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Too late.
***
Three hours later, I’m in the hospital sipping decaf tea—no coffee for another twenty-four hours to give my heart a break—and listening to Detective Ramirez explain how she and Harris figured out that Edith Winslow was the one behind all the killings.
“Julian turned out to be quite the canary,” she says. “Starts spouting off how Clara started doing meth a few months ago after one of the neighbors got her hooked on it. Said that Lila was leaving the house for hours at a time and coming home angry at him. He thought she was seeing a boy, but I figured if there was a neighbor messing with Clara, maybe that neighbor was also involved with Lila. So, we talked to Clara, and she named Edith Winslow.”
“How did you figure out she was the one who planned everything?”
“We didn’t. We came over to ask if she had heard Clara let anything slip about Julian’s activities. We were going to let her slide on the drug stuff if she gave us something we could use. We just so happened to hear the splash when she dumped you in the pool. Considering our recent experiences with pools, we decided to see what that noise was. The rest, you know.”
I grin. “You kissed me and brought me back to life.”
“Careful, sleeping beauty,” she replies, returning my grin, “or I might make you buy me dinner.”
“Hell, I’ll buy you dinner. I know a damned good taco place.”
“I’m more of a burger gal myself, but I’ll take you up on that. No making out, though. That was a one-time thing due to extraordinary circumstances.”
I laugh. “Sounds good.”
Harris walks in and smiles at me. “Well, well, if it isn’t Romeo. Boy, you’re just bagging girls left and right, aren’t you.”
Heat climbs my cheeks, and Ramirez slaps Harris playfully. “Hey, go easy on the kid. That’s twice in one day he broke the case open for us.”
“Yeah, it is at that. Say, kid, you ever thought of a career as a police officer? We could use unsuspecting schmucks like you.”
I laugh. Then I think about it. Ramirez and Harris catch my expression and share a look with each other. “You get good benefits,” Ramirez says. “Hours are shit, but you get to drive a cool car.”
“And the girls,” Harris adds. He whistles. “You think you get girls now, wait until they see you in a uniform.”
“He’s right,” Ramirez says. “You’ll get so much tail you’ll forget all about old Lena Ramirez.”
I laugh again, and I’m pretty sure that I’m the same color as the apple the nurse brings me earlier. Harris and Ramirez share a grin, and Ramirez pats my shoulder. “We’ll give you some rest, kid. Keep your phone on, though. We might want to check up on you every now and then. See how you’re doing.”
I smile at them. “I’d like that.”
They file out, and I lay back on the bed and think about the future.
I’ve spent so long hating cops for not doing anything about my sister. Up until earlier this afternoon, I still hated them for not doing anything about Lila Kensington. Today showed me how wrong I was about all of that.
Ramirez and Harris did everything they could for Lila. If not for them, I’d be dead and Edith, Clara and Julian would still be out free. True, I helped, but if I’m being honest, it’s like Harris said. I got lucky.
But maybe, if I worked at it, I wouldn’t have to be lucky. And girls do like guys in uniform.
I close my eyes and soon, I’m asleep. I dream of Lila again. She’s sitting in the park, the same one we walk through in the earlier dream. She’s sitting next to another girl. When I get close, I see that the other girl is Annie.
They both look up at me and smile. Annie waves, and Lila blows me a kiss. Then they get up and walk away into the trees.
I could follow them, but I don’t. Even though I’m dreaming, I know that they’re saying goodbye. It’s time for them to move on.
And it’s time for me to do the same.
EPILOGUE
“Wait! Nate!”
I turn around, and Natalie throws her arms around me and kisses me. I hold her close and return the kiss. Natalie’s kisses are a little awkward and not as Vivian’s kisses were, but I kind of like that they’re a little awkward. We’re each other’s first serious relationship, and these awkward little kisses remind me that we’re new. We’re discovering each other, and that makes everything more meaningful.
