Forty-six

It was dark, and then it was light. So much light, prying at Lola’s eyelids, forcing its way between them.

Lola squeezed them tight. Because when you were dead, you walked toward the light, right? No light, no Death. Fooled you, sucker.

But what if she was already in the light? What if he’d grabbed her and hauled her off to heaven, all sunshine and puffy clouds and glowing halos?

Heaven? Her? Not a chance.

The other place then. Flames. They gave off light, too. Except that she didn’t believe in that place, any more than she believed in heaven. But then, she’d been wrong about a lot of things. So many things. Maybe she was wrong about being dead.

“Does she seem awake to you?”

Jan.

Oh, yeah. She was definitely wrong.

“Huh.” A shadow over her eyes, as though from a hand held close. A man’s voice. Brush of palm against her lips. Charlie? Her heart leapt.

“She was out before. But now she’s faking. Her breathing’s all jerky.”

Poor old heart. Another blow. Not Charlie after all. That guy. The mean one. Jan’s friend. Munro. Her breath left her in a long sigh.

“Hey, Wicks.” Jan again. “We’re on to you. Come on back from wherever you’ve gone.”

Breath filled her lungs. So they worked, along with the heart. What the hell.

Lola Wicks rejoined the world.

“Welcome back.”

Lola could have sworn Jan’s braid was shorter, as if she’d chewed a couple of inches right off. Her freckles were dark constellations on a chalky surface. And whatever she was doing in pursuit of a smile wasn’t working. Her mouth went all lopsided. Her nose was red; her eyes, damp. “Damn allergies.”

Lola tried to say something. Her throat hurt.

“Don’t talk. They pumped your stomach. Not a sight easily forgotten.” Munro looked entirely too pleased to deliver the news, albeit in a shaking voice.

Jan took her cue. “There was charcoal all around your mouth. You looked like a Halloween decoration.”

“Hospital?” Lola mouthed.

“Duh. Your knee is about in a million pieces. She really clocked you. You’re going to need a ton of surgery. The Express’s insurance company is probably going to put out a contract on you.” Jan sounded more cheerful by the moment.

“The knee is the least of your worries. The cops found you just in time.” Despite his jaunty words, the skin around Munro’s mouth and eyes was drawn tight.

“How?” Lola managed the word, which turned into “ow.”

“Thank the kids. All the dispatcher got out of you was ‘the lake.’ It’s a big lake,” said Jan.

“Seventeen hundred square miles,” added Munro, the local expert. “They could have looked for days.”

“Kids?”

“Trang’s girlfriend—I mean, not his girlfriend. His friend. Whatever she is.”

“Tynslee,” Lola croaked.

“Right. Tynslee remembered you asking about that castle thing.”

“SaltAir,” Munro supplied.

“And how the moms used to take all of the kids there when they were little.”

“And the dads.” Munro’s mood darkened apace with Jan’s increasing cheer. “I guess Galon and Bryce have been together ever since high school. Just like Trang and Malachi. Except they didn’t dare come out. So they married best friends. Lived next door. At some point the women must have figured it out, and given the way things are here, they decided it was better to just grin and bear it.”

Jan took up the narrative. “Until Trang kept talking about going to Vietnam for his mission. Melena couldn’t chance it, even though she knew he probably wouldn’t be sent there, and even if he were, he’d be with his mission partner twenty-four/seven. She was too afraid he’d find his sister, and that his sister would tell how they left her behind. That from there, people would look at Bryce thinking he’d cheated on Melena with a woman in Vietnam. And if they looked at him hard enough, it wouldn’t be long until they figured out who he was really cheating with.”

A new voice in the room. “Tynslee’s mom would have been fine with it. Maybe not fine, but she was tired of all the sneaking around. She said to let the church leaders do whatever they wanted. But for my mom, it was the last straw. She’d put up with it all those years. To see it go public, though—she couldn’t handle that. And so she went after Sariah and me.”

Trang stepped into view.

“Trang!” Lola started to sit up. “Oh, owwwwwwww.”

“They let me out yesterday. You were still under.”

“I’m glad. But your sister. I’m so—so—” Her throat closed on sorry.

Jan moved to Lola’s side. “Shhh. Now that you’re awake, someone’s here to see you.”

“Margaret? Margaret?” Lola made another abortive attempt at sitting up.

Jan nudged her back down. “Here. Let the bed do the work for you.” She fooled around with some sort of control. The bed went lower, then raised, higher than before, each movement sending the pain in her knee stratospheric.

Lola batted at her. “Get out of the way. I want to see my daughter.”

Jan dropped the controls and moved to the wall, along with Munro and Trang.

Lola heard the squeak of wheels, soft-soled footsteps. Two nurses wheeled a bed into the room and began to maneuver it beside hers.

“Oh, no.” The words escaped Lola’s ravaged throat in a whisper. Had something happened to Margaret? “Oh, please, no.”

Only Jan understood. “It’s not what you think—” she began.

But the person in the other bed lifted her head, and with that small motion tore one last word from Lola’s throat.

“Mai?”

“Hello.”

If possible, Mai’s voice sounded worse than Lola’s.

“No talking. Either of you,” one of the nurses said. He stood six feet and more in his white clogs and wore super-size green scrubs.

“Your phone call,” Munro said. “It saved her. She was near-comatose but not dead when the cops got there.”

Lola cut her eyes toward the nurse. He shook his massive head. She made a scribbling gesture with her hand, willing him to bring her a pen and paper. Jan, as usual, was ahead of her. “You want to know about Melena. In jail. On attempted murder charges in Mai’s case. She hasn’t ’fessed up to killing Sariah—yet—but they’ll probably charge her anyway after they interview you. Another reason for you to save your voice.”

Lola let her head fall back on the pillow. She closed her eyes.

The nurse’s voice reached her from somewhere high above. “Rest. That’s a good idea. Both of these women need it. I’ll bring Miss Mai back to her room. The rest of you, clear out.”