Page 30 of All Good People Here

“Third grade…? Recess…?”

Margot gave him a look.

“Wait. You really don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

“Well, shit. Now I wish I hadn’t brought it up.” Pete laughed, running a hand through his hair. “So, there was this one day during third-grade recess when I went to that part of the playground where no one really went, you know? With all the trees, and it was kind of lower than the rest?”

Margot nodded.

“I went down there because earlier, I’d been hanging out with a bunch of kids and Jordan Klein said something that cracked me up—I don’t remember what it was, but I laughed so hard, I sort of peed my pants.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah. Obviously, I was mortified and didn’t want anyone to see, so I just put my hands over my crotch and slunk away to the nearest place I could find that wasn’t swarming with kids. I couldn’t go to the bathroom because I would’ve had to cross right past that big red jungle gym where everybody used to hang out. Anyway, I was standing on the far side of this big tree, blocking myself from view of the rest of the playground, when suddenly, you appeared.”

Margot narrowed her eyes, his words dredging up thelong-forgotten memory. “That’s right. I remember now.” As usual, she’d been reading in her favorite tree when she’d heard footsteps.

“I was trying not to let you see,” he continued. “But I guess you already knew, because you grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the water fountain no one ever used and started splashing water all over both of us. Remember how water fights used to be a thing? Every once in a while, two kids would try to see who’d get the other the wettest?”

She laughed. “Yeah. So weird.”

Pete smiled. “You told me that’s what we’d say when people asked. Instead of being the loser who’d peed my pants, I was the cool kid who’d gotten into a water fight with a girl. I can’t believe you didn’t remember that. It was pretty traumatizing for me. Or almost traumatizing I should say.”

Margot thought back to when she’d been scared and alone and January had sidled up next to her, pressing a fabric snowflake into her hand.When I’m scared, I squeeze this and it makes me brave.“I guess we just remember our own stuff.”

“Well, anyway. Enough about me peeing my pants.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “How’s your uncle doing?”

“Um. Yeah, he’s okay,” she said, then wondered if it was true.

She’d managed to get a hold of Luke on her way back from her interview with Townsend, and thankfully, he’d seemed fine. He hadn’t been able to tell her if he’d eaten lunch and he’d seemed vague about what he’d been up to that day, but he’d also been emotionally even, not angry or upset or significantly confused. And when she’d reminded him there was sliced meat and cheese in the fridge, bread by the toaster, she’d heard him start to rustle around the kitchen. Before they hung up a few minutes later, he said he may lie down for a nap. And yet, that was over an hour ago. With his condition, everything could be different now.

“I should probably be getting back to him,” Margot said. “But now that I have you…Are you familiar with January’s case?”

Pete raised his eyebrows. “Uh…kinda. I mean, being here, it’s something you hear about all the time. But I’ve never, like, seen the file.”

Margot glanced at her watch. She was torn between the desire to get home and check on Luke and the need to dissect what Townsend had just told her.

During the half-hour drive back to Wakarusa, she hadn’t been able to stop picturing the look in the former detective’s eyes as he explained why he’d never been able to arrest Krissy. Despite the nonexistent rules for law enforcement officials in retirement, despite the fact that throughout their interview he’d seemed entirely forthcoming, the way he’d looked in that moment had given Margot the unmistakable feeling that he wasn’t telling her the full truth. Had she been making it up, that strange, secretive glint? She’d always prided herself on being able to read people, but her life felt as if it was starting to unravel, her confidence starting to slip. Plus, why would Townsend, a retired detective, feel the need to hide something from her?

Margot bit the inside of her cheek. It was getting late, but she had a Wakarusa police officer who felt he owed her a favor right there and a question gnawing at her mind. “Do you have a few minutes?” she said. “There’s something I want to ask you.”

—

The two of them settled onto a bench half a block from the police station and Margot proceeded to tell Pete everything she’d just learned from Townsend. It was clear from his reactions as she spoke that he’d heard all of it before.

“Well,” Pete said when she finished. “He wasn’tlyingwhen he told you why the case never went to court, why he could never make an arrest. Not exactly. He just wasn’t telling you the full truth. It’s not surprising, actually. It’s exactly why Wakarusa PD has a grudge against him, against the whole state police.”

“A grudge against the— Why?”

“The older guys always say that the state police waltzed into town without knowing a thing about this place or its residents and made a snap judgment about what happened to January. A lot of them thought Townsend was so blinded by his belief that the killer was Krissy that he overlooked details that didn’t fit his own narrative.”

“What details?”

“Um…” Pete furrowed his brow as if trying to remember. “I guess I only know of one in particular, but the rumor around here is that there’s this one piece of evidence that prevented Townsend from selling his case to the prosecutor. Because it muddied his version of the events that night and diverted the blame from Krissy.”

“What piece of evidence?”

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