Page 61 of Wicked Dreams

So caught up in past questions, I fail to notice where he’s taking me.

Honestly, I kind of assumed we were going back to his house. His empty, abandoned house… in the middle of the night…

But we’re far from there. The sign at the entrance of a park has been updated, but the name carries a flash of recognition.

It’s the same one my parents used to take me to for picnics. It’s also…

I close my eyes, fighting the roll of my stomach. He would absolutely leave me here if I puked in his car.

It’s where Dad was arrested.

“Why?”

He shuts off the car. “To relive the past.”

“But not all of it. Just the hard parts.”

“Yes.” He gets out and circles around, opening my door.

He’s smart: I would’ve just stayed here.

He grabs my hands and takes me out by force. “Show me. Walk me through it, because no one else has been able to. And I wasn’t here, after all.”

I shudder.

“You weren’t,” I agree. “It was…”

The worst day of my life.

Mom was already gone, and Dad must’ve wanted peace and quiet before the next step. Before the other shoe dropped on our family.

I stride forward, and Caleb’s hand slides from my arm. It’s like there’s a ten-year-old Margo guiding me to the exact spot. We were sitting on a bench overlooking the pond. The running path was behind us. The sound of footsteps hitting the dirt wasn’t out of place in my memory.

Even in the dark, with Caleb’s phone’s flashlight bobbing behind me, there’s no way I could get lost.

I sit on the bench. The pond has shriveled since the last time I saw it. The soft sound of crickets fills the air, along with an occasional frog. The wind rustles the dying fronds at the edges of the small pond.

Caleb sits next to me, his hands in his pockets.

Watching me. Examining me.

I haven’t been here since that day, and if I let down my guard, echoes of the past surround us. I can almost hear my dad again.I haven’t heard his voice in six years.

“Speak,” Caleb finally orders. “You were here?”

I take a deep breath. “We didn’t notice the detective.”

He nods, an encouragement to keep going.

“She came around from his side—where you’re sitting. She said…” I don’t know what she told us. I shake my head and backtrack. “Dad gave me a handful of seeds for the ducks, and they talked while I was throwing them at the water.”

“How kind,” he says. His tone is sarcastic.

He doesn’t like my father.

I don’t know that I like him much either. But at the time, I loved him with my whole heart. How could I not have? He was mydad.

I continue. “When I was done, I turned around and he was in handcuffs. He didn’t struggle until that lady motioned for him to be taken away. As soon as they tried to separate us, he fought. It took two… maybe three officers to force him to go.”

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