“And that’s why you guys left?” Riza looked back at Casey, who avoided her gaze by staring intently at the grill.
“Yeah,” Casey cut in, although Ice had opened his mouth as if to say more.
Ice clamped his lips shut and his eyes darted toward Casey. Riza sensed that Ice was afraid of him. They’d all been that way a bit as children, all of them except her. Casey had commanded the group, but he’d known better than to order Riza around.
Riza waited until Casey had disappeared inside to get condiments to ask. “What’s up with you and Casey? You jump every time he looks at you.”
Ice flicked his gaze to the porch. “He’s, uh… been intense lately.”
“Since Jaws and Sandy got murdered?”
“Even before that. Almost like he knew what was coming. He kept saying that’s how we’d find you. If any of us ended up dead, you’d show up.”
Riza frowned. “But how could he possibly have known someone might start—”
“Shh!” Ice shushed her as Casey backed through the sliding glass doors, holding ketchup, mustard and a jar of pickles.
After they ate, the three of them sat and gazed into Casey’s back yard. Like the house it was neat. The trees along the back fence were trimmed. Leaves had been heaped beneath them.
Ice unscrewed the top on a bottle of whiskey and poured it into his half-full glass of soda. He filled it to the top and then held the bottle up.
Riza shook her head.
“Beer for me,” Casey said, cracking the top on another can.
“I can’t believe Jaws and Sandy are dead,” Ice murmured, lifting his glass to his lips.
“Had you seen either of them lately?” Riza asked.
He shook his head. “Casey told me he saw Sandy. We were going to get together, but then…”
“She was murdered at Riza’s apartment building,” Casey said.
Ice widened his eyes. “No way.”
Riza nodded. “It’s hard to think that’s a coincidence.”
“It’s not a coincidence. Someone is targeting us,” Casey said.
“But who? I mean… the doctors who took us. They’re all dead. Right? Didn’t we kill them all?”
“You don’t remember?” Riza asked.
Ice lifted his glass and drank until it was gone. “Yeah, I remember. Sometimes the past feels like yesterday and sometimes it feels like it never happened at all.”
Riza knew all too well what he meant. As he set his glass on the table, she caught a whiff of the alcohol. A flutter of yearning tickled her throat and she turned her head, breaking the spell.
“Any news on Sandy?” Riza asked Casey.
“No fingerprints. DNA results won’t be back for a few weeks on the blood spots on the balcony but there’s not a great chance the murderer left anything behind. One hopeful is an eyewitness at Sandy’s apartment complex. A man reported seeing Sandy with a white male walking away from her apartment two nights before her death.”
“Is that it? White male?” Ice asked.
“Yeah, he had on a hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans, not much to go on. But I’m guessing that’s our guy. Be watchful, you two, see anyone at all suspicious and call me.”
Ice stood abruptly. “Thanks for dinner, man. I’m meeting somebody so I gotta run. Riza”—he kissed the top of her head—“I’m happy to see you made it.”
After Ice left, Riza helped Casey carry dishes to the kitchen.
“Why did you take off the other morning?” Casey asked, rinsing his glass in the sink and setting it on a drying rack. His back was to Riza.
“I had to work.”
He turned and leaned on the counter, giving her a wry look. “That’s the best excuse you’ve got?”
“What do you want me to say? It was a mistake. It was. We both know it.”
“I’m trying to set up a meeting with Sarah Flynn. You’re welcome to join me.”
“Flynn…” Riza tried to remember the name. It sounded familiar, but she’d read so much about the asylum it was hard to keep it all straight.
“Sister of Sammy Flynn, the guy who got murdered at Kerry Manor in 2001.”
“Oh, yeah… the sister of the guy whose murderer you’re chums with.”
“That’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.”
Riza glared at him. “The only way I’ll meet any of these people is if you tell me why you guys left Kerry Manor. I know Ice was holding back.”
Casey dried his hands on a towel and dropped it in the sink. “We were there when Will’s family visited the house. We’d been crashing there for a couple of nights. His dad came inside and…”
“This was the guy who murdered his wife?”
“Yeah. It didn’t happen there, but I think it started there. You read about Ethel, right? The possessions?”
“Sure. Will’s dad claimed an evil spirit attached itself to him in the house and the spirit caused him to drown his wife.”
“Exactly. His dad came in, went upstairs and flipped out. Ice and I were hiding in a closet by the front door. We half considered robbing him, but he started screaming. He tore out of that house like he was on fire. A week later, we walked into Northport and saw the headline: ‘Murderer Claims Ghost of Kerry Manor Made Him Do It.’ We recognized the guy from that day, figured we’d better get out of there before the police or reporters started poking around.”
“You weren’t worried about Ethel Kerry? The supposed ghost?”
Casey shook his head. “In those days we were more worried about starving, but we also hadn’t heard the stories. Why do you sound as if you question the possibility of a ghost? You of all people should know it’s real.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not sure any of us know what’s real.”
“We’re real. You and me.”
Riza walked to the window and looked out at the side yard. Within the fenced yard of the house next door, an older woman ushered two fluffy white dogs down her back steps into the yard. “Have you ever had a pet, Casey?”
He walked across the room and paused beside her, their arms touching. Her skin tingled where he touched her. She didn’t know if it was Casey or just the years of not being touched.
“That’s Mrs. Goldsworthy. She’s a widower, taught elementary school for forty years, and now it’s just her and Tweedledee and Tweedledum over there.”
“Those are their names?”
Casey laughed. “No. They’re actually Bonnie and Georgina. She believes it’s an insult to name animals non-human names like Fido. To answer your question, no. I’ve never had a pet. I dated a girl a few years back who had a Labrador. He came over a few times, but when she left so did her dog.”
“Do you miss him? Or her?”
Casey turned to face Riza. “No. I haven’t missed many women in my life. But I thought a lot about you, Riza. I’ve been hoping I’d find you for a long time.”
When he leaned down to kiss her, she turned her face slightly, but he reached up and tilted her chin back. Cupping her face, he gazed at her, and she saw so much of her lost self that her chest filled with tears that she wouldn’t cry.