“Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the court hearing,” he says. “And this will surprise you, but I think you’re right. I think Iwasset up. And I think I know who did it.”
“You do?” My heartbeat rockets into overdrive. “Who?”
“Who knew I was driving Trinity’s car that morning?” he asks.
I think about that. “Trinity, obviously—”
“Obviously.”
“Presumably her brother, who was expecting you—”
“Right,” he says. His shoulders rise. “Who else? Not you. You didn’t know.”
“No, I thought you had a scrimmage that day,” I say.
“Right. But…did anyoneelseknow?”
Noise from the mudroom. Finley coming in from the garage.
I look at Luke. He meets my eye contact, raises his eyebrows.
Fin?I mouth.
“Oh, hey.” Finley walks into the family room, dressed in a suit, his collar open and tie pulled down. “Didn’t expect anyone home,” he says. “Had a meeting with some investors.”
“Cool,” says Luke too enthusiastically, eyes still on me. “The herbal cream?”
“Yeah, we’re trying to raise two mil.” Fin grabs a bottle of open winefrom the fridge and pours himself a glass. “You guys look like you’re in a serious conversation.”
Luke blinks out of it, returns to the kitchen table. “No, not at all. Just going over some documents from the prosecution. Hey, settle something for us, Fin. The Oxy they found in the car? The dosage was eighty milligrams. That sounds like a high dosage. Or is that typical?”
I turn back to the food but keep one eye on my brother.
“What am I, a pharmacist?” says Fin. “I have no idea. I never took the Oxy they prescribed. Wanted no part of it.”
“Right, you said that before.” Luke nods. “I forgot.”
“Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes,” I say, trying to change the subject.
“I’m gonna get out of this suit.” Finley takes his glass of wine and clomps up the stairs.
I’m shaking my head before Luke leaves his chair and walks up to me. “No way,” I whisper. “It wasn’t Finley.” I take my phone and move to the family room, scrolling through my text messages with Fin. The frequency of our texts has dropped significantly since I discovered he was cheating again, so it doesn’t take long to find our exchanges on the day Luke was arrested, February 16. That morning, before I heard the news about Luke, I’d texted Fin, asking him to run an errand to the hardware store.
Crazy day for me, he replied.Could Luke do it?
Luke has scrimmage, I responded. To which Finley replied:
That was canceled the other day ok will try no promises.
“Finley knew we’d canceled our scrimmage with Benedictine,” Luke whispers. “I remember mentioning it to him.”
I look up. Luke’s right about that much.
“And I’m pretty sure I told him I was driving those clothes down to Nazarene for Trinity,” he adds.
“It wasn’t Finley,” I say. “He may be a lot of things, but he wouldn’t do that to you.”
“No?” Luke leans in to keep his voice low. “The guy who cheats on you? The guy who almost killed someone in the parking lot outside my building? He wouldn’t frame me?”
