Page 86 of Five for Silver

“If you’d had the choice, would you havetold her about everything you’ve been through?”

“Probably not. Christ, Romeo…”

His phone chirped, and for a moment hethought it was Ally calling him, but it was only one of the camerasensors being triggered.

Chad slumped. “Better not be your magpiesagain.”

Romeo shrugged as Chad swiped his thumb ontothe feed.

“Oh…”

“What is it?” Romeo asked.

“It’s Lucy,” Chad said slowly, frowning downat the truck trundling up the dirt road.

“What the hell does she want?”

“No idea.”

Chad stood up, pocketed his phone and wentto meet her outside. Chad pressed his flat hand above his eyes tohelp with the early morning sun, squinting as Lucy got closer tothe house.

The truck wheels squealed as she came to astop.

Chad strolled around to the driver’s side,“Hey—”

“Don’t hey me,” Lucy snapped. She slammedthe door of the truck and rushed at Chad. For a second, hestiffened, thinking she was about to hit him, but she stopped, andwagged a finger at him instead. Her hair was wild, and her eyeswere ablaze. “I just had an interesting phone call with Candice.She said you were asking questions about me, and Harriet and Gavin.Why are you stirring up the past, Chad?”

“I’m not stirring.”

“You drove halfway across the country tospeak to my oldest friend. Why?”

“I had my reasons.”

“Candice said you were particularlyinterested in my relationship with Harriet, my broken heart overGavin choosing her, not me, then leaving altogether to live withhis dad.”

Chad raised his hands in a placatinggesture. “I just wanted a little background information.”

Lucy pushed his hands down. “I know exactlywhat you were doing. You wanted to find some kind of motive for mehurting Harriet. James did the same all those years ago, but hefound nothing, and you didn’t either—”

“You lied about where you were the night shewent missing.”

Lucy’s breath caught. A flare of panicwidened her eyes, but she pushed it down. “I didn’t—”

“Candice let it slip. You took your parents’truck and drove to her house. You spent the night.”

“So what?”

“Why wasn’t that mentioned in your originalstatement.”

“I knew James would look for a way ofpassing the blame for her disappearance to me. I asked Candice tolie. We thought James was responsible. We thought he’d donesomething to Harriet and the police had covered it up, and wecontinued to think that until Vincent admitted the truth.”

“The truth.” Chad tilted his head. “Thetruth? You told your dad Harriet was going to a friend’s house whenyou’d seen her getting in the car with James.”

“I told you why. I didn’t want to add to mydad’s stress.”

“And then you drove past Harriet on the wayto Candice’s.”

“No.” Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t.”

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