out?” Gil asked. This was a guess on his part, but he decided to throw it out there to see what happened.

“I don’t know. She seemed to kind of just know one day.”

“And Laura was okay with it?”

“I tried to be a gentleman about it. I, like, didn’t throw it in her face or anything,” Justin said.

“What about Ashley? What did she think of Laura?”

“Ashley knew that Laura and I . . . that it was no big deal,” Justin said. Gil had to keep himself from reacting to that. There is no such thing as “no big deal” when it comes to how girls feel about boys. That was one thing he had learned from his own preteen daughters.

“Did Laura and Ashley get along?”

“I dunno. I guess.”

Gil felt the boy starting to close up, so he started at the beginning. The newest new beginning—the baby.

“Do you have any names picked out?” Gil asked, smiling, patting the boy on the shoulder like he would a proud father.

“Ashley wants to name him Tristan, but I think he’ll get beat up a lot.”

Gil laughed. “I have to say, I agree with you on that. What about a family name?”

“Maybe Levi for my grandfather,” Justin said.

“What about Justin Junior?” Gil said. The boy smiled proudly.

“I guess you won’t name him after Ashley’s dad,” Gil said in an understanding, understated tone.

“That’s for sure.”

“So you don’t like him?” Gil asked.

“Nah. He’s a jerk.”

“I guess it was good he wasn’t around much anymore, especially the day Brianna disappeared,” Gil said. Justin nodded. Gil was finally back to where he wanted to be—the day Brianna disappeared. This was where he would get his answers.

“It must have been weird being in the backyard that day with just Laura and Ashley. I mean, two girls like that . . .” Gil said.

“Tell me about it.”

“And everybody was probably drinking . . .”

“Yeah.”

“Then the rain starts up. Did you all just run inside?”

“Yeah, but I had to carry Ashley into the bedroom, she was so wasted.”

“And you guys were probably soaking wet . . .”

“Totally . . .”

“What’d you do?”

“I tried to get Ashley out of her wet clothes . . .”

“I bet one thing led to another . . .” Gil put in seamlessly.

“Yeah . . .”

“Where was Laura?” Gil asked.

“She was knocking on the bedroom door like crazy, but I’d locked it . . .”

“That was good thinking . . .”

“I told her Ashley was sick and throwing up.”

“And she didn’t suspect anything?” Gil asked.

“Yeah. Can you believe it?” Justin said, shaking his head at his good luck and smiling.

“When you and Ashley were done, what did you do?”

“We got up and went to get some food. Laura was in the kitchen. That’s when we all noticed that Brianna was missing.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Sunday Night

Ashley wished Justin would hurry up with the police officer. She wanted to show him what the baby had done; he had blown the cutest little bubble of spit. Then the bubble popped, and the baby closed his eyes again.

The baby looked like Justin, just as Brianna had. They both had his eyes.

Justin had been a pretty child. So sweet. So alone. His own mother, her aunt, had two jobs and a boyfriend. So, ever since Justin was little, he’d been coming over to Ashley’s house every day so she could watch him after school and on weekends. He would sleep over most nights. They had fun together, playing and being silly. She felt so free with him. She had never had any brothers or sisters to play with, so she felt like a child for the first time.

He was like an angel with his blond hair, but he also was so mature for his age. They would talk about the meaning of life and sneak drinks off her mother’s vodka bottles. Ashley often thought that he was the only man who had