Sure enough, when—in the dying light of day—the neon Fowler’s Motel sign glowed red before us, Adam sighed and said, “That is where we are going.”
“Something happened there, didn’t it?” I gestured to the motel, and Adam shot me a look of surprise, and then one of warning.
I had to tell him what I knew, whether he was ready to hear it or not. “I’ve been in room eleven, Adam. I found the bullet. I know something happened in that room.”
Adam jerked the wheel and we screeched to a stop on the shoulder of the road, gravel flying up all around us. “What do you know?” he asked, his voice disturbingly calm as he unbuckled his seat belt. “Is this what you’ve been keeping from me?”
He twisted in his seat to face me, but I turned my head away, simply because Adam was flat-out intimidating when he was like this. I knew he wouldn’t let up until he got every last answer he wanted out of me.
But there was no point in trying to evade him. His hand caught my chin, forcing me to face him. “Tell me the truth, Madeleine. How much do you know?”
“I know a lot,” I admitted. “And, yes, this is part of what I’ve been keeping from you.”
Adam released my chin and ran his hand over his face. “Do you realize how dangerous this could turn out to be?” He sounded more weary than angry at the moment.
I relaxed a little. “I know, Adam. That’s why I haven’t said anything. I wanted to…so many times. But I was afraid. Ami said not to tell you any—”
“Ami? You spoke to her? How? She’s locked up at Willow Point.” His brow furrowed, but then it must have hit him that I’d been visiting her. “Oh, Maddy, Maddy…” He shook his head, like maybe he was about to give up on me.
But I would never let that happen.
I tried to explain, “Please, before you jump to any conclusions, can I just tell you why I went there? I was only trying to protect you—”
“Protect me?” Adam raised an eyebrow. “This I have to hear.”
Since I finally had his full attention, I told him the whole story, from the very beginning. I left nothing out, beginning with the letter I’d received in December. I explained how at first I had doubted Ami’s claims that the insider-trading story wasn’t true. I told him I went back and forth on what to do, how to handle it. I explained that I wanted to ask him outright, but Ami had warned me to keep quiet.
“So I went to the newspaper headquarters when we were down in Boston,” I said, sighing. “And that was when I found the original article.”
“That’s why you left the island.” Adam raked his hand through his hair. “Because you found out that I’d lied about the SEC stuff.”
“Yes. But I didn’t leave because you lied. I left to try to find the truth. I couldn’t do it from there. I knew you’d figure it out, and I was afraid for you if you did.”
One of his hands rested on the steering wheel, and his grip tightened. “Maddy, did you ever consider that maybe I lied to protect you? You kept pushing at the time, wanting to know what Chelsea had on me. I knew you’d never be satisfied until you had an explanation. And I knew it had to be convincing. So I came up with the idea of the insider-trading story.”
“And you had Ami doctor the article.”
“I did. But I didn’t tell her why.”
In a tiny voice, I said, “Well, I think she figured it out.”
“I guess,” Adam began, “but there had to be something else that made her connect the dots. I mean, something triggered her to send you that letter.” His grip on the steering wheel relaxed and he tapped his fingers contemplatively.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I need more info.” His questioning gaze fell on me.
“What?”
“What all has Ami told you? I want to hear everything.”
With no hesitation, I filled him in on every visit I’d ever made to Willow Point. I explained how Ami hadn’t really “told” me anything, that instead she’d given me “puzzle pieces” to create a trail of clues for me to follow. I described the number-eleven room key replica, the red matchbook from Fowler’s, and how those clues had led me to the room with the bullet in the wall.
“So you went to Fowler’s and you found the bullet.” It wasn’t a question; he’d heard me earlier. Adam was just thinking aloud. “What did you do with the bullet? Is it still in the wall?”
“Uh-h-h…” I hesitated, not sure if my response would make him mad. After all, he’d just settled down. But there was no point in keeping the truth from him, so I admitted, “I actually have it.”
Without waiting for a reaction, I dug around in my purse and pulled the spent bullet out. When I looked up, Adam was watching me with an exasperated look. “Uh, I guess you probably would prefer to hold onto this.” I held the bullet out, and he slipped it from my grasp. He gave it a cursory glance and pocketed it without saying another word, which was fine. I was glad to be rid of the thing.
I shifted around in my seat and took a deep breath, and then I ventured, “Are you going to tell me what happened in that room?”
Adam was back to tapping the steering wheel with his long fingers. “First, finish telling me what you know.”
I supposed I’d get an answer eventually.
I leaned back in my seat, told him about the pages from Helena’s diary, the ones Ami had hidden behind the paper backing of the painting she’d made for me. None of the details seemed to surprise him, leading me to believe Adam already knew everything that had happened to Helena after Ron left her mom.
Adam did appear to be pondering something, though, as he
