Page 60 of Find Me

Lindsay was scrolling through her own photos. “Let me show you an older picture of Hope. Maybe—”

Ellie’s brother spoke for the first time. “I don’t need the picture. Now that I see you in person, I definitely remember you. You worked with my friend TC—short for Tricia, which was short for Patricia, but everyone called her TC. You guys worked together at the mall—at Hot Dog on a Stick.”

Lindsay grabbed Hope’s arm. “Oh my god. Your lemonade.” She shifted her gaze to the Hatchers. “She makes the best lemonade anyone has ever had in their lives, but she had no idea where she learned how to make it.”

“TC used to talk about how much she hated pumping those lemons. All the horny little boys used to watch from the mall benches because of all of the bouncing up and down.”

“So you and I were friends?” Hope asked, her eyes bright with curiosity. In all the years they had known each other, Lindsay had never seen Hope this trusting around strangers.

Jess Hatcher shook his head. “No. I only met you once. TC toldme you had a house for us to party at for the night. We met you there. You were with a guy. I had the impression he was your boyfriend—not casual like me and TC, but actually tight. It was a big, fancy house, and you knew how to get in because you were their babysitter. The family was gone for the weekend. I pretty much assumed we didn’t have permission to be there, but it seemed harmless enough.”

Lindsay wanted to ask whose house it was, but allowed him to continue uninterrupted. For the next twenty minutes, he spoke as if no one else was in the room. Lindsay could picture every moment of the night. She imagined this young woman TC, full of the kind of effortless but frenetic energy that would have pulled a young Hope—a young Tara King—into her orbit.Come on, she’d probably said,it’ll be fun. You and me. Just a little taste.The boys—not boys, because they were all adults by then—two men of that age, alone in a house with their girls, would have had plans for them that didn’t include tripping on hallucinogens.

Jess’s voice rose as he described Alex coming out of the master bedroom. “It seemed like a switch had flipped. He seemed so chill when we first got there. I read him as a bit of a pushover, actually, but after you guys disappeared into one of the bedrooms, we heard this male voice yelling. I thought maybe he was pissed that you were tripping, so I went to check on you. He stormed out of the room, ranting and raving like a lunatic—just screaming and cussing. Breaking vases. Pulling picture frames off the shelves. Punching the walls. Absolutely crazy. Then you came walking out and were completely out of it. I was trying to get the guy to calm down, but it was like he didn’t even know I was there. Then you wandered out the front door, and he went after you. When I saw a car pull into the driveway, I was out of there and dragged TC with me. I found out the next day about the shooting.”

“You weren’t there when it happened?” Lindsay asked.

He shook his head.

“You didn’t even hear the shot?”

He shook his head again, but Lindsay noticed the accompanyingglance in his sister’s direction. She knew at least some of this was bullshit but saw no reason at this point to confront him.

“We went out the back door and jumped the fence,” he said, turning toward Hope. “You really don’t remember any of this?”

“Nothing at all. Did I have a car there? When Lindsay first found me after my car accident, I was in a stolen car, but the plates were from Indiana.”

“No, I don’t think any of us were the kinds of kids who could afford cars. You know how Wichita is.”

Lindsay reminded him again that Hope didn’t really know anything.

“They’ve got Uber and Lyft whatever now. But back then? We all had the bus routes down cold, or we hitched rides with friends. TC and I bummed a ride from a guy who was leaving the mall the same time we were. We didn’t want him tagging along, so we told him we were going to Denny’s. Once he was gone, we hoofed the rest of the way to the house.”

“I must have left town with Alex,” Hope volunteered. “Maybe we hitchhiked to Indiana and then managed to steal a car there. My accident was three days later.”

“The same day I decided to live my dream of moving to New York City.”

“So did we all talk about it afterward and agree to leave?” Hope asked.

“No, I never saw you or your boyfriend again,” he said. “I went to TC the day before I took the train for New York to make sure she understood the situation. No matter who pulled the trigger that night, we’d all be guilty of felony murder.”

Ellie touched her brother’s wrist at the mention of felony murder.

“How exactly did you know that?” Lindsay asked.

He shrugged. “Our dad was a cop. You pick stuff up, whether you want to or not. It had to be your boyfriend who shot Mullaney, though, right?” he said to Hope. “That’s what I’ve always assumed, at least.”

Hope had one hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe this. I basically got that man killed—and then skipped town with the guy who shot him?”

Lindsay wrapped an arm around Hope’s shoulder and gave her a quick hug. “Stop it. You have no way of knowing what Alex told you at the time about that night. Jess just said you were in a complete daze.”

Jess nodded. “For what it’s worth, TC was totally blacked out about most of the night. She vaguely recalled having to jump the fence, but not the reason why. It’s possible you left town without even knowing what went wrong at the house.”

“So what do we do now?” Hope asked. “Call the police? Give ourselves up?”

The Hatchers spoke over each other, Jess saying he knew this was a mistake as Ellie blurted, “You can’t be that stupid.”

Hope rose to her feet. “Are you fucking kidding me—”

---