Page 79 of Little Stolen Memories

“Those guys were just trying to stand up for their girls by making me pay for how I’d made them feel. I didn’t know they were as scared as they were. In the park that night, Aubree told me how it made her feel. She was crying. I’ll never forget it. I guess I thought I deserved what they did to me, so I kept quiet.”

“You attended the funerals of everyone who died at the cabin, and I heard you were emotional. Why?”

“Same reason as everyone else, I guess. Funerals bring it out in people.”

He had a plausible answer for every question I’d thrown at him so far.

But did I believe his answers?

I didn’t know.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d been joking with me minutes before. Jokes often had some basis in truth and were driven by honest emotion.

How much truth were in his?

As I sat there, deep in thought, he stood and said, “After Owen heard about what happened to me in the park, he wrote me a note. It wasn’t long, just a few lines. I think it’s with some of the other things I kept from back then. Want to see it?”

“Sure.”

He walked down the hall, whistling. A minute later, I heard what sounded like someone shuffling through drawers.

Once again, my nerves were getting the better of me.

He’d said he’d go find the note, but he could have been doing anything.

And then the whistling stopped.

And the house went quiet.

Too quiet.

“Xander, you all right back there?” I asked.

There was no response, which had me creating various scenarios in my head, none of which were good.

“Xander, did you hear me?” I asked. “Want some help finding the note?”

Seconds went by, and then I heard movement.

I gripped my gun, prepared for anything when he came around the corner. But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when he came into view.

I raised my gun, aiming it at him. “Don’t move, and don’t come any closer. Put your hands up, Xander.”

He shook his head and said, “You don’t understand. It’s not what you think.”

CHAPTER 33

“It’s not what I think?” I asked. “You’re holding a gold chain in your hand.”

Xander looked at the chain and then back at me. “You can put the gun away. I don’t know how it ended up here. I promise.”

He took a step toward me.

“Don’t move,” I said.

“I was just … I was going to give it to you.”

“Stay where you are. If you want to give it to someone, you can give it to the police when they get here.”

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