no tire tracks, no plaque to commemorate Cyrus’ passing. And still no smoking gun.
Casey meandered around the splotchy lawn where Cyrus and Elizabeth had spent so much time. Had he hidden something there? Were there still any secrets left to find? She poked in the crooks of trees, beneath bushes, and under rocks, hoping she wouldn’t get bitten by any snakes or spiders, but soon realized that her efforts were pointless. Any cop—or criminal—worth his stuff would have scoured the place. Where else might Cyrus have hidden something important enough to get him, and now his daughter, killed?
A stick broke in the silence, and Casey darted behind a tree. She listened so hard her ears felt filled with static. Nothing happened for several seconds, until she heard another stick snap, and the rustle of dry grass. She peeked out from behind her tree to see a man come into view. His back was to her, and in the patchy light she couldn’t see enough details to know who it was. Had the man who’d questioned the boys come back to hunt down the hidden object? Or had she been followed? What if it was Eric?
The man stood there for a while, as if he were waiting for something, and turned a slow circle. His face remained in shadow. Casey didn’t see any point in a confrontation, so she decided to stay put until he left or did something incriminating.
He didn’t leave. Instead, he brushed off a spot on the picnic table and sat on the bench backward, his elbows resting on the table top. He tilted his face up like she and Eric had done not long ago, toward what sky showed through the branches, and a slice of light hit his face.
It was Wayne. Whole and unhurt. And here in Marshland.
Casey stepped out from behind the tree. “Wayne?”
He jumped up so fast he almost fell backward when his foot struck a thick patch of weeds. “Who is it?”
“It’s Casey. We’ve been looking for you.”
“Here?”
“No.” She walked forward and stood across the table from him. “I was just out for a run and stopped by.”
“Why were you hiding?”
“I wasn’t. I was looking for something.”
“What?”
She sat down and waited for him to follow suit. He didn’t. “Wayne. Please. Sit down.”
He looked around, then sighed heavily and sat sideways on the bench, not facing her.
“What’s going on, Wayne?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Are you really going to try that? You’ve been missing all day—have you even told your wife you’re back?—you didn’t go to work, your son has admitted to exposing Elizabeth’s secrets—”
“What?”
“And a strange man has been in town asking if anyone knows where ‘it’ is. I don’t suppose he’s asked you?”
He sat up. “He’s here today?”
“No. Last week. You didn’t see him?”
He was quiet for so long Casey thought he wasn’t going to answer. But he slumped, hanging his head. “Of course I saw him. Do you really think he’d come and talk to the boys, but not me?”
“So what is it, Wayne? What is he looking for?”
“I don’t know—”
“Will you stop? Of course you know. You know more than anyone else about this whole mess, and it’s been eating at you all these years. The look on your wife’s face told me that.”
He flinched, as if Casey had struck him. Which she wouldn’t necessarily have been opposed to doing.
“It’s not important anymore.”
“Not important? I’ll tell you what’s not important.” She half-stood, leaning so far over the table that she was in his face. “Not important is you living your pathetic life down here, wishing you still had Elizabeth, wishing it all away, when my little brother is in jail for killing her. Which he didn’t do, and you know it. And if I have to drag you all over this town, you will tell me what the man is looking for and where it is.”
Wayne swung his leg over the bench to escape, but Casey grabbed his ankle. He stood hopping on one foot. “Let go! I’ll tell you, okay? I’ll tell you.”
She glared at him for several seconds before throwing his leg down, cracking his ankle on the bench. He hesitated, rubbing his foot, then took off limping toward the main part of the park. Casey heaved a sigh and chased after him, dodging branches and rocks and tree roots. Wayne made it to the sidewalk, but Casey caught him, grabbing him from the back and pinning his arms to his sides. He tried kicking her, so she