Page 72 of A Sea of Unspoken Things

The door to the makeshift interview room opened and Ameliastepped inside. She looked like she hadn’t slept since the night Micah and I showed up here with the backpack.

“I think we have what we need.” She glanced at me, as if searching for any last hints as to what I may be hiding. “For now, at least.”

She tilted her head toward the hallway and I stood.

“I need to let you know,” she started, “you’re well within your rights to press charges against Sadie.”

She spoke the words dutifully, but her meaning was clear. She was hoping, for all our sakes, that I wouldn’t. That I’d chalk it up to the hysteria of a terrified, protective mother and move on. Honestly, that worked for me.

“And Ben?” I asked.

She glanced at the other closed door down the hall. “Still being questioned.”

I had to shoulder my way through the packed office, where officers were huddled at cobbled-together workstations over piles of papers. Irecognized some of them from Johnny’s house. They were the same pages I’d tried to make sense of for the last two weeks, lining up details so that things would click. But I was finally accepting that there was no riddling out the puzzle that was my brother. There never had been.

By the time I got out to the street, my lungs felt like they might explode. It was snowing, soft flakes floating to the ground in a sweep that made me actually feel how tired I was. Like I could sleep for years. For millennia. That if I laid my head down, I’d wake to another time entirely.

I reached up, gently touching the cut on my swollen cheek. Sadie’s blow had also managed to cut the inside of my mouth against my teeth, and it tasted like blood. I still had the urge to flinch, just thinking about the way she had suddenly snapped. I could still see her hand flying through the air. The sound when it struck me.

I took out my phone, finding my texts with Micah and formulating the only message I could muster.

Done.

Within seconds, he was typing a reply.

I’ll be there in a few minutes.

I liked the message and stuck the phone in my pocket, marveling at the fact that I believed him. We still hadn’t talked or made things right. But right now, wherever he was, Micah was grabbing his keys and his jacket, on his way to the car. He was coming to get me.

The door opened behind me and Sadie Cross stepped out, the red-faced woman from the street now gone. Only a few hours ago, that look in her eyes had been almost feral. Unhinged. Like she was ready to burn down this entire town for her son.

Johnny had done much worse for me.

She leaned against the window on the opposite side of the door, arms crossed over her chest. There were several seconds of silence before she finally spoke.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” she ground out. “Really sorry.”

I shook my head, meaning to dismiss the encounter entirely, but I was still reeling from it and I wondered if she could tell.

“It’s just”—she sniffed in the cold—“all this Autumn stuff. I wish it would end.”

That made two of us.

“That girl caused such a mess. Everywhere she went. And the way she broke Ben’s heart…” She wiped her nose with her gloved hand. “It was like she didn’t even care.”

I said nothing because there was nothingtosay. I didn’t know what happened between Ben and Autumn, but I knew it couldn’t possibly justify anyone causing her harm. I didn’t think that was what Sadie was saying, but I also got the sense that she needed me to know that Ben had been a kind of victim. I couldn’t help but think that the same had been true about her. Johnny had never loved her back.

The door opened again, and Ben came out with Amelia at his side. The pale, dead look in Sadie’s eyes almost immediately vanished. She looked between them, expectantly.

Ben gave his mother a reassuring look that Amelia cemented with a smile.

“All done.” She was looking at Sadie, not Ben. “Autumn’s mother confirmed that Ben brought her home that night. According to the other kids at the party, he came back and kept drinking. Passed out until morning.”

My lips parted, ready to argue, but a loud gasp broke in Sadie’s chest beneath the hand she had pressed there. She looked as if the panic she’d swallowed down was finally detonating behind her ribs. She was genuinely frightened. No—it was more than that. She looked like she was in shock.

“Ben’s story lines up,” Amelia said.

Sadie was completely drained of color. She looked like she was going to be sick. “That’s good,” she said, her pleading eyes going to Amelia. It was meant as a question.