“It was great to meet you,” Matt said. “Have a great time at the wedding.”

“You obviously haven’t seen the bridesmaid dresses.” She paused as if she were pondering something. “Hey, I won’t be surprised if our hotel has an opening. My brother booked a block of rooms and a couple people canceled last minute. I can drive you.”

“I don’t want to put you out.”

“You won’t be. Let’s call it a random act of kindness,” Hank said. “But I’ll warn you, it’s an eco hotel. My brother’s fiancée is an earthy type—vegan, environmentalist, self-righteous.”

Matt thought about his friend Sofia. “I love that type. And you know the first rule of Vegan Club, right?”

Hank shook her head.

“Tell everyone about Vegan Club.”

She laughed.

Matt dropped into the passenger seat. Hank drove down the gravel road, veering around people on old bicycles, past storefronts covered in graffiti and open-air food stands. After a while, the road turned desolate—the only light the weak beams from the rental car, thick forest on either side of them.

“You weren’t kidding about this place being in the middle of nowhere,” Matt said, breaking the quiet.

Hank gave him a quick smile.

Matt reached for his phone. She seemed to know where she was going, but he thought he’d look up the hotel. She said it was on the beach, but they seemed to be heading into a rural area away from the ocean.

“Shit,” he said.

“What is it?” Hank looked at him, but turned her eyes quickly back to the dark road.

“My phone, I must’ve left it at the bar.” Matt searched his pockets, then dug through the duffel, yanking out his clothes and the newspaper Keller had given him. Without a phone, he’d be screwed.

He started looking around the car somewhat frantically. “Would you mind pulling over?”

Hank hesitated. “We’re almost there,” she said.

“Please,” he said.

Hank slowed the car and parked on the gravel shoulder.

She turned on the car’s interior lights as Matt opened the passenger door, stepped outside, and crouched low, looking on the floorboards and under the seat. Why was he such an idiot with phones?

He climbed back inside and sat next to Hank, defeated. He was about to ask her to take him back to the bar when he noticed she was staring intently at the New York Times story, studying the photos of Matt and his family.

Hank looked at him. “This is—wait—this is why you’re here? This is your family?”

Matt gave a tiny shrug.

She looked at the newspaper again and back at Matt. “Oh my god.” She had a faraway look in her eyes.

“Sorry,” Matt said. “I would’ve told you—I just didn’t want to put a damper on the night.”

She looked out at the lights approaching from down the long strip of road.

Something was different. It wasn’t pity or sadness.

It was panic.

She reached under her seat, then shoved something in his hand. A phone.

His phone.

“You took my … I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t sign up for this.” She looked up the road. The headlights were getting closer. “You need to get out,” she said.

“Here?” Matt said, totally confused. He looked out into the gloom.

She leaned over, tugged at the door handle, and shoved open his door.

“Run,” she said, the other car getting closer. Then louder: “Run!”

So that’s what he did.

Excerpt from

A Violent Nature

Season 1/Episode 6

“What Was Lost”

EXT. DAY – RURAL ROAD

A mail truck plods down the road. It stops at a circular patch of land with mailboxes lining the perimeter. CINDY FORD gets out of the truck and stuffs mail into a box.

CINDY

After Danny’s trial, my sister and her family moved to Chicago. Liv and Evan lost most of their friends, and they had to sell the house to pay for the lawyer. But I think they probably would’ve stuck it out if it weren’t for their kids getting teased at school. Matt got into a fight one day and that was it—they packed up and moved.

Cindy points to several dirt roads that jut out of the circular patch of land.

CINDY

They call this area “the Hub.” One of the roads leads to the creek, where they found Charlotte. Another leads to my sister’s old house, which is why they thought Danny was involved, I suppose. But there’s a bunch of other roads, one that leads to the highway, others take you to about a dozen houses. And if you cut around those bushes, there’s an opening called “the Knoll,” a make-out spot for teenagers. If someone was looking to go after a teenage girl, all they’d have to do is lie in wait.

A run-down muscle car tears out from one of the roads, music blaring, dust flying. Teenagers scream out the window, and an empty beer can hits the side of the mail truck.

CINDY

Why didn’t I leave too? Someone needed to stay to take care of our dad. And it’s not usually like this. The kids have just been showin’ off since you all arrived with your cameras. Maybe you could do me a favor and turn off your camera for a minute.

In the distance, the muscle car has doubled back and is racing toward the Hub. Cindy leans inside the mail truck and retrieves what looks like a jar full of nails. She walks to the road and empties the jar.

CINDY

You deliver people’s mail, you learn a lot about them, and I’ll tell you, most of the people round here have no room to judge anybody. And if you try to run me outta my own town, it’s gonna cost you, and it’ll be a helluva lot more than four new tires.

CHAPTER 20

OLIVIA PINE

BEFORE

“Please, Mommy, I’ve gotta go.”

Liv looked in the rearview of the rental car. Tommy was wiggling around in the car seat, making a show of grabbing himself to let her know he was serious.

“We’re almost to Aunt Cindy’s house. Do you think you can make it, buddy?”

Liv had just hit Main Street in Adair, Nebraska. It hadn’t changed. As promised, it was a main strip with a hardware store, a diner, an old-time movie theater, a drugstore. Adair wasn’t a depressed farming community like many in the Heartland. Most of the town worked at Adair Irrigation, the country’s largest manufacturer of water management systems. A factory town surrounded by cornfields.

They’d left Adair under the cloud of Danny’s conviction. It had been a quiet ostracism, fueled more by whispers than overt scorn. But then Netflix released the documentary, and the whole country seemed to turn on Adair, revitalizing and intensifying the town’s contempt for the Pines. The last thing Liv wanted was to stop anywhere she’d be recognized. But based on Tommy’s red face and squirming, she had no choice. She knew Parker’s Grocery had a public restroom, so she veered into the lot.

“I’m stopping, jelly bean. Hang on.” The store had a new sign but was otherwise the same as when Liv was a girl. Her father would take her to Parker’s every Saturday to buy candy, at least until the cavities sprouted and her mom put an end to it.

Holding Tommy’s hand, she walked quickly inside. Liv’s stomach clenched when she saw the woman behind the register. Danielle Parker hadn’t changed much either. Still heavyset with eyes that were too close together, and a perpetual scowl. Liv walked head down to the back of the store to the public restrooms, Tommy trying to keep up with her long strides. She clasped the restroom door handle, but it was locked. Of course it was.

“Wait here, sweetie. I need to get the key.”

“Quickly, pleaassse,” he said, nearly bursting.

Liv went back to the counter. “Hello,” she said, forcing a smile. “Could we have the key to the restroom, please? My son is about to have an—”

“Bathroom is for payin’ customers only.”

Liv paused a beat. She looked Danielle in those narrow eyes. With no time for a standoff, Liv jammed her hand into a large plastic container near the register, removed a fistful of hard candy, and dropped the colorful assortment on the counter.

“Five-dollar minimum,” Danielle said.

Liv was about to lose it, but she looked back and saw Tommy doing a pee dance. “How much is the whole container?” Liv asked, gesturing to the plastic jug of candy.

Danielle made a face like she was doing a complicated math problem in her head. “Twenty bucks,” she said.

Liv dug into her handbag and smacked a twenty down. “Can I have the key please?”

Taking her sweet time, the clerk retrieved a key that was connected by a string to a large plastic slab, and slid it across the counter.

Liv snatched it up and rushed to the bathroom. She unlocked the door, and Tommy ran inside, yanking down the front of his pants and squirting indiscriminately until making it to the bowl.

When he was done, he let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Feel better?”