Josie talked over him. “Seems like you have some things to say, sir.”
Chitwood went perfectly still. When he spoke again, she could still hear the wrath bubbling just beneath the surface of his words. “Get out of my sight, Quinn. You’re suspended.”
Josie turned away from him, walking back toward the ambulances. Strangely, she didn’t feel upset. Or disappointed. Or angry. Or anything, really. She would try to keep her job, and there was a good chance that once he’d doled out appropriate punishment, Chitwood would let her back onto the force. She’d have to take what was coming to her. No question. But none of that mattered in the very near future, because she still had to lay her grandmother to rest.
She found Rory on a stretcher in the back of one of the ambulances. He sat up when he saw her, his features brightening. He tried to lift a hand in greeting, but it was handcuffed to the stretcher. “You’re okay,” he said. “I was worried.”
Josie nodded. “You are, too. I’m glad.”
“Just my leg, but they said it can be fixed. But I’m going to jail. Well, prison probably. For a long time.”
“You need a lawyer,” Josie said. “Make sure you ask for one. Your mental health history should be taken into account. I’m sure Dr. Buckley would be willing to testify on your behalf. Also, you’re a minor. There might be special—”
“I’m not a good person,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m going where I should go.”
“Do you really believe that?” Josie asked.
“Don’t you? Don’t you think I’m a bad person? I used to hurt my mom and sisters. I didn’t want to, but I did. I can’t control this anger I have in me. No matter how hard I try, I think bad thoughts and do bad things. That makes me a bad person. My mom didn’t understand that. But you did. That’s why you came to get me. You understood my brain.”
Josie climbed into the ambulance. Noah waited outside. She sat beside the stretcher. “Rory,” she said.
But he didn’t let her speak. “But you also believed me, about Adam. I think you were trying to help me even though you told me you had to turn me in. Why would you help me? If you knew what was in my head, why would you help me?”
Josie put her elbows on her knees and leaned toward him, feeling the full weight of her exhaustion finally. Noah was going to have to carry her to the car. “My grandmother said something to me yesterday, right before she died. She called my name, and I went to her and she whispered something in my ear.”
Rory’s upper body bent toward hers. “What? What did she say?”
“She said, ‘You were worth it. You were worth all of it.’”
He stared at her, wide-eyed, for a long moment. Then he said, “What does it mean?”
Josie laughed. “It means that I was worth all the things she did for me—to raise me, to protect me, to help me, to keep me safe. I was worth all of that. I was worth every decision she made—the good ones and the bad ones. Rory, that’s how your mother felt about you. You were worth it to her. All of it.”
His head fell back into the pillow. He let out a lengthy sigh and closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he said.
Forty-Three
One week later
Josie stood in the middle of the lobby of Bob’s Big Party Skating Rink and looked around. Practically everyone she knew was there—even people she didn’t know. The residents from Rockview sat at the long tables in front of the food counter, some in wheelchairs, others in the rink chairs with their walkers beside them. Most everyone else sat along the benches, changing from their shoes to roller skates. The skate floor was empty, but a large disco ball spun lazily, casting flecks of light everywhere. Josie watched as Bob, the rink’s owner, and one of his employees, pushed a table into the center of the floor. On it, they placed two large vases of flowers, an eight-by-ten smiling photo of Lisette, and her urn. Once Bob had arranged it all, he walked back to Josie. “You ready?” he asked.
“Bob,” Josie said. “My grandmother planned this with you. I had no idea. So am I ready? Not at all. But proceed anyway.”
He laughed and walked off toward the DJ booth.
Trinity came flying at Josie, unsteady on a pair of skates. Josie caught her before she went face-first onto the ground. Trinity got her balance and looked down at Josie’s skates. “Since when are you so good on roller skates?”
Josie shrugged. “We used to go all the time when I was in high school. Gram always felt bad because the first time I got invited to a skating party, which would have been my first time skating, I couldn’t go. Because, well…”
Trinity made air quotes. “‘Custody issues.’ Yeah, that’s what child abductors call that. Well, I have to tell you that this is the weirdest funeral service I’ve ever been to. Ever. And I’m practically a celebrity.”
“You are a celebrity,” Josie said.
“Well, yeah, okay, I am, and this is still the weirdest funeral. Although, having known Lisette for even a short time, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
The first strains of a disco song burst through the building. “I don’t think she wanted us to call it a funeral,” Josie said, shouting a little to be heard.
“Oh right,” Trinity said. “A celebration of her life. But seriously, are you okay with this?”
Josie smiled. “Okay with the fact that my Gram is gone? No. Okay with this?” She waved a hand around the room as people started to fill the skating floor. “I’m pretty
