Page 115

Locke

I recognize Mara Keene’s photograph when Rachel brings me the phone. She has called before, and every time I’ve said I didn’t want to talk, she hung up without pressing.

I answer. “Hello.”

“Locke? It’s Mara. Is now okay to talk?”

“Yes.”

“I want to offer you something, and I want to make sure you understand that you can say no before I tell you what it is.”

Rachel leans back in her chair but does not interrupt.

“What is your offer?”

“A formal interview. Not the kind of shouting match you saw outside the house. We’d sit somewhere quiet, and we would agree on boundaries beforehand. No surprise questions. A lawyer can review the agreement before you sign anything.”

“I can’t read it.”

“I’m aware of that. A lawyer can go through every part with you, and we can provide whatever else you need to make sure you understand what you’re agreeing to.”

That matters. She is not asking me to trust that the agreement is fair. She is telling me I can understand it before I decide.

“What do you want to ask?”

“About you. What you remember and what you don’t. What it’s like learning the world this quickly. What you want for yourself, and what you’d like people to understand before strangers make up their own answers about you.”

I look toward the front window. People have already done that. Some stood beside the road hoping only to see me. Others took pictures. Someone put words beneath one of those pictures describing an axe I was not carrying.

Mara is offering something different: a chance to answer in my own voice. “What about Rachel?”

Mara pauses. “What about her?”

“Would you ask me questions about her?”

Across the table, Rachel stops moving. Mara says some questions would involve her, but only if we agree beforehand that those subjects are okay to talk about. Rachel would not be expected to answer anything or appear in the interview unless she chooses to.

I mute the call. “Do you want anything to do with it?”

“The interview? No.”

“What about questions she asks me about you?”

Rachel thinks longer about that. “Some things are yours to talk about because they happened to you too. Some things are mine. Blair can help us figure out where that line is.”

That makes sense. What happened after I woke is part of my story too. What Rachel lived through before me is hers.

I take Mara off mute. “Rachel doesn’t want to be interviewed. Questions about her have limits.”

“Then those limits go into the agreement.”

That answer comes easily enough that some of the tension leaves Rachel’s shoulders.

Mara also tells me they would pay for the interview.

“How much?”

She laughs softly. “I’m not negotiating against myself on the phone. It’s a serious offer, and I fully expect Blair to tell you it should be higher.”