Olivia stared at the wall as if seeing a ghost. Her grief over her friend was near the surface. ‘Yeah.’
‘I know it was the anniversary of her death,’ he said.
‘I know you two were close.’
‘I’m not sure you really do, Dad.’
‘Okay, tell me.’
A tiny frown sprouted on her face. ‘Look, it sucked when Mom and I left three years ago. Right? Sucked big- time.’
‘I’m sorry. It sucked for me, too, kiddo.’
‘I was pissed at Mom. I was pissed at you. I hated this place. I wanted to get out. If I hadn’t met Kimberly, I don’t know what I would have done. I mean, I was thinking some bad things, Dad. She saved me.’
He hated to think of his daughter feeling like an outcast. ‘I’m glad you found her,’ he said. He added softly, ‘Had she already been diagnosed with leukemia?’
Olivia struggled with her emotions. ‘Yeah, she was going through chemo. She was sure she was going to beat it, even though three other kids had already died. It was really awful, Dad.’
‘I’m sure.’
‘Kimberly sort of became my mission, you know? Mom says I have to have missions, like her.’
He smiled again. ‘I know.’
‘Anyway, the first few months, when she still had the energy to go out, we did a lot of exploring. The ghost town was one of her favorite places. She loved how creepy it was, all the ruined buildings. She said she heard the echoes of the people who lived there, especially at night. That’s what she called them. Echoes. I think that made her feel better, you know? She liked the idea of ghosts and hauntings and stuff like that.’
‘Okay.’
‘Tanya hung out with us, too,’ Olivia went on. ‘Mostly, it was me and Kimberly, because we lived so close to each other, but Tanya was over at the church a lot in those days. Her dad was filing the lawsuit, and Kimberly’s dad was one of the plaintiffs. Tanya hooked up with the two of us.’
Chris waited.
‘When Kimberly died—’ Olivia continued, but then she stopped. She wiped her eyes again. ‘I go back there sometimes. Like maybe I’ll hear the echoes, you know?’
Chris covered her hand with his own. ‘I get it.’
‘It’s stupid.’
‘No, it’s not.’ He understood her state of mind that night, but he was afraid that a jury might think a girl in that fragile state of mind would take revenge when it was offered to her. ‘How about we go back to Friday night, okay? What did you do?’
‘Not much,’ she said. ‘We dug inside a couple of the old buildings. We walked along the railroad tracks.’
‘Did you see anyone else?’
‘No, it was just the two of us.’
‘The police found beer bottles. Were you drinking?’
‘Yeah, Tanya snuck some Miller Lite out of her dad’s house.’
‘How much?’’
‘A six-pack.’
‘Did you finish it?’
‘Yeah. I had four. Tanya had two. I was pretty buzzed. I don’t do it a lot, but I was really upset.’
‘I understand.’
‘Ashlynn showed up around midnight. We hid when we heard another car, because if it’s Barron boys, you don’t want to be around, you know?’ A hardness came over her face. ‘But it was her. That blond bitch.’
Chris stopped writing and put down his pen. ‘Olivia, listen to me. Ashlynn is dead. She was a teenager like you, with people who loved her. She had her whole life ahead of her, and someone stole it away. It diminishes you to talk about her that way.’
Olivia looked upset with herself. ‘Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.’
‘What was it about Ashlynn? Why did you hate her?’
She pulled a messy strand of her chestnut hair through her lips. ‘Mondamin,’ she said. ‘What else? St. Croix is dying, and no one will do anything.’
‘Mondamin is run by her father. Why did you blame Ashlynn for that?’
‘She was there.’
‘Is that all it was?’
‘Look, Dad, I’m not proud of it. I was drunk. I was stupid. I just wanted to scare her.’
He waited for her to say more, but she looked down and fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. He could feel her withdrawing. There was a disconnect between what she said and what he could see in her face. For the first time, he felt as if she were hiding something from him.
Lying.
‘They tell me you had a gun,’ he said, changing the subject.
She nodded. ‘Yeah.’
‘Where did you get it?’
‘One of the boys in St. Croix gave it to me. I’ve had it for months.’
‘Why?’
Olivia gave him an exasperated look. ‘You don’t know what it’s like around here, Dad. I mean, yeah, the kids in St. Croix did some stupid things, but the Barron boys ratcheted up the violence. They started to treat the feud like it’s a gang war. I wanted protection.’
‘Have you ever fired the gun?’ he asked.
‘A couple of times out in a field.’
‘Did you fire it on Friday?’
She bit her lip and nodded unhappily. ‘Yeah.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. I was showing off. I fired into the tree.’
‘The police say you put a bullet in the gun in order to play Russian roulette with Ashlynn. You were terrorizing her.’
‘I guess so. It all happened fast. I was yelling at Ashlynn, and I fired, and yeah, I started messing around like in Russian roulette. Tanya freaked and ran.’
‘What did you do next? After you and Ashlynn were alone?’
‘
‘Did you point the gun at her head?’
‘Yeah, I did, but—’
‘Did you pull the trigger?’
‘
‘Did you play the game, Olivia? Did the gun go off?’
‘I didn’t pull the trigger,’ she insisted, her voice rising. ‘I didn’t.’
Chris let his daughter sit in silence, her chest rising and falling. He scribbled notes on his yellow pad, but he was really thinking about Olivia on a witness stand and how her story would survive on cross-examination.
Answer: Not well.
‘Okay,’ he asked softly, ‘what did you do next?’
‘I dropped the gun. I left. I was really upset with myself. I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I just left.’
‘You didn’t take the gun with you?’
‘No, I never wanted to touch a gun ever again. I mean, I almost did it, Dad. I was this close. That was too scary.’
‘What about Ashlynn? What did she do?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Did you talk to her?’
‘No, we didn’t talk to each other. I left her there. That was it.’
Chris watched the darting motions of her eyes. She was lying to him again. There was something more going
