“No, thank you.”
“How about you, Brian?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“So what’s up?”
Sarah absently adjusted her purse strap. “There’s something I… I mean we, have to talk to you about,” she said awkwardly. “Can we sit down?” “Sure,” Miles answered. He motioned toward the couch. Brian took a seat next to Sarah, across from Miles. Brian took a deep breath, almost starting then, but Sarah cut him off.
“Miles… before we start, I want you to know that I wish I didn’t have to be here. I wish that more than anything. Try to keep that in mind, okay? This isn’t easy for any of us.”
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Sarah glanced toward Brian. She nodded, and with that, Brian felt his throat suddenly go dry. He swallowed.
“It was an accident,” he said.
At that, the words poured forth, the way he’d rehearsed them a hundred times in his head. Brian told him everything about that night two years ago, leaving nothing out. His mind, however, wasn’t on the words.
Instead it was on Miles’s reaction. At first there was none. As soon as Brian began, Miles slipped into a different posture, that of someone who wanted to listen objectively, without interruption, the way he’d been trained as a sheriff. Brian, he knew, was making a confession, and Miles had learned that silence was the best way to get an uncensored version of events. It wasn’t until later, when Brian mentioned Rhett’s Barbecue, that Miles finally began to realize what Brian was telling him.
Then the shock set in. As Brian went on, Miles froze, his face draining of color. His hands tightened reflexively on the armrest. Nonetheless, Brian pressed forward. In the background, as if from somewhere far away, Brian heard his sister inhale sharply as he described the accident. He ignored the sound, continuing with his story, stopping only when he described the next morning in the kitchen, and his decision to keep silent.
Miles sat like a statue through it all, and when Brian lapsed into silence, Miles seemed to take a moment to register everything that Brian had told him. Then, finally, his eyes focused on Brian, as if seeing him for the first time.
In a way, Brian knew he was.
“A dog?” he rasped out. His voice was low and gravelly, as if he’d been holding his breath through the confession. “You’re saying she jumped in front of your car because of a dog?”
“Yes.” Brian nodded. “A black dog. A big one. There was nothing I could do.” Miles’s eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to keep control. “Then why did you run?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t explain why I ran that night. The next thing I knew, I was in the car.”
“Because you don’t remember.” The anger in Miles’s tone was unmistakable, barely suppressed. Ominous.
“I don’t remember that part of it, no.”
“But the rest of it you do. You remember everything else about that night.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me the real reason you ran that night.”
Sarah reached out to touch Miles’s arm. “He’s telling the truth, Miles. Believe me-he wouldn’t lie about this.”
Miles shook off her hand.
“It’s okay, Sarah,” Brian said. “He can ask whatever he wants.”
“You’re damn right I can,” Miles added, his voice lowering even more. “I don’t remember why I ran,” Brian answered. “Like I said, I don’t remember even leaving the scene. I remember being in the car, but that’s it.” Miles stood from the chair, glaring. “And you expect me to believe that?” he said. “That it wasMissy’s fault?”
“Wait a minute!” Sarah said, coming to her brother’s defense. “He told you how it happened! He’s telling the truth!”
Miles swiveled to face her. “Why the hell should I believe him?”
“Because he’s here! Because he wanted you to know the truth!”
“Two years later he wants me to know the truth? How do you know it’s the truth?” He waited for an answer, but before she could respond, he suddenly took a small step backward. He turned from Sarah to Brian and back to Sarah again, as he considered what the answers to his questions meant.
Sarah hadknown exactly what her brother was going to say… Which meant… that she’d known Otis was innocent. She’d tried to get him to back off. Let Charlie handle it, she’d said. What if Sims and Earl were wrong somehow?
She’d said those things because she’dknown Brian was guilty.
But that made sense, didn’t it?
Hadn’t she said that she was close to her brother? Hadn’t she said he was the one person she could really talk to, and vice versa?
Miles’s thoughts, fed by adrenaline and anger, raced from one conclusion to the next.
She’dknown but she hadn’t told him. She’d known and… and…
Miles stared at Sarah wordlessly.
Hadn’t she volunteered to help Jonah, even though it was out of the ordinary? And hadn’t she befriended him as well? Gone out with him? Listened to him, tried to help him move on with his life?
Miles’s face began to twitch with barely suppressed rage.
She’d known all along.
She’d used him to assuage her own guilt. Everything they’d had was built on lies.
She betrayed me.
Miles stood without moving, without speaking, frozen in place. In the silence, Brian heard the heater come on.
“You knew,” he finally rasped out. “You knew he’d killed Missy, didn’t you?” It was then, at that moment, that Brian understood not only that it was over between Sarah and Miles, but that, in Miles’s mind, they had never had anything at all. Sarah, though, seemed baffled, and she answered Miles as if the answer to his question were obvious.
“Of course. That’s why I brought him here.”
Miles raised his hand to stop her, jabbing his finger in her direction with every point he made.
“No, no… you knew he’d killed her and didn’t tell me… That’s why you knew that Otis was innocent… That’s why you kept trying to tell me to listen to Charlie…”
Sarah finally seemed to register the implication, and she suddenly, frantically, began shaking her head.
“No-wait-you don’t understand-”
Miles cut her off, unwilling to listen, each statement more furious than the last.
“You knew all along…”
“No-”
“You’ve known since the moment we met.”
“No-”
“That’s why you offered to help Jonah.”
“No!”
For a moment, it seemed as if Miles would strike her, but he didn’t. Instead he lashed out in another direction. He kicked the end table over, sending the lamp crashing. Sarah flinched and Brian rose from the couch to reach for her; Miles grabbed him before he could and spun him around. Miles was both stronger and heavier, and Brian could do nothing to stop him from wrenching his wrist up his back toward his shoulder blades. Sarah instinctively moved away from the commotion before she even realized what was happening. Brian didn’t resist, even as pain shot through his shoulder. He winced, his eyes closing, his face contorting.
“Stop! You’re hurting him!” Sarah screamed.
Miles held up a warning hand in her direction. “Stay out of this!”
“Why are you doing this! You don’t have to hurt him!”
“He’s under arrest!”
“It was an accident!”
But Miles was beyond reason, and he twisted Brian’s arm hard again, forcing him away from the couch, away from Sarah, toward the front door. Brian almost stumbled, and Miles grabbed at him, his fingers digging into Brian’s flesh. Miles pushed Brian into the wall as he reached for the handcuffs that were hanging on a peg near the door. Miles slapped them around one wrist and then the next, pinching them tightly.
“Miles! Wait!” Sarah shouted.