“I did. ”
“Not by yourself, I hope. ”
“Not by myself, no. ”
She let loose a half-smile and took another drink. “Went down there with that Nick guy, didn’t you?”
I had no reason to deny it, so I pulled up one of the wooden deck chairs and made myself comfortable. “Yeah, I did. I thought maybe he’d heard a few extra details, so I called him up. He wasn’t helpful, but I went down there with him while he shot some film for the 5:30 show. We took a look around. ”
“Find anything helpful?”
“How do you mean?”
She crossed her legs and leaned back. “Useful, I mean. Clues, or whatever. ”
“Why do you do this?”
“Do what?”
“You get weird every time the subject of me moving out comes up. You bugged me to get my own place for ages, then when I
picked one—well, anyway. You get weird when it comes to the North Shore apartments. ”
“I do?”
“You know you do, and I want to know why. Is it because you used to live down there, back when you were a kid?”
She didn’t wince, or flinch. But her posture changed. She hardened. “Who told you we used to live down there?”
I couldn’t remember. “You told me,” I said, because it was likely to be true. “Or I overheard it somewhere. You lived over near Frasier, back in North Chatt, up in the hills—right?”
Lu flashed me a face like she’d just bit into a lemon. “Up in the hills. Sure. Up there. Back on Tremont. In that area, anyway. ”
“Where?”
“Don’t bother looking for it. That house burned down fifteen years ago. It burned down not long after my mother left it. ”
“Where was it?”
“Oh, hell,” she said. “Over there—not far from where the gas station is. Up Tremont a little ways, but not far. In that strip where now they’ve got little businesses in those old houses. You know. Florists and the like. ”
“Not far from the river. ”
“Not far from the river. ” She was still subtly rigid. She was trying not to look tense, and it wasn’t working. “But that was a long time ago. ”
“Did it ever flood back then? I know the river used to flood sometimes, even after the TVA got a foothold here. I was just wondering, since you were so close to the river. ”
“Sometimes, it flooded. ”
“Sometimes?”
She dipped her glass and her head. “Once or twice. ”
“What was it like?”
Lu set her glass down on the small patio table beside her. “Are you fishing for something, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what. ” In the backyard, the rain came splattering down—surrounding us with curtains of water. It felt isolated and quiet, despite the drumming white noise.