Page 112 of It's One of Us

“I wasn’t!”

“Okay. So you know he didn’t kill her. But if the police start digging into Park, and his alibi—who is you, by the way—you don’t think they’re going to dive straight into your life, as well? What will your bosses think about you being the suspect in a murder? I assume you have a morality clause in your contract? They’ll fire you. And if you knew anything, anything at all...”

He doesn’t answer, wrestling with this. He hasn’t thought this through, she can tell. He’s driving on instinct, fear. She presses her advantage.

“And Melanie Rich...they had a trial, Perry. Evidence. A man went to jail, and Park was cleared.”

“But we know more. There’s so much we didn’t know before that we do now.”

She sits down again, takes his hand in hers. “Listen to yourself. Why do you want to take him down so badly? I don’t see what it gains anyone by tearing his life apart. Trust me, I wouldn’t mind seeing him suffer, but not with this. Not with accusations that can’t be proven. You have no proof at all he’s the one sending the flowers. None.”

“I can get proof. And what about his son? His son is a murderer. What about all the rest of those kids? Do you think he passed this murder gene along to them, too? He clearly inherited some awful predisposition to hurt people.”

“I know I don’t need to point out that you share his gene pool, Perry. You’re his twin. If Park has it, you might too, and so might someone in your family. Who is that? Your dad, your grandfather? Do you really want to sully their memories with these ideas?”

“Not really. But if there’s something we can do, we should. It’s like you’ve forgiven him for all his lies and half-truths.”

She shakes her head. “I will never forgive him. But you can’t hold Park accountable for what a stranger’s done. Peyton Flynn’s actions are his own.”

“They found the last woman he kidnapped alive. I heard that on my way down here. Breaking news.”

A little lightness in her, at last. “That’s good. That’s a huge relief, isn’t it? But there still no sign of Peyton?”

“Not that I know of. I’ve been a little busy, though. Olivia, this is what we have to do. I can’t live with myself pretending I don’t know these things. At the very least, we need to confront him. I want you to come back home with me. Back to Nashville. We have to get to the bottom of this.”

No. No way.

“I understand,” she says. “But let me call him and ask him to come down here, so we can do this on neutral ground. I’m not going back to Nashville. I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with that yet.”

“Fair enough.”

Olivia gets her phone and calls, but Park doesn’t answer. “We can try again later.”

“I’ll try.”

Perry calls, but Park doesn’t answer for him, either. “Well, you have to admit, the two of us are probably the last people he wants to hear from. I’ll try Lindsey. She might know where he is.”

“Perry, wait. I don’t want to drag her into this until we have to. Legally, she might find something that we’re missing and be obligated to report things before we get answers.”

He takes a huge, deep breath, looks around as if he’s seeing the room for the first time.

“It’s pretty here.”

“If you can call a construction zone pretty, yes. It is. It’s going to be lovely when I’m done. Very beach chic. It’s a new direction for me.”

“I like it.”

That crooked smile breaks her apart inside. “I’m glad. Since you’re here, can I borrow your strong back?”

“What?”

She rubs her collar bone. “Still a little sore, and I have a delivery today. I was going to get help from the store, but since you’re here...”

Perry’s face darkens. He’s still upset, and she can’t blame him. But she also isn’t willing to drive off the cliff of throwing Park to the wolves, either.

“I know,” he says, quietly.

“You know what?”