Page 60 of See How They Hide

“Let’s go horseback riding—I miss it.”

Because like everything in the world, there was yin and yang. Darkness and light. Evil and good. Havenwood was no different.

“We can protect you,” Michael said.

Riley almost laughed. Protect her? Maybe. But when they learned the truth about Havenwood, would they want to? The things Calliope had done, things Riley did with her. And, mostly, what Riley didn’t do. They would see her as an aberration. They would burn Havenwood to the ground. It’s what Calliope had always told them would happen if outsiders came in.

Not everyone at Havenwood was evil. There were children. There were people who had been lied to and manipulated. They deserved to live. All Riley could give them now was her silence. How else could she help?

“You can’t,” she said, her voice rough. She drank some water, cleared her throat. “You can’t protect anyone from Havenwood.”

“Tell us about Jane,” Kara said. “You were good friends. She had a picture of you in her keepsake box. Also, a beautiful carved bird, a photo of a teenage boy, and a red poppy.”

Of course Jane kept Timmy’s picture and the bird he made her. The only memory she had of the first boy—the only boy—she loved.

“Why did she keep a red poppy? Do they mean something to Havenwood? Like a state flower?” Michael asked.

What could Riley do? Walk away? She felt so lost right now. Her friends were dead; Andrew had tried to kill himself. Calliope was killing everyone she had saved. She desperately wanted to stop her, but she didn’t know how.

Kara said, “Riley, you’ve clearly been through something at Havenwood. You might think no one can help you—you might believe that running is the only answer. But Chris ran and they killed him. Jane ran and they killed her. Donovan was killed this morning. They’re not going to stop. So either you sit there and remain silent. That is your right. Or you share what you know about Havenwood and let us get justice for the dead.”

Riley stared at the cop. “What if you can’t and everything gets worse?”

“It can’t get much worse,” Kara said bluntly. “They tortured your friend Jesse. They know where many of your friends are now. Help us, and we’ll do everything in our power to save them. Remain silent, and one by one, they will die. I think you know that.”

Riley bit her lip and whispered, “What about the innocent people at Havenwood?”

Michael said, “Kara and I have a team behind us of very smart, well-trained federal agents. We don’t want anyone else to die.”

Riley wanted to believe them. And maybe, deep down, she did. But mostly, she wanted information—she needed to know what they knew of Havenwood. She needed to find it. Because the only person who might be able to stop her mother was Riley herself.

“What do the red poppies mean?” Michael repeated.

“The poppies are Thalia’s flower. The day she decided to leave, wild poppies had bloomed everywhere in the Havenwood valley. She said it was a sign, that we’d know she came back for us when she left a poppy for us to find.”

“Who’s Thalia?” Michael asked.

“Thalia was the first to leave, but promised to come back for those who wanted to escape. When she left, she told me when I found a poppy under my pillow, to go to my grandmother’s grave and she’d take me away.” But she’d lied. She had left poppies for Riley, but only to help others escape. Thalia needed her on the inside. Now Riley hated the sight of the stupid flowers. “It became a kind of...well, I guess a form of communication. Whenever Thalia needed to talk to someone, she’d leave a red poppy with a note so we’d know it was her.”

The two cops exchanged glances again, and Riley knew they weren’t telling her something.

“What?” she asked, her stomach churning uneasily. Something was very wrong.

Kara didn’t answer her question directly. “There was a stack of laminated poppies in Chris Crossman’s house, the same kind we found in Jane’s box. It seemed odd.”

Riley nodded. “Everyone passed through Chris’s house. He would give us money, clothes, new identification, a background—just in case we needed it. Jesse created the identities, but Chris had them for us. He gave us a laminated poppy to remember where we came from, and to use if we needed to communicate.”

“Tell me more about Jane,” Kara said. “You and Jane left Havenwood together, correct?”

Riley nodded. “Jane was the best of all of us. She never let anything kill her spirit. She had an inner light that they couldn’t destroy, until they killed her.”

“Who are they?” Michael asked.

She shrugged. Who would Calliope send out to kill? Who did she trust enough to hunt down those fortunate enough to get out?

“I could guess, but I don’t know.”

“Start with this,” Kara said. “Where is Havenwood?”

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