Page 142 of Forever Dark
Selena crushed the empty can lightly in one hand, handed it to Arnold, and moved to the driver’s side door.She got in and started the engine.Headlights washed over the station front and the parking lot in front of it.
Arnold lifted a hand in farewell.
Connor did not.
He just stood there.
Selena eased the car into reverse, glanced once over her shoulder, then looked in the rearview mirror as she pulled away.
Arnold had already gone back inside.
Connor remained where she had left him, alone now, still in front of the sheriff’s department with the building rising behind him and the night sky above his head, standing there as if part of the town itself.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Selena almost drove straight back to the Wilson Motel.
The thought came to her at every turn.Take the familiar route.Pack the last of her things.Shower.Sleep badly for a few hours.Leave Harlan County before breakfast, before the town had time to make any more claims on her.
That would have been easier.
For years, easier had been her specialty where home was concerned.Distance.Work.Short calls she could end with a meeting excuse.Cards mailed late.Apologies folded into holidays and birthdays, never into ordinary days when they might have meant more.
The case was over now.Nolan Pruitt was in custody.A man who would answer for his crimes, at least as much as the law could make anyone answer.Connor was okay.
Selena should have felt lighter.
Instead, as the night settled over Harlan County, she felt the weight of all the things she had been too busy surviving to face.
She turned left at the next intersection.
The road took her through Elmsview.
The houses came in scattered at first, porch lights appearing between trees, then closer together as she reached the old residential streets.Most windows were dark.A television flickered blue behind one curtain.Somewhere a dog gave a short bark and then thought better of it.The town had gone quiet in the way small towns did after a long day, as if every house had folded itself inward.
Selena drove slower than she needed to.
When her father’s street came into view, her hands tightened on the wheel.
The white-shingled house sat beneath the big maple, exactly where it had always been and not exactly the same at all.Time had settled into the siding and the porch rail and the steps.A soft yellow light burned in the front room.Another glowed over the porch, drawing moths into its cone.
The swing stood in the yard, half hidden beneath the spread of branches.
Selena parked at the curb and shut off the engine.
For a while, she did not move.
She could see herself at eight years old on that swing, hands wrapped around the chains, legs pumping as hard as she could while Diane yelled that she was going too high.Their mother had called from the porch for them to stop fighting.Robert had stood in the yard pretending to judge who had the better form, though he always found a way to call it a draw.
A life could feel whole from a distance.Then you walked closer and saw where the weather had gotten in.
Selena stepped out of the car.
The night air was cool against her face.She crossed the front path, climbed the porch steps, and stopped at the door.Her knuckles hovered over the wood for a second longer than they should have.
Then she knocked.
Something moved inside.A chair creaked.Slow footsteps came across the floor.
