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Lloyd smiled. “You met Zoe, huh? She’s still a pistol, I guess.”

Lloyd heaved himself back out of my car and went up the walkway. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he shouted through the front door. Sure enough, two minutes later, an older woman answered. She stepped onto the porch and gave Lloyd a bear hug.

He gently pulled her away and held her by the shoulders. He gestured to me once. Grace Oleson seemed dubious, but eventually she nodded. Lloyd waved me over.

And that was how I ended up in Grace Oleson’s living room sipping a glass of over-sweetened iced tea.

Zoe Oleson refused to sit. Her mother took a chair across from me and folded her hands in her lap. Zoe stood behind her against the wall, glaring at me.

“I know this is hard, Gracie,” Lloyd said. “I, of all people, know what you’ve gone through. Mercy’s not here to upset you.”

“But I know that’s exactly what my questions will do,” I interjected. “I hope you can believe me that my only goal is to make sure the official story about what happened to Annabelle is the truth.”

“You have reason to think it’s not?” Grace asked.

“She wants to know if we have reason to think it’s not,” Zoe snapped. “Why should we tell you anything? Why don’t you tell us what Geneva’s saying now?”

Now?

“Some of it I’m not at liberty to disclose,” I said. “But Lloyd’s right. My goal is to make sure everyone knows the full truth. Zoe, did you know Geneva back then as well as Annabelle did?”

“Annabelle and I hung with different crowds. But yes. I knew all of those girls. They were my friends too, even if I wasn’t as close to them as Annabelle was.”

“The girls were always trying to make sure they had separate lives,” Grace said. “Most people couldn’t tell them apart. That could sometimes make it hard for people to truly get to know them. Even some members of our own family had trouble. That was my fault. I dressed them too much alike when they were little. Same hair. Same clothes. By the time they got to junior high, though, Annie and Zoe tried to branch out. Zoe dyed her hair black. She went through a goth phase.”

“I can speak for myself,” Zoe said. She finally moved away from the wall and took a seat next to her mother. “You asked me a question. Did I know Geneva Bell as well as Annabelle did? I knew what Annabelle knew about her. My sister told me everything. We didn’t have secrets between us.”

“You know the difficulties the police had at first,” I said. “That there were no signs anyone broke into the rental house. The mystery of who might have aided Derrek Sidney after his escape was never solved. I said I can’t tell you every detail of my communications with Geneva. But I can tell you she believes there is someone out there who knows more about that night than they should.”

“We can’t help you with that,” Grace said.

“Do you remember what Annabelle might have told you about that weekend? Who planned it? Whether anyone else besides those five girls was going to be there?” I asked.

“Sarah planned it,” Grace answered. “It caused a little friction among the parents. About the money.”

“In what way?” I asked.

“I want to say it was going to cost two thousand dollars to rent that house for the weekend. The Durans were a bit more well off than the rest of us.”

“We weren’t poor, Mom,” Zoe said.

“No. I’m not saying that. Split five ways, it was going to be four hundred dollars per girl. That’s a lot of money for an eighteen-year-old to come up with. Well, there were some hurt feelings. Sarah’s mom made some comments. She was going to cover the whole thing and that ruffled some feathers. It was like Sarah made this unilateral decision to book the house. Then her mom flipped and expected everyone to chip in and got angry when we had some questions.”

“Annabelle wanted to just go camping out at the state park. It would have cost nothing. Everyone would have just pitched in for food and drinks,” Zoe said.

“It’s so silly now,” Grace said. “Four hundred dollars.”

“They should have listened to Annabelle,” Zoe said. “If they had, they’d all be alive. They were fish in a barrel in that house. Out at the park, there would have been other people around. They have rangers out there patrolling the grounds at night. Sarah probably would have backed down. Geneva is the one who bullied everyone into sticking with Sarah’s plan.”

“That sounds like typical teenage girl stuff,” Lloyd said.

“It was,” Grace agreed. “It’s taken me a long time to let go of all the what-ifs. It’s been a bit harder for Zoe. She and Annabelle were so close. Like many twins, they almost had their own language. I’m sorry. I don’t suppose any of this is very helpful. I just don’t know anything more than what Annabelle told me. I’ve already shared all of that with the police. If there’s nothing else, I think I’d like to go lie down. Lloyd, you know how tough this is for me to talk about. I’m sorry. I just can’t anymore.”

Grace got up and walked out of the room. Zoe stared after her. Then she turned to me.

“Please leave. Lloyd, please don’t pull this again. Not about this topic.”

“Let’s go, Mercy,” Lloyd said. I followed him back out to the porch. I expected Zoe to slam the door behind us. But she surprised me. She came outside and walked with me back to my car.