her legs at the ankles. She looked at them both with a smile that was obviously nervous.
“Okay, let me know if you change your mind.” Barb sat down on the couch, catty-corner to Allie. She felt nervous, too. “I was surprised to hear that you knew my son. I didn’t recognize your name. He never mentioned you.”
“I didn’t really know him, that’s why.” Allie swallowed so hard that Barb noticed her Adam’s apple going up and down, which was when she spotted reddish bruises covering Allie’s neck, only partly hidden by her dress. Barb felt a tingle of concern. “Were you in an accident of some kind? I see your bruises on your neck.”
“No, not exactly.” Allie’s hand flew to her neck, and she tugged up the collar of her dress. “First, let me tell you about me. I grew up in Brandywine Hunt and I work as a child advocate. I’m married to a lawyer named Larry Rucci, a partner at Dichter & O’Reilly in Philly, and we live in Center City. This is my card, and I wrote my home address on the back, so you have my contact information.” Allie took a business card from her purse and set it on the coffee table, but neither Barb nor Sharon moved to pick it up. “I can explain, um—I guess, I’ll just get right to it. I was attacked last night, with my husband, by someone I grew up with. Someone I knew from my childhood, Julian Browne.”
“Attacked?” Barb asked, aghast. She recoiled. “Have you gone to the police?”
Sharon interjected, “You mean Julian Browne, the developer’s son? I saw on the news that he was arrested in New Jersey. A woman overdosed at his house yesterday, too.”
“Right, yes.” Allie nodded. “Julian Browne was arrested for the attempted murder of my husband and me last night, in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey.”
“That’s terrible.” Barb grimaced. “But what does that have to do with my Kyle?”
Allie pursed her lips. “First, let me warn you that this is really upsetting news, and it does involve Kyle. I know this is going to be hard for you to hear, and I didn’t want to hurt you further, reopen an old wound, or make Kyle’s death harder for you. I wanted to tell you the truth because I think you deserve to hear it. And not from the news or the police, because sooner or later, this is going to come to light.”
Sharon interjected again, “What is? What are you talking about?”
Barb fell silent a moment, flashing on the night Kyle’s body had been found, when she sat next to Sharon in the police station. Barb had gone numb with shock. Sharon had had to do all the talking for her. Barb’s heart felt suddenly heavy, just like it had back then.
Allie nodded, glancing from Sharon to Barb. “The police said that Kyle committed suicide alone in the woods off Connemara Road. But that’s not the truth. He didn’t commit suicide. I was there, and so were three other people who lived in Brandywine Hunt. We were teenagers at the time, fifteen years old. Their names were David Hybrinski, Sasha Barrow, and Julian Browne.”
Barb gasped, struck dumb. She felt utterly and completely shocked. She felt her own mouth drop open. She tried to collect her thoughts, but she couldn’t. Her chest went tight with pain, with fresh grief.
“Wait, you were there?” Sharon asked in disbelief. “You all were? Four people? What are you talking about? Why didn’t you stop him? What happened? What were you doing there? What were they doing there? Julian Browne was there, too?”
Allie nodded, stricken. “Let me start from the beginning,” she said, and she explained that she and the other three had found the gun in the woods, gotten some bullets, and decided to play a prank on Kyle, telling him they’d played Russian Roulette but they hadn’t. Allie had thought the gun was unloaded, and she thought the others had believed the same thing, and she hadn’t known otherwise until Kyle had shot himself.
Barb felt tears come to her eyes, and her chest got tighter and tighter. She felt her heart flutter at the revelation, but she didn’t interrupt Allie’s story, which sounded true. Sharon took her hand, and the best friends held hands on the couch while Allie continued, explaining how she had hid the secret about Kyle’s death until she had gone to David’s funeral, and how she’d thought David had shot himself on