Page 48 of Into the Light

“Well not just because of you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, man. I’m not good enough for her. I knew you’d think it, but I didn’t want to saddle her with a fuck-up like me.”

“What the fuck, Raf? Why do you think that?”

The surprise in his voice caught me off guard, but I continued.

“Ellie deserves the best. She should be with someone from a good background, someone who went to college, and has a good job, and can provide for her.” I let out a humorless laugh. “Someone who doesn’t come home smelling like lobster every night.”

“That’s bullshit. You’re one of my best friends for a reason. You’re a good guy. And Ellie works hard as hell. I don’t give her enough credit. She doesn’t need someone to provide for her.”

“Maybe not, but she deserves it.”

“Sure, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, Raf… You’re doing real well for yourself.”

“I guess.”

“I know so. And you’ve always been there for us. You’ve been good to her over the years, and I was probably way too stupid to see what was right in front of me.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, we were too stupid to realize we liked each other too.”

He laughed and held out his hand to shake. I grabbed it and we hugged too. I let out a long breath, realizing I’d been more worried about this conversation than I thought, and that I really shouldn’t have been.

“I’m sorry about your friend, man. Were you close?”

The reality of the murder came flooding back, and with it, the nausea. I stood up and walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

“I don’t know. I hadn’t seen her in years. Since before I even moved to Moon Harbor. I guess back then, yeah, we were close. We ran with the same crowd. I’d tried to get out of my neighborhood, so I started taking classes at one of the community colleges. That’s where I met Annie, and all the others. We were still little asshole rebels, but not like the ones I grew up around. We were dumb kids. Drugs, staying out too late partying. Stupid shit.” I couldn’t finish that story. I didn’t know how. So I glossed over it.

“Eventually my mom died and I moved away. I hadn’t talked to any of them since. And then she happened to be here in town recently. We ran into each other, caught up a bit, and she left to go back to Boston.”

“Seems really random. What was she doing back here?”

I shook my head. “That’s just it, I don’t know. She called me and said she needed to talk. That she didn’t want to do it over the phone and she’d be coming back to Moon Harbor. I was heading over to meet her when I saw all the police cars.”

“What would anyone here want to hurt her for? It had to be random, a robbery gone wrong or something.”

“I guess that’s the only thing that makes sense. Theo said I was the only one in town that had a connection to her, so I’m a person of interest.”

“Fuck that. But he has to do his job, I guess. He’ll clear you, and figure out what really happened.”

“Yeah. I hope so.” But my head was spinning. I had a bad feeling about this, and it wouldn’t go away.

* * *

By the time Ellie came upstairs an hour later, Sam had left, but ordered us delivery from the Thai restaurant down the street as a parting gift. We sat on the floor watching TV and gorging ourselves on green curry and Khao Pad.

We hadn’t talked much since she got home, and even though we’d been affectionate, there was a sense of trouble hanging over us. Ellie broke the silence.

“I’m sorry about Annie.”

I could tell Ellie had been wanting to talk, so I was glad she said something. I knew her even better than I realized, every mannerism giving away her thoughts or actions before she showed her hand. I liked that. But right now, I wanted to get everything on the table.

“Thank you. I’m sorry too. She was a good person.” I put my half-empty container of food down on the coffee table and turned to her. Now or never.

“And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was meeting up with her today.”

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