Page 74 of Control

“How do you know it’s him?”

“He’s got two cups of coffee, and he’s walking this way,” Ty answered.

“Okay. Well, I don’t want to be obvious, so I’m not going to turn around.”

Ty released his hold on me. We wanted Mark to believe that we were working on a story about Annie, and it was likely he’d question that if Ty and I were outwardly affectionate with one another when we should have been working.

When I heard the crunch of brown grass come closer to us, I improvised. “It’s just so devastating. I hope we’ll be able to do her the justice she deserves.”

“Excuse me?”

Ty and I turned around to find Mark just a few feet away from us. “Hello,” I greeted him.

“Are you friends of Annie’s?” he asked. The circles around his eyes were dark; he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

If Mark knew who I was, he was an excellent actor. He seemed genuinely curious about my response. “I wish I could say we were. My name is Alana, and this is Ty. I’m an independent reporter, and we’re actually working on a story about Annie.”

Surprise washed over him. “A story? About what, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Her life, and the legacy she left behind,” I shared. “It’s no surprise that there’s been a bit of a dark cloud hanging over this town since she died. We thought that after all the good that she did in this community, it might help to lift people’s spirits if they had the chance to get to know her a little bit better. Did you know her personally?”

His expression grew solemn. “Believe it or not, Annie was my girlfriend.”

“Oh? I didn’t realize she was dating anyone.”

“Well, we had split up with each other about a year ago, and I wound up leaving town for a while. But I came back a couple of months ago, and we were working on getting back together,” he shared, turning to face the headstone. “But now we can’t. Ever since she…well, I’ve been coming here every day since.”

Something about this didn’t feel right. Or, well, it didn’t feel how I had anticipated it feeling. Call me crazy, but I believed the guy was genuine. I had a feeling he didn’t have a clue who we were and what information we were really after.

But just to be sure, I said, “You’re Mark?”

He sent a curious look my way. “I am. How did you know that?”

“I’ve been meeting with people who knew or worked with Annie,” I started. “Over the last few weeks, I’ve talked to individuals who worked with her at different organizations or charity benefits. And more recently, I spoke with her mom. Her brother was there, too. And a few days later, we talked to Clover and Bethany.”

His eyes narrowed. “And someone mentioned me?”

I nodded. “Her friends did.”

“I can only imagine what they had to say,” he muttered. “Especially Bethany.”

That caught me by surprise. I didn’t know why, but I hadn’t expected him to have anything to share with me about Annie’s friends or family. I came into this today with the completely wrong mindset. Shaking my head, I insisted, “They mostly just shared with me what you just did. Were you not friendly with Clover and Bethany?”

He shrugged. “I knew them, of course. Clover is fine. She’s always been bubbly and outgoing, and she was nice enough to me. Bethany was always irritable, angry at the world. Sometimes, I wondered why Annie, so sweet and caring, would choose to be around someone like Bethany when she already had one other person like that in her life, one she didn’t have a choice with.”

I had a feeling I knew precisely who he was referring to. “Who is that?”

“Reed. You said you met him, didn’t you?”

“We did,” I said, as Ty offered a nod. “But he wasn’t exactly happy to see us. We spent our entire visit talking with Monica. I don’t know. We had sort of shown up unannounced, so I assumed he was upset because we interrupted something.”

He huffed. “No, that’s probably not it. Compared to Reed, Bethany is a saint. I swear, those two are made for one another.”

The more Mark spoke, the more I reconsidered my entire perspective. I had a feeling I’d gotten this all wrong. Had I suspected the wrong man all along?

Were Reed and Bethany the problem?

Thinking back, I recalled that Bethany hadn’t even wanted to meet with me, while Clover happily did. And Bethany had been especially defensive and protective of Reed, making excuses for him about everything. Not even Clover agreed with her on things when it came to Reed.

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