Watchful, careful, learning to read rooms. Addie had gone the other way, loud, determined, impossible to ignore. Two sisters, same loss, two very different ways of carrying it. Growing up, people always asked which twin was older. Four minutes, their mother used to say.
Four minutes and a lifetime of difference. Addie ran toward every fight. Josie learned to see one coming before it started. Their father used to say he needed them both exactly as they were. One of you keeps the peace he'd tell them.
One of you keeps it honest. Somewhere in between. That's where justice actually lives. Neither of them fully understood what he meant back then. They understand it more now every single day in different ways.
After he died, they'd made a promise to each other. 12 years old, sitting on the porch steps where he used to talk to them. Whatever happened to him, they would find out together eventually, whenever they were ready. It had taken 9 years to feel ready. It had taken one small town, one diner, and one broken register to finally start.
2 days ago, a message had come through from an unlisted number. Just three words. Marlo Creek. Careful. Addie hadn't recognized the number, but she'd recognized the phrasing.
The same code she and Josie had agreed on years earlier. Not an emergency, just a nudge, something worth looking into. She'd meant to drive over that same evening. Work kept pulling her back. This morning, she finally clears her desk and grabs her keys.
Whatever is waiting in Marlo Creek, she tells herself it can wait a bit longer. She has no way of knowing how wrong that guess will turn out to be. Grant Whitmore doesn't like losing. He's never had much practice at it. For the first time in his life, a waitress got the better of him.
In front of his friends, in front of half the town, he tells himself it doesn't matter. He tells himself it all week. By Sunday night, it's all he can think about. He calls the guys over to his place. Beer in the garage.
Chase shows up first, then Dean, then Ryan, trailing a little behind. A fifth guy joins them, too. Cole Ferris, Grant's cousin, on his mother's side. Cole works construction with the crew when he bothers to show up. He laughs easy and doesn't ask many questions.
Grant likes that about him. "That new girl needs to learn her place, " Grant says, cracking a beer. "She humiliated me. " "In my own town, she spilled coffee on you, " Ryan says quietly. "That's kind of it, " Grant's eyes cut over to him sharp.
"You defending her now? " "No, " Ryan says quickly. "Just saying. Just saying nothing. " Grant snaps.
"I want her gone. Fired. Done. Chase grins. So do something about it.