Page 160 of String Boys

“You didn’t kill Castor Durant,” he said. And saying it out loud, when he knew it was the truth, did exactly what Seth said it would.

It set him free.

“I thought I did,” Seth told him soberly. “For eight and a half years, I thought I did.”

“What…?” Craig Arnold’s voice was broken. “I thought you did too. Oh God, son. What… what changed your mind?”

“Matty,” Seth said, looking at Rivers. “He told me what he wrote you. Do you want me to say it?”

Rivers nodded. “I think everybody here needs to hear it.”

“You were right,” Seth said to Kelly. “At the ocean, when you said what you thought happened. You were right. Matty didn’t mean to sic Durant on us.”

“Durant was bullying him,” Kelly said. “Every day.”

“Yeah. And then Matty got high and let it slip, like you thought. About us. That we were together. And they went after you that night, and Matty—he felt like shit. So I was going to warn Castor Durant to stay away from your family, and so was Matty. But Matty left just a little later. By the time he got to the field, Castor was reaching for his knife, and I was almost dead. Castor didn’t even look behind him, and Matty grabbed the knife out of his hand and….”

Seth’s face screwed up, tightened.

“And he slit Durant’s throat,” Kelly finished, thinking,Of course. Of course. Oh God. Matty. My brother. What did you do?

“Yeah,” Rivers said from the couch. “The thing in the bubble mailer? That your sister sent? That was the murder weapon, the one we couldn’t find. It was covered in Durant’s blood. Kryzinski here had it tested after he opened the mailer. Matty told the same story you did, but he confessed. To everything. And he sent us the knife, with his prints and his blood—because his hand slipped on the knife—and with Durant’s. He said he was dying. He wanted Seth here to not have to worry anymore. Said he’d been unable to come home, not for any length of time, because he’d been afraid he’d be charged with murder.”

Kelly framed Seth’s face with his trembling hands. “You couldn’t kill anybody,” he said softly. “I always knew. I always knew—”

Behind them, Craig burst into hard, barking sobs.

“Dad?” Seth said, capturing Kelly’s hand but turning toward his father. Linda followed, burying her head in Craig’s neck. Seth took an unsteady step toward them, and they were suddenly both up and out of the chair, holding him, making him the center when he’d been the outsider for so long.

“Oh God. Seth… my son. All that you’d been through, and I never knew—”

“Oh, baby,” Linda said, kissing his temple hard. “You’ve been so alone.”

They surrounded him, crying, holding him, and Kelly was glad. He’d had counselors and family, telling him he’d be okay.

Seth had Kelly, and the string of their love that they’d clung to so tightly it had sometimes cut their hands.

THE PARENTSeventually calmed down, sinking back onto the chair where Craig held Kelly’s mom so hard, Kelly was surprised she could breathe.

“Is that all?” Kelly asked, holding Seth’s hand again as Seth sat on the arm of his chair. In the back bedroom, X-man let out a whimper, and Kelly gave thanks to Lily, who’d given up her seat at the show to give him a bottle and settle him down.

She came back in as he thought about what had just transpired, her arms empty, Xavier in the porta crib near Kelly’s old bed, probably. Lulu was feeding Chloe a sandwich at the table, her eyes focused on the people in the living room as if she had to take a test on them in the morning.

“We would like to make an announcement in the press clearing up the case,” Kryzinski said. “So Seth is no longer under suspicion. Someone will probably want to interview you, Seth—”

“No,” Seth said, looking around. “Can’t Isela come back and take the children away?”

“Isela Cruz was killed by Tim Owens, in August,” Rivers said, surprising them all badly.

“The Dirty/Pretty killer?” Craig asked. Well, he did love his detective shows, and had a penchant for true crime. When that sort of thing popped up in his hometown, he would pay attention—but victim’s names weren’t always released immediately.

“Yes.” Jackson breathed out slowly, and Kelly remembered him saying he’d been in the hospital. It had been big news—he’d taken out the Dirty/Pretty killer, with Ellery Cramer at his side. Damn.

“She can’t ask for the kids back,” Cramer said softly, and Kelly wondered that nobody in the room even tried to grieve. Whatever her separate griefs, the Cruz family hadn’t known her, and she hadn’t been part of them. “And that’s another reason I’m here,” Cramer continued, and away with Isela, unlamented—not even her father had bothered to tell them she’d died. “I don’t do family court, but I have connections who do. Matty said in his letter that he wanted to make sure nobody could take the children away from Kelly and Seth. He seemed to think you’d be together for a while?” He tried to smile hopefully, but he just managed to look skeptical.

“We’re getting married,” Kelly said defiantly. “After Christmas. Before he goes back to New York to get us a house.”

Rivers grinned. “The full-scale happy—I’m impressed.”