Oblivious to everything that was going on inside my head, Lily pulled out her phone. “Let me take a picture of us,” she said, pressing her cheek against mine, “so we can remember this day as a new beginning.” I leaned in, feeling her soft skin against my stubble as she took a photo. “Crap, I blinked,” she said, swiping her finger across the screen, and I put my hand over hers as I stared at the photo of a blue Dodge Charger.
“Is that yours?” I said, my heart racing, throat running dry.
She shook her head. “No. It kept driving past your apartment one day...”
Her voice trailed off as a new memory surged into the forefront of my mind. I was in a parking lot by a beach, sea salt filling the air, a steady breeze blowing. When I heard a yell, I turned around to see a man coming toward me. Tall and wiry with a scar above his eyebrow.
“You cheated, you motherfucker,” he shouted.
“You lost, pal. Deal with it.”
“I want a rematch. I need to win my money back.”
“No chance. I told you from the beginning, one game only and I’m out.”
He took another step toward me, snarled, “That’s not how this works.”
“It’s exactly how this works. Take it up with the cops, see what they make of your side hustle. We’re done here.”
As I turned and took a step in the direction of the shore, his fist connected with the side of my head, and the surprise attack sent me to the ground. Before I could get up, he shoved his foot onto the middle of my back, and when he struck me in the head again, I felt a blinding pain, white stars blurring my vision. I heard a dull thud, squinted at the rock that had landed a foot away. When I managed to focus enough, I saw the rock was smeared with blood. My blood.
“We’re not done, you asshole,” the man said, his voice and everything else fading around me. “Not until I get my money.”
“Ash?” Lily put a hand on my arm. “Ash? Are you all right?”
My heart continued to race and I opened my mouth to tell her, imagined saying I thought I’d remembered what had happened on the beach the night I’d gone missing. Some shady guy had struck me, possibly dragged my body into the water and left me to die. I couldn’t tell her that. Not when I didn’t know for sure if it was the truth or another montage my brain had made up. Besides, I didn’t like what any of it said about the kind of person I’d been.
“Did you just remember something?” Lily said, her hand still on my arm.
“I thought so,” I lied, “but no, nothing.”
“Are you sure, you look—”
“Hey, you two.” Neither of us had noticed Fiona approach. She now stood in front of us, an overstuffed yellow-and-white-striped beach bag in hand, a pair of large green sunglasses perched on her nose. With a wide smile dancing on her lips, she said, “Having fun?”
“Very much so,” Lily answered. “How are you?”
“Excellent, thanks,” Fiona said. “Enjoying my afternoon off. How’s your memory?”
“A little better. A lot, actually.”
“That’s good.” She hesitated. “Uh, I don’t want to intrude, but could I talk to you in private for a minute, Ash? It won’t take long.”
“Yeah, sure.” I got up, suddenly self-conscious of the fact I was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. “I’ll be right back,” I said to Lily as I pulled on my jeans and followed Fiona, my mind buzzing with the memory of the man on the beach, and the possibilities about what else I was about to discover.
26
ASH
Fiona kept walking, and I presumed she wanted to get out of Lily’s earshot, which didn’t exactly fill me with confidence in what I was about to hear.
“What’s going on?” I said as I caught up to her. “If this has anything to do with Lily or Keenan—”
Fiona stopped and turned. “Keenan? Jesus, he hasn’t come back to see you, has he?”
“No. I haven’t talked to him since he was at the house.”
“Okay, good. There’s something else I need to tell you.” She hesitated, took a breath before continuing. “It might be nothing, and I don’t want to be a tattletale, but...do you remember a guy called Dave Decato?” I didn’t answer and she sighed. “It would’ve been easier if you did. Okay...when your dad passed, Maya went off the deep end...”
“She told me,” I said, my familial defenses and protective instincts rising. “I think it was completely understandable. She went through a lot back then.”
“You both did,” Fiona said quickly. “But this Dave guy? He’s a dealer. A sneaky little son of a bitch who somehow manages to fly right by the cops’ radar without ever getting caught. Anyway, I saw Maya with him the other day.”
“Are you sure? Where?”
“The old cemetery. It could’ve been nothing, or a coincidence they were there at the same time, or... I just thought you should know. Listen, she was into weed back then and it’s legal
