Alex glanced at her face in surprise. Bates wasKarl Hunt’sdad? Why would he do this to them? Hadn’t his son done enough damage and caused enough pain?
Ellis had gone very quiet. His face shut down, a hard expression settled in.
“He had a lot to say about you and what you did a year ago.” Ana shrugged as best she could with Alex’s arm over her shoulder.
A muscle in Ellis’s jaw was twitching. His pale eyes were working, left to right, processing this new information.
“Did you think you’d get away with it, Ellis? Did you think no one would find out?” Ana laughed. “Bad news. Hunt has evidence, and when all this is over, he’s planning on releasing it to the police.”
“What evidence?” Ellis said, his voice suspicious.
“Enough to ruin you and destroy your reputation. When people find out what you really did…your life out there, as you know it, will be over. There’s nothing left for you to go back to, Ellis. Just shame and humiliation. Think about your father, the great Grant Locke, what he’ll think of his only son when he finds out what you did.”
“What did I do? Tell me, what is it I’m supposed to have done?” Ellis was testing her.
Alex was weakening, he could feel his strength going, his good leg was shaking. Ana propped him higher, putting more weight on her shoulders. One way or another, this would be over soon.
“You know what you did, Ellis, and the only way you can redeem yourself now is if you do something truly heroic. Something that people will choose to remember you for. Something that will make your dad proud.”
Ellis started laughing loudly.
“Something like…throw myself across the line to save the poor lovers? Is that really your final play?” Ellis snarled. His old confidence seemed to be returning. “Redemption? Do you think I give a fuck aboutredemption? I only care aboutsurviving.” He paused almost imperceptibly. “I’ve got to say I am disappointed in you. I would have expected more from Danny’s sister. There are some major flaws in your plan. First, you’re bluffing. You clearly have no idea what I did. Secondly, my father already knows everything, and guess what? He already loathes me…” He opened and closed his hands, rubbing them against his pants. “But you are right about one thing. I’ll give you that. Hunt does know my oh-so-guilty secret. I figured that out when we arrived. You see, he left me a little clue in the anniversary card. A warning. I knew I was in trouble right then.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the twenty-dollar bill.
Alex frowned. What did twenty dollars have to do with any of this?
“Why don’t you tell us, Ellis?” Ana met his eyes squarely. “Why don’t you tell us what the money means; tell us what you did a year ago? You’ve already won. At least we’ll die knowing the truth.” Ellis’s eyes narrowed. He cocked his head to one side and focused on Ana. Alex had the feeling that there was some kind of shared understanding between them that he wasn’t a part of.
Ana shifted forward slightly. “Are you getting it now, Ellis? Do you understand the message in the card:Only the truth will set you free? It was for you, Ellis. All of this. The card, the message, the money…this whole damn place. It was all for you. Hunt’s not going to let you leave until you confess before the cameras. Even if you’re the last one standing, even if you win the whole damn game. It’s over, Ellis. Whatever you did a year ago, it has to come out, one way or another, or all of this—everything you’ve done today, will be for nothing.”
Ellis shook his head and gave a short nervous laugh.
“Okay. Sure, you want to hear what I did? That’s how you want to spend your last moments alive? Fine, why the fuck not? You’ll be dead soon enough. You listening, Hunt? I’ll give you what you want, all right?” he shouted, turning around, arms raised.
Despite his bravado, he seemed to be struggling to find the words. “The game…a year ago…that was my one shot. Scouts were there from all the big schools, and I had to look good, or all the years I’d put into basketball wouldn’t mean shit. Even my father came. It was the one fucking time he showed up. The one time…and…I choked.”
Ellis’s gray eyes were cold and hollow—he was pacing again, up and down, always within reach of them, just in case.
“At halftime, I was done. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. It felt like everything was slipping away. I went out for some air and sat in my car. I thought about leaving. Just driving away, making up some excuse later. But they’d know that I lost it and ran away. That would be a deal breaker. A lousy player and mentally weak—no one would ever sign me. I didn’t know what to do. But then…I saw Karl. He was upset about some girl. He wanted to buy one of Caden’s pink pills, but he was out of money. It just felt like karma or something… He needed money and I needed a way out…”
“Ellis, what did you do?”
“I did what I had to do.” Ellis sniffed; his strong profile turned to them—his bravado was faltering. His next words were almost a whisper. “I paid Hunt twenty dollars to start the fire.”
Alex felt the air leave him. He could barely stand it—the thought of Ellis slipping a twenty-dollar bill to Karl, telling him to set fire to the school gym. How could Ellis have done that? Over a lousy basketball game?
“YoupaidKarl to do it?” Ana looked equally shocked. “You paid himtwenty dollars?How could you, Ellis?”
“I didn’t…I didn’t mean for any of this to happen… I thought, a small fire, the alarms would go off, sprinklers…there would be no way we could keep playing after that… When I saw what was happening, I tried to stop it. I tried…but the fire…” Ellis rubbed his hand over his shoulder, touching the rough skin, the burn scars. Ellis the hero, rushing into the flames to try and save people. Now it all made sense. He was trying to fix his mistake before it was too late.
“Jesus…” Ana dropped her head.
There it was—the final piece of truth. All of this, all the grief and pain, all the death, the loss, Danny…it all came down to a twenty-dollar bill. Karl hadn’t meant to kill himself or anyone else. It wasn’t suicide or murder, it was an accident, a stupid, thoughtless, unnecessary accident.
There was a long silence. The wind had picked up and was whistling across the plains. The rusty windmill was spinning wildly, clacking loudly. Clouds were massing over the distant mountains. This day was done.
“Does anyone else know what you did?” Ana asked at last.
“Only my father and his legal assistant. After…in the hospital, I called and told him everything. I didn’t know what to do. I thought I should tell someone what really happened—what I did. But he said to tell no one; that he would take care of everything.” Ellis kept his eyes down throughout his speech—on his shoes, on the ground, anywhere but on them. “My father didn’t visit me in the hospital, you know. Not once. His legal assistant came—several times, just to make sure I had my story straight. But not my father. We never spoke about it again after that first call. In fact, since that day he hasn’t…he hasn’t looked me in the eyes. What happened…what I did…I disgust him.” Ellis rubbed his eyes. “I sometimes wonder…I wonder if he wished I’d died in the firethat day…so he wouldn’t have to live with the disappointment.”
