Chapter 21: Eli's POV: The Barn

Eli's POV

We drove out to the lake house that afternoon, with the iron key on the dashboard between us.

Neither of us said much. Maia had her feet up on the seat and her arms around her knees, still in the green dress.

The barn stood behind the house, gray and low, with a padlock on the door.

I had never once gone near it.

I put the key in. It turned the way a key turns when somebody has oiled the lock every year.

That told me more about Eldon than anything he had ever said.

The door swung inward, and the smell hit me.

Cold ash. Old gasoline. Rusted metal.

My knees nearly went.

Maia's hand slid into mine and held on.

"I'm here," she said. "Look at it. Or don't. We can go."

"I want to look."

The tarp had been thrown over the shape in the middle of the floor. I took the corner of it and pulled.

It came off in a long, slow slide, and dust drifted up in the light from the door.

It was a gray sedan.

The roof was crushed on the passenger side and the paint was black along one flank.

The back door hung by one hinge.

The frame around that door was scorched a deep rust color.

I put my left hand on it.

The scar on my arm didn't burn. It hadn't in years.

"This is where I got you out," I said.

"I know."

"I used to see it every night, every second of it. Now it's only a car."

She stepped up beside me and put her palm on the metal over mine.

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