Hart shoves Case to the ground. He lies there, sprawled out in front of us while Hart towers over him. “Then you tell me what did happen.” Hart gives him a hard kick in the ribs, and we all wince. “Before I kill your sorry ass.” His voice breaks, and he chokes hard on tears and blood. “What happened to Elora that night?”
“I don’t know,” Case insists. He clutches his side and sits up, wiping at his destroyed face with the back of his arm. “I told everybody dat. I been sayin’ it all along.”
“Then why did I find your medal in Honey’s shed?” I ask him. “With Elora’s blood on it.”
“Oh, God.” It’s Mackey behind me. “I think I’m gonna puke.”
Hart’s staring at the medal in my hand. He sways a little on his feet, but he doesn’t go down.
Evie’s breathing changes. She moans and sucks in air with a rattling, hitching wheeze. Covers her ears again.
And I feel bad. Because none of them were prepared for this. They didn’t know it was coming.
“What the hell, Case?” Sera’s sharp voice cuts through the chaos. Her river-sand-and-copper braid swings behind her back.
“It ain’t my fault. Dat’s where Wrynn lost it is all.” Case starts to stand up. But Hart gives him another good kick. He groans and rolls on to his side. “Only she didn’t tell me about it till it was months later. I swear.”
“Wrynn?” Hart’s face is really swelling up. His bottom lip is busted wide open. And it makes the word come out thick and twisted.
Case nods. “Wrynn told me she found my medal dat night. Lying right here. On dis dock.” He manages to sit up, then he wipes at his face again. “Goddammit.” Now Case is the one who’s crying, big tears that make tracks down his cheeks through the smeared blood. “I loved ’er, you buncha assholes!” He glares at Hart. At all of us. “Since we were twelve years old, I fuckin’ loved ’er.” He pins me down with his eyes. “You know dat’s right, chere.”
And maybe I do, but loving someone doesn’t mean you won’t hurt them.
A heavy fog is rolling in off the river, and it wraps us all in thick, wet misery.
“Wrynn told me she saw da rougarou go after Elora dat night. Now, maybe dat’s true, and maybe it ain’t.” Case shrugs. “But she said she picked up dat medal. After.” He points a swollen purple finger in my direction. “And den she got scared. She’s just a kid, right? So she went and hid in Miss Roselyn’s shed. And dat’s when she dropped Saint Sebastian. Only she didn’t tell me till later.”
“So you came back for it,” I say, and Case nods.
“Been lookin’ for it all summer.
“Because you knew if anybody found it, it’d make you look guilty.”
Case shakes his head. “I came back for it ’cause Wrynn wanted it. Little Bird loved Elora, too.” He stares us all down. Like he’d just as soon throw us in the river as look at us. “And dat medal is the only thing of Elora’s she had.” His voice quivers, and he turns his head to spit more blood. Then he struggles to his feet. “You all ain’t gotta believe me. But I swear to God, I didn’t kill my girl.”
“She wasn’t your fucking girl,” Hart snarls through clenched teeth.
Case puffs up like a pissed-off bullfrog, but then he deflates right in front of our eyes. Like somebody stuck him with a pin. “I didn’t kill her, Hart,” he says. “I never touched a hair on her goddamn beautiful head. I swear dat on my mama’s life.”
The two of them stare at each other for a long, silent minute while the rest of us stand there holding our breath. Waiting for one of them to throw the next punch.
“He’s telling the truth.” Hart’s voice is so quiet, I almost don’t hear him.
“But –” I start.
“Dammit!” Hart turns and kicks an old wooden crate as hard as he can, sending it skittering across the dock and crashing into the river. We hear the splash. “I said he didn’t do this. I feel it clear now.”
“Hart –” I reach for his hand, but he flinches away from my touch.
“Don’t,” he growls.
Then he stalks off down the boardwalk toward his house, leaving the rest of us reeling. And he doesn’t look back.
Evie wails and tears herself away from Sander to take a few steps after Hart, but Sera puts out a hand to stop her. “Let him go, Evie. He’ll be okay.”