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Kathryn whispered in her nightclub voice. She wrote PR for a man who managed singers and considered herself in showbiz. “ Finding it, I mean? Those tiny bones and all. ”
    Luke looked at Penny as if he was waiting for something, and as if he, too, was annoyed, but why should he be pissed with her? She wasn ’ t doing anything but standing there.
    She realized she was clutching the gold chain that held her heart-amulet. Maybe that ’ s what annoyed him — her standing there looking like a nun saying her beads. Her bead.
    Luke still frowned.
    She should never have come to this place, never believed she could change her life, never believed in Luke. But he ’ d encouraged her. It wasn ’ t fair, wasn ’ t fair at all.
    “ I mean, ” Kathryn went on in her sleepy, throaty voice, “ most people would have left them. The bones, I mean. Not recognized them for what they were. I certainly wouldn ’ t have! ” Her tiny cute-girl laugh put Penny ’ s teeth on edge.
    They didn ’ t want her, didn ’ t count her as a person with a mind and opinions. She was tired of acid scalding her midsection, sick of fighting back tears.
    She ’ d show them. “ I ’ m the one who found the bones, ” she said. Luke and Kathryn looked startled, and Alicia and Toto craned their necks around to look at her. As if they ’ d absolutely forgotten she was there. “ If you don ’ t believe me, ” Penny said, glaring, “ ask Luke. ”
    Gary pursed his lips. Wrong name again, but she didn ’ t care.
    “ I was the one who knew that was the skeleton of a hand. Luke thought the bones were the roots of something. They were very small and brown, you see, from the earth. Not all connected. ” She pulled out an extra chair and sat down on it and folded her arms over her chest. Now. A little respect.
    Having heard this person they treated like a doorstop speak their language made them mute with shock. Even Luke. Especially Luke, who took a deep breath, tilted his chair back, stared at the kitchen ceiling, then righted himself and looked at her again and sighed.
    “ What? ” she finally asked. “ What did I do? ” She regretted the question as soon as it was out her mouth — it sounded so babyish, so like Wesley.
    “ It appears you ’ ve changed your mind. Decided not to keep your involvement a secret anymore, ” Luke said.
    He sounded like he was accusing her of something. “ My ‘ involvement ’ ? ”
    Maybe he was using that heavy solemn language as a joke, a setup. Maybe he was finally about to pull her into the group. Her only involvement was him.
    “ Given that you ’ ve gone public, ” he said, waving his hands to the “ public ” seated at the table, “ the logical next step is to go to the police about your necklace. ”
    He ’ d spoken in a too-calm voice, as if dealing with a child, a wild beast, or an insane person. When he was around them, he was just like the rest of them. And he acted like he didn ’ t remember who she was and didn ’ t know why she couldn ’ t do what he wanted.
    “ You mean the heart? ” she asked, grasping it with one hand.
    He nodded. “ Now that they ’ ve found another body — or what ’ s left of it. A grown-up this time. A woman. A logical person to have owned that heart. Now, I feel like … I feel just as much to blame — it wasn ’ t all your fault, but we should have said something then. ”
    Blame. Fault. Wasn ’ t all your fault, like a big chunk of it — of something — definitely was. The words spun in her head. She could barely see straight. Everything was wrong and upside down. “ Why? ” she asked.
    Toto emptied a small bag of corn chips into his hand. “ That ’ s what you ’ re talking about? That thing on your chain? ”
    “ Penny found it near the child ’ s skeleton. The heart, not the chain. We were looking to see if there was more jewelry there when we found the bones, ” Luke said.
    “ Maybe a relative could identify the dead woman by that