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"I do," Leo said before he could reply.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "You two can go around again. I need to get off."
"We'll all get off," Chloe said.
"Can we go to the playground?" Leo said.
"Uh," Chloe hesitated, giving him a questioning look.
He had no words, so he just shrugged.
"For a few minutes," she told Leo. "We can walk our bikes to the playground."
"Sounds good," he said.
When they reached the playground, Leo ran off to play with another little boy he apparently knew from daycare.
Chloe gave him a searching look. "What happened on the train, Decker? You just went away."
"I rode that train when I was a kid. I was with Ellie. My father came running over at the end, and he was so angry. He told her she had no right to take me on the train and that something wasn't working. She reminded him about some meeting and then she told me she loved me. When I looked back at her, she was crying."
"I don't know if I ever saw her again after that." He paused. "Maybe I did. I'm not sure if my memories are coming in order."
"Did you remember anything else that she said to you?"
"She said my mom and dad liked to ride the train, that they'd done it like six times in a row. And she mentioned the ducks."
"If your mom rode the train, then she and your dad had been to Whisper Lake before."
"That's true," he said, realizing he hadn't completely comprehended that fact. "My mom and dad came to Whisper Lake—maybe before I was born. Or I could have been a baby, I guess."
"What do you know about your mother? What was her name?"
"Kelly. She and my dad met in Phoenix at a Christmas party their senior year in high school. They didn't go to the same school, but they started dating and having sex, and she found out she was pregnant right before they graduated. Her parents were furious and wanted her to give up the baby. My dad's mother was also very upset. Neither family wanted to support them, so they graduated from high school, got jobs, and found a studio apartment to live in. Oh, and they got married at the courthouse. After I was born, my mom stayed home with me, and my dad worked at a photography studio and waited tables. He said they had no money, but they were happy. Four years later, she was killed in a car crash. I had just had my third birthday. She was twenty-one years old."
"That's tragic, Decker. Your dad became a single father so young. I was twenty-nine when I got divorced. I had money and a house, and it was and still is difficult. I can't imagine what your father went through."
"My father said I kept him going. He had to make something of his life so he could take care of me." Decker ran a hand through his hair. "None of that information ties to Ellie or Whisper Lake. I have no idea why my parents came here together or why my dad brought me back. But clearly there's some connection between Ellie and my family."
"There will probably be more clues in Ellie's house."
"That's the only place they could be." His lips tightened. "I keep thinking about the train in the living room."
A gleam entered her eyes. "She bought it for you," Chloe said.
"She saw me years before she moved into your rental house."
"She still could have brought the train with her, or she bought it after she moved in because it reminded her of you or your father." She paused. "Maybe all the toys in the house were for you."
"Some of the packaging looked old and a few of the toys were popular decades ago." A chill ran through him as he thought of Ellie buying toys for a kid she would never see again. "This was a mistake," he said. "I never should have started down this path into my past. I'm not going to get answers, and even if I do, I doubt I'll like them, and they won't change anything."
"You're not going to be able to stop thinking about your past while you're here, Decker."
"I'm not going to be here that long. I think I can ignore the memories."
"Well, you can try. Or you could leave, but I hope you won't do that."
He was tempted to go, but while he didn't make commitments easily, when he did, he followed through, and he'd told her he'd do the job. So he'd do it. "I'm going to take care of the house for you, as we agreed."
