Pip sat at the end of her parents’ bed, well into the night. Her and her story. The telling of it was almost as hard as the living of it.
But the worst part would be telling Cara. By ten p.m. Pip knew she couldn’t avoid it anymore. She hovered her thumb over the call button, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t say the words and listen as her best friend’s world fell apart. Pip wished she was strong enough, but this would break her too. She opened her messages instead and started to type:
I should be calling to tell you this, but I don’t think I could get through it, not with your voice at the other end. This is the coward’s way out and I’m so sorry. Your dad was the one who killed Sal, Cara. He was keeping a girl he thought was Andie Bell in your old house in New Canaan, and he was just arrested. Naomi will be safe, though, I promise. I know why he did it when you’re ready to hear it. I’m so sorry. I wish I could save you from this. I love you.
She’d read it over, still in her parents’ bed, and pressed send, tears falling against the phone as she cradled it in her cupped hands.
Her mom made breakfast when Pip finally woke up at ten-thirty. They didn’t talk about it again; there was nothing more to say, not yet. But still the question of Andie Bell played on Pip’s mind; Andie somehow had one last mystery left in her.
Pip tried to call Cara seventeen times, but it rang out each time. Naomi’s phone too.
Early afternoon her mom stopped by the Wards’ house after picking up Josh. She came back saying that no one was home and their car was gone.
“They’ve probably gone to their aunt Lila’s,” Pip said, pressing redial again.
No one quite knew what to do with the afternoon. They sat in the living room, silently watching reruns of quiz shows, exchanging furtive looks over Josh’s head, the air bloated with a sad what-now tension.
When someone knocked at the front door, Pip jumped up to escape the strangeness that smothered the room. Still in her tie-dyed pajamas, she pulled open the door.
It was Ravi, standing in front of his parents, the spaces between them perfect, like they’d prearranged the pose.
“Hello, Sarge,” Ravi said. “This is my mom, Nisha.” He gestured like a game-show host, and his mom smiled at Pip, her black hair in two loose plaits. “And my dad, Mohan.” His dad nodded, and his chin brushed the top of the giant bouquet of flowers he held; a box of chocolates was tucked under the other arm. “Parents,” Ravi said, “this is the Pip.”
Pip’s polite hello got muddled in with theirs.
“So,” Ravi said, “they called us in to the police station earlier. They sat us down and told us everything, everything we already knew. And they said they’d be holding a press conference once they charge Mr. Ward and will release a statement about Sal’s innocence.”
Pip heard her mom and heavy-footed dad walking up the hallway to stand behind her. Ravi redid the introductions and continued. “So,” he said, “we wanted to come over to thank you, Pip. This wouldn’t have happened without you.”
“I don’t quite know what to say,” Nisha said, her Ravi-Sal eyes beaming. “Because of what the two of you did, you and Ravi, we have our boy back. You’ve given Sal back to us, and there are no words for how much that means.”
“These are for you,” Mohan said, leaning forward and handing over the flowers and chocolates to Pip. “I’m sorry, we weren’t quite sure what you’re supposed to get for someone who’s helped vindicate your dead son.”
“Google had very few suggestions,” said Ravi.
“Thank you,” Pip said. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yes, do come in,” her mom said, “I’ll make some coffee.”
As Ravi stepped into the house, he took Pip’s arm and pulled her back into a lingering hug, crushing the flowers between them, laughing into her hair. When he let her go, Nisha stepped up and folded her into a hug as well; her sweet perfume smelled to Pip like homes and mothers and summer evenings. And then, not sure why or how it happened, they were all embracing, all six of them swapping and hugging again, laughing with tears in their eyes.
And just like that, with crushed flowers and a rotation of hugs, the Singhs took away the suffocating and confused sadness that had taken over the house. They’d opened the door and let out the ghost, for at least a little while. Because there was one happy ending in all of this: Sal was innocent. His family set free from the weight they’d carried all these years. And that was worth hanging on to.
In the living room they sat around a full spread of sandwiches that Pip’s mom had improvised, batting Josh’s hand away until Ravi’s parents had taken their pick.
“So,” her dad said, “are you going to the carnival opening tonight?”
“Actually,” Nisha said, looking from her husband to her son, “I think we should go this year. It’ll be the first time since…you know. But things are different now. This is the start of things being different.”
“Yeah,” Ravi said. “I’d like to go. You can never really see the fireworks from our house.”
“Awesome,” Pip’s dad said, clapping his hands. “We could meet you there? Let’s say seven-thirty, by the drinks stand?”
Pip wasn’t sure she was ready to be around all those people and the questions in their eyes.
“I’ll go brew another pot,” she said, picking up empty mugs and carrying them into the kitchen.
She stared at her warped reflection in the chrome surface of the coffee maker until a distorted Ravi appeared in it behind her.
“You’re being quiet,” he said. “What’s going on in that big brain of yours? Actually, I don’t even need to ask. I already know what you’re going to say. It’s Andie.”
“I can’t pretend it’s over,” she said. “It’s not finished.”
“Pip, listen to me. You’ve done what you set out to do. We know Sal was innocent and what happened to him.”
“But we don’t know what happened to Andie. After she left the Wards’ house that night, she still disappeared.”
“It’s not your job anymore, Pip,” he said. “The police have reopened Andie’s case. Let them do the rest. You’ve done enough.”
“I know,” she said, and it wasn’t a lie. She was tired. She needed to be free of all this, needed the weight on her shoulders to just be her own. And that last Andie Bell mystery wasn’t hers to chase anymore.
Ravi was right; their part was over.