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obviously finished. “You want a piece now?”
    She smiled up at me, one of
those smiles that says I have the best
daughter in the whole world. I smiled back,
pleased. That was just the reaction I’d wanted. It wouldn’t do
anybody any good for her to worry about me. It just made both of
our lives harder. So I’d do what I had to in order to make sure
that she didn’t. It was the least I could do.
    I dished us both up a huge piece of
apple pie and topped it with ice cream, caramel and just a dash of
cinnamon sugar. While I ate it, I was temporarily transported away
from all my troubles. Sweets had always had that magical affect on
me. It’s a mysterious yet beautiful thing. It’s a wonder I didn’t
weigh three hundred pounds. So far I’d been lucky, though, and was
blessed with a petite figure.
    When we had both practically licked our
bowls, I cleaned up the dishes for good measure. By the time I went
to my room, Mom was seated on the end of the couch near the
recliner, basking in the perfection of her life and her family. And
that’s the way I wanted it to stay.
    Despite the dark cloud that had
followed me around all day, I managed to fall asleep quickly. I had
just drifted into a dream about Jake and Detective Grayson
competing against one another at a track meet when a pounding at my
door woke me.
    “ Mercy,” Dad said softly
from the other side of the panel. “Mercy!” He called louder when I
didn’t answer right away.
    “ What?”
    The door opened and Dad poked his head
into my room. “Do you know a girl named Lisa Bauer?”
    I shot straight up in bed, my heart
dropping into my stomach like a ball of lead. “Yes.
Why?”
    “ She’s on the news. Her body
was found in the river. It was trapped in some debris along the
shore almost eighteen miles downstream.”
    I felt lightheaded and strangely numb,
like I was still dreaming. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped that
was the case, but the faces of Jake and Detective Grayson didn’t
return and when I opened my eyes, my dad was still at the door with
a worried expression on his face.
    “ When did they find her
body?”
    “ Just have. I guess maybe an
hour or so ago. You know how quick the news people pick up on stuff
like this.” Dad pushed the door open wider and stepped inside to
sit on the end of my bed. “How well did you know her?”
    “ Not very well. I had a
class with her and saw her around campus, stuff like that.” I said
as vaguely as I could, trying to hide my distress from him. “D-Do
they know what happened to her?”
    “ They haven’t said. I’m sure
they won’t release cause of death until after the coroner’s had a
chance to look the body over.”
    “ Are they sure it’s
her?”
    Dad shrugged. “I guess. I doubt they’d
announce it if they didn’t have some kind of positive
identification.”
    I nodded pensively, my mind spinning
off in a thousand directions at once. I didn’t know what to say,
didn’t know what to do. I’d put off helping her too long and now it
really was too late.
    It was suddenly hard to breathe. That
crushing realization settled on my shoulders, on my heart and
lungs, like a thousand-pound weight. I had to get up and move
around so I pushed my covers aside and stood up. “I guess it’s all
over the news?”
    Dad nodded.
    “ I’ll watch it with you for
a while if you don’t care,” I said, heading toward the door.
Silently, Dad got up to follow me. I walked into the living room
and sat down in Mom’s spot on the couch; she’d gone to bed long
ago, I’m sure. She was a bank teller and, even though she could
sleep a little later, for some reason she consistently got up at
the crack of dawn anyway.
    As Dad moved to the
recliner, he stopped in front of it, leaning over to kiss me on the
forehead. Ahh, I
thought. Now I get it. He’s sympathizing with Lisa’s parents. He
was glad it wasn’t his daughter they’d just pulled from the Potomac.
    I knew my parents would be excessively
protective of