Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 THERE WAS NO PARTY the day Ruby Fletcher came home. We had no warning, no time to prepare ourselves. I didn''t hear the slam of the car door, or the key in the lock, or the front door swinging open. It was the footsteps--the familiar pop of the floorboard just outside the kitchen--that registered first. That made me pause at the counter, tighten my grip on the knife. Thinking: Not the cat. I held my breath, held myself very still, listening closer. A shuffling in the hallway, like something was sliding along the wall.
I spun from the kitchen counter, knife still in my hand, blade haphazardly pointed outward-- And there she was, in the entrance of my kitchen: Ruby Fletcher. She was the one who said, "Surprise!" Who laughed as the knife fell from my grip, a glinting thing between us on the tiled floor, who delighted at my stunned expression. As if we didn''t all have cause to be on edge. As if we didn''t each fear someone sneaking into our home. As if she didn''t know better. It took three seconds for me to find the appropriate expression. My hand shaking as I brought it to my chest. "Oh my God," I said, which bought me some time.
Then I bent to pick up the knife, which bought me some more. "Ruby," I said as I stood. Her smile stretched wider. "Harper," she answered, all drawn out. The first thing I noticed were the low-heeled shoes dangling from her hand, like she really had been trying to sneak up on me. The second thing I noticed was that she seemed to be wearing the same clothes she''d had on yesterday during the news conference--black pants and white sleeveless blouse, without a jacket now, and with the top button undone. Her dark blond hair was styled as it had been on TV but appeared flatter today. And it was shorter since I''d last seen her in person--just to her shoulders.
Makeup smudges under her eyes, a glow to her cheeks, ears slightly pink from the heat. It occurred to me she''d been out for twenty-four hours and hadn''t yet changed clothes. There was luggage behind her in the hall--what I must''ve heard scraping against the beige walls--a brown leather duffel and a messenger-style briefcase that matched. With the suit, it was easy to imagine she was on her way to work. "Where''ve you been?" I asked as she set her shoes down. Of all the things I could''ve said. But trying to account for Ruby''s time line was deeply ingrained, a habit that I''d found difficult to break. She tipped her head back and laughed.
"I missed you, too, Harper." Deflecting, as always. It was almost noon, and she looked like she hadn''t gone to sleep yet. Maybe she''d been with the lawyer. Maybe she''d gone to see her dad. Maybe she''d tried somewhere else--anywhere else--before coming here. Maybe she''d wrung these last twenty-four hours of freedom for all they were worth. Then she was crossing the room, coming in for a hug, inescapable.
Everything happened on a brief delay, as if choreographed. Her walk had changed, her steps quiet, more deliberate. Her expression, too--careful, guarded. Something new she''d learned or practiced. She seemed, suddenly, unlike the Ruby I knew, each proportion just slightly off: thinner, more streamlined; her blue eyes larger and clearer than I recalled; she seemed taller than the last time we were in a room together. Or maybe it was just my memory that had shifted, softening her edges, molding her into something smaller, frailer, incapable of the accusations levied against her. Maybe it was a trick of the television screen or the pictures in the paper, flattening her into two dimensions, making me forget the true Ruby Fletcher. Her arms wrapped around me, and all at once, she felt like her again.
She tucked her pointy chin into the space between my neck and shoulder. "I didn''t scare you, did I?" I felt her breath on my neck, the goose bumps rising. I started laughing as I pulled away--a fit of delirium, high and tight, something between elation and fear. Ruby Fletcher. Here. As if nothing had changed. As if no time had passed. She cocked her head to the side as I wiped the tears from under my eyes.
"Ruby, if you had called, I would''ve." What? Planned a lunch? Gotten her room ready? Told her not to come? "Next time," she said, grinning. "But that--" She gestured to my face. "That was worth it." Like this was a game, part of her plan, and my reaction would tell her all she needed to know. She sat at the kitchen table, and I had no idea where to go from here, where to even begin. She had one foot curled up under the other leg, a single arm hanging over the back of the chair, twisting to face me--not bothering to hide her slow perusal: first my bare feet with the chipping plum polish, then my fraying jean shorts, then the oversize tank top covering the bathing suit underneath. I felt her gaze linger on my hair--now a lighter brown, woven in a haphazard braid over my shoulder.
