Page 67 of The Girl in the Mist

He seems like he wants to open up his mouth to explain, but I press forward to beat him to the punch. “So that brought us back to the same question that brought me here in the first place. Who are you really, Mike Kirkland?” I ask. “Fortunately, I had a little bit more to go on. That newspaperarticle.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” heinsists.

“You do. And it’s time for you to stop lying and just be honest with me. Because I’ve already spoken with Anthony’sparents.”

“Anthony?” he asks.

“After I talked to you, I tried to find out where the article came from and what it could have been talking about. But when I went to the library, several of the newspapers and other materials had been stolen or damaged so they couldn’t be used,” I tell him. “They didn’t know who did it, but later, Anthony Pruett’s parents showed up at the police station with an envelope full of the stolen materials. His mother found them in his bedroom. He’s the one who sent you that note. He got that article and he sent it to you as some kind of threat, blackmail, warning, something. And you knew it washim.”

“That article isn’t even from anywhere around here,” Mike says.

As soon as the words are out of his mouth, his expression drops. He knows he shouldn’t have said that.

“How did you know that?” I ask. He doesn’t answer and I pull out the scan of the whole article that Dean got for me. “It’s okay. I can fill it in for you. That article is from a newspaper called The Garnet Bugle. From Garnet, Georgia. It’s from a good while ago, about nineteen years, and I couldn’t think of any reason why that would be the article Anthony would include with the note. But then I got to thinking. That demo tape you showed me. The band you saw when they first gotstarted.”

“What Now?”

“Exactly. If you just got their demo tape, it means you saw them during one of their earliest shows. Remember those people I told you about who can do amazing research? Well, one of them is my cousin, Dean. He found all this about Garnet and a place called Cornelia’s Home for Unwed Mothers.” I wait for some kind of reaction, but Mike’s face stays cold and still. “He also looked into that demo tape, and you know what he found out? Those tapes were handed out at a concert that the band did a couple of years ago in their hometown of… do you want to say it? Okay, I’ll say it. Garnet, Georgia.”

“People can travel to go to concerts,” Mikecounters.

“Of course, they can,” I say. “But remember I was just talking about your siblings? The ones you told me were so good at playing instruments except for the harp, and who your father didn’t fish with because they liked doing music with himbetter?”

“Yes,” hesays.

“Do you remember the first time we spoke? What you told me then?” I ask.

“I remember speaking with you after what happened at the camp, but I don’t really remember a lot about what was said,” headmits.

“That’s understandable. You were under a tremendous amount of stress and were probably pretty tired. I’ll refresh your memory for you. When we were talking about the camp, you told me that you remembered it from when you were young because your sister died there during the first massacre. Only then when you were telling me about your family, you didn’t mention that sister. You talked about your harp-playing sister with far more memories than a three-year-old would have had, so it wasn’t her. And you didn’t mention having another sister. Then I checked the names of the victims. There were no Kirklands. No one with that name died there in August of1964.”

Time for the dramaticflourish.

“Youliedabout having a sister die at the camp. Youliedabout growing up in Cherry Hill. You were born and raised in Garnet, Georgia.” I take the picture that caught my attention out of the envelope and hand it to him. It shows a little boy that looks strikingly like Mike sitting at a table in the orphanage, focusing hard on a drawing in front of him. “And you grew up with the family who adopted you. TheKirklands.”

“Yes, I was adopted. When I was five years old. By Gretchen and Phil Kirkland. They are my parents and I love them. I’m not ashamed of that,” he says.

“Then why would Anthony use that to threaten you? And why would you lie about everything else?” Iask.

“I don’t know why Anthony would send that note. I told him I was adopted when we first met. I have no idea how he would find out anything else. But it doesn’t matter. Again, I’m not ashamed to be adopted. My parents love me and gave me a fantastic life. I’m not traumatized by it. What reason would that give me to snap and kill sixteenpeople?”

“Fifteen,” I tell him. “Miranda Hughes isalive.”

His face falls. “She’salive?”

“Yes. She was found crawling out of the woods earlier today,” I tell him.

“Then ask her! Ask her what happened. She’ll tell you it wasn’tme.”

“I’m going to ask her,” I tell him. “I’m going to see her in the hospital tomorrow morning and ask her exactly what happened to her and who did it. Right now, all I know is that according to her boyfriend, Holden, you were extremely insistent on everyone being at that campfire and she wasn’t because she wassick.”

“You think I tried to kill her because she didn’t go to a campfire?” he asks in frustration. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t know what to think. But right now, you’re not looking good, Mike.”

I gather up the materials and walk out of the house with Sam. I’ll be back. Either Miranda will confirm what Lisa said and what the evidence seems to be suggesting and Mike is guilty, or she’ll tell me another story and I’ll have even further to go to find out why Mike is carrying so many secrets.

Holden is by Miranda’s bedside the next morning when I get to the hospital. He’s wearing different clothes, so I know he didn’t sit there all night. The doctors and nurses wouldn’t have let him do that. But I don’t put it past him to have camped out in the waiting room for as long as they would allow him to before going home for a shower and fresh clothes and coming right back.

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