Page 49

Moscow, Idaho

“Cooper?” he says groggily to the guy who climbed up the ladder to his sleeping loft and is prodding him.

Cooper Atkinson, an older Sig Chi brother who recruited him and Ethan, is standing there, visibly agitated.

“Hunter, wake up. There are cops on King Road.”

Huh?

Hunter doesn’t see what the big deal is. The King Road house is a notorious party house because of the deck in the back. The cops are always being called by a neighbor angered by the noise.

Hunter sees that the university has sent out a campus-wide alert about an unconscious person. But he still isn’t worried. Maybe Xana or one of the other roommates over-imbibed on game day. It wouldn’t be the first time someone passed out from drinking.

But Cooper drags Hunter out of bed, and the two make the short walk across the lower field to the house.

As they get near, Hunter can see their usual gang sitting on the sidewalk: Emily, Hunter Johnson, Josie, Linden, Dylan, Bethany.

Where’s Ethan? he wonders.

Oh . He answers his own question: Ethan is probably helping the cops inside. He’ll be helping whoever is in difficulty. That would be typical of Ethan. Xana’s not on the sidewalk either, so maybe the person who needs help is Ethan’s own girlfriend.

Hunter scarcely notices that Cooper leaves his side once he catches up to his group of friends on the sidewalk.

Because there’s something in his friends’ faces that tells him that the world has just ended.

They don’t speak. They just hug him.

Hunter is afraid to say anything, but then Hunter Johnson gently motions for him to follow him to a nearby dumpster. When they are alone, Hunter Chapin plucks up the courage to ask, “What’s going on? Like, where’s Ethan? Is he helping whoever’s inside?”

Hunter Johnson speaks softly: “Ethan’s not here anymore.”

Hunter Chapin doesn’t comprehend the words.

“What do you mean, ‘Ethan’s not here anymore’? Like, where did he go?”

“Your brother’s dead.”

Dead?

Hunter Chapin can’t feel anything. How can this be happening?

How on earth can Ethan, whom he last saw in the early hours of this morning, be dead?

Hunter Johnson continues: “I think—I don’t know—we think Xana, Ethan, Kaylee, and Maddie were all murdered last night.”

Murdered? Ethan? Xana? Kaylee and Maddie?

Hunter Chapin is so dizzy he has to sit down.

Ordinarily, he’d tell the other Hunter he’s out of his mind. To stop with such a cruel joke.

But ordinarily, there isn’t yellow police tape around the house and a swarm of cops moving in and out and not speaking to the little circle of sobbing kids.

For maybe fifteen minutes, Hunter Chapin is mute. They all are. No one knows what to say.

He can’t process this. He can’t deal. He has spent almost every minute of his entire life with his triplet brother.

Ethan has been his leader, his role model.

His brother has entered every room, every game, every contest, one step ahead of him but also with his hand stretched out toward him. Ethan is Hunter’s entire world.

Now he’s gone? Murdered?

He has no idea what to do. What to say to his sister, his mom, his dad. He doesn’t want to speak to the cops—and it seems they don’t want to speak to the kids. The police avert their gaze as they go in and out of the house.

Eventually Hunter speaks.

For the first time in his life, he has to dig deep and find Ethan’s spirit within him.