"You look exactly the same," she said with a wide smile. But I knew that wasn''t true. I''d stopped running in the mornings, lost the lean-muscle definition of my legs; had let my hair grow out from collarbone to mid-back, an inverse of her transformation. I''d spent the last year reassessing everything I''d thought I knew--about others, about myself. Picking apart the trajectory that had brought me here, the conviction I''d always felt in my decisions, and I worried that the uncertainty had somehow manifested itself in my demeanor. I grew uncomfortable under her gaze, wondering what she might be looking for, what she might be thinking. At the realization that we were alone here. "Are you hungry?" I asked.
I gestured to the food on the counter--the cheese and crackers, the strawberries in a bowl, the watermelon I''d been in the process of cutting--willing my hand not to shake. She stretched, extending her thin arms over her head, lacing her fingers together: that sickening crack of her knuckles with one final reach. "Not really. Did I interrupt your plans?" she asked, looking over the snacks. I shifted on my feet. "I saw you yesterday," I said, because I had learned from Ruby that responding to a direct question was always optional. "I watched the news conference." We all had.
We''d known it was coming, that she was going to be released, could feel the shared indignation brewing, that after everything--the trial, the testimonies, the evidence--it was all about to be undone. We''d been waiting for it. Hungry for information, sharing links and refreshing the neighborhood message board. Javier Cora had put the details up, without context, and I''d seen the comments coming through in quick succession: Channel 3. Now. Watching. Jesus Christ. How is this LEGAL? We knew better by now than to say too much on the message board, but we had all seen it.
Ruby Fletcher, wearing the same thing she''d worn the day she was taken in, a banner across the bottom of the screen as she stood in the center of a crowd of microphones: PRESUMED INNOCENT. Simple yet effective, if maybe not entirely true. The trial had been tainted, the investigation deemed unfair, the verdict thrown out. Whether Ruby was innocent was a different matter entirely. "Yesterday," she said breathlessly, euphorically, face turned up toward the ceiling, "was wild ." She''d seemed so poised, so stoic, on television. A suppressed version of the Ruby I knew. But as she''d spoken, I had leaned toward the television from my spot on the couch.
Even from afar, she could bend the gravity of a room her way. On the broadcast, I''d heard a reporter call out to her: How are you feeling, Ruby? And her eyes had crinkled in that charming way she had of holding back a smile, as she looked straight at the camera, straight at me, for a beat before responding: I''m just looking forward to getting on with my life. To putting this all behind me. And yet, twenty-four hours later, she had come straight back here--to the scene of the crime for which she''d been incarcerated--to face it. THE FIRST THING RUBY wanted was a beer. It wasn''t yet noon, but Ruby never worried about such mundane things as public perception or social approval. Didn''t try to make an excuse, like the rest of us here might-- summer hours; rounding up-- craving acceptance or someone else to join in our small rebellions. She stood in front of the fridge, letting the cold air wash over her, and said, "Oh, man, this feels so good," like it was something she had missed.
She closed her eyes as she tipped back the bottle of beer, her throat exposed and moving. Then her gaze drifted over to the knife on the counter, to the cubes of watermelon. She picked one up and popped it in her mouth, chewing with exaggerated slowness, savoring it. A faintly sweet scent carried through the room, and I imagined the taste in my own mouth as she licked her lips. I wondered if this would go on indefinitely: every item, every experience, something unexpected and taken for granted. Wild. My phone buzzed from where I''d left it beside the sink. Neither of us made a move to look at it.
"How long, do you think, before everyone knows?" she asked, one side of her mouth quirked up as she leaned against the counter. As if she could sense the texts coming through. Not long. Not here. As soon as someone saw her, it would b.