Page 63 of Forever Dead

Curtis stared at the empty road.

Was this really going to get pinned on him?

CHAPTER NINE

Driving felt stranger than Selena expected.

Her orthopedic surgeon had cleared her to drive once she could work the pedals without hesitation. That afternoon, Selena had tested the brake hard several times in the motel parking lot before taking the car onto the road. The right knee held.

For the first few minutes, she kept both hands fixed on the steering wheel and left more distance than necessary between herself and the car ahead. Her wrist complained whenever she turned too sharply. Moving between the accelerator and brake pulled at the knee, but the leg remained steady when she needed it.

Still, she was driving.

After five weeks of depending on other people, the simple act of choosing a road and taking it felt almost like getting part of herself back.

Dusk had begun to settle over Elmsview. Shop windows glowed along Main Street, many framed with orange lights or paper bats. A family outside the hardware store was trying to untangle a plastic spiderweb around a porch column. Farther along, a row of carved pumpkins sat outside the bakery, each with a different expression cut into it.

Selena passed through the center of town and took the road toward her father's house.

She had not planned to.

That was what she told herself, anyway.

The turn came up, and she took it without thinking. A few minutes later, the familiar house appeared beyond the trees.

Her father's living-room light was on.

Selena slowed and pulled to the curb across from the property. For several seconds, nothing moved. Then the front door opened.

Diane stepped onto the porch.

Selena's hand tightened around the wheel.

Her sister wore a dark cardigan over jeans, her hair pulled back. She crossed toward the low fence as a woman from the neighboring house walked away carrying an empty glass dish. The sounds carried easily across the street. They always had in that place.

"Thanks for dropping in that pie recipe," Diane called.

The neighbor raised a hand. "Let me know how it turns out."

"I will."

Diane went back inside.

Selena sat in the darkening car and watched the door close.

How had they reached this point?

There had been arguments when they were younger. Plenty of them. Diane had been slightly older and had spent years believing that gave her some authority over Selena, an opinion Selena had challenged at every opportunity.

But there had been other moments, too.

One memory returned with enough clarity to make Selena smile despite herself.

She had been fourteen, Diane fifteen, when Selena crouched behind the bike shed at Elmsview High School with a cigarette between two fingers.

Connor had given her the pack that morning.

He had stolen them from his father's jacket and arrived at school carrying them like contraband treasure. Selena had told him smoking was disgusting, then accepted one before lunch.