You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

them.
    “She’d had a few drinks at dinner, you know? So Ryan drove her back to her apartment in her car and left it there for her. She says she hates herself for letting him walk home at that hour. Just thinking of it makes her want to die. What do you say to that? To your little girl saying she wants to die?”
    “She doesn’t mean it, Teddy.”
    “I only had sons, all off to college and beyond. Not a flipper in the bunch. So Hailey’s special to me. She’s like my own.”
    Teddy peered into the beer can as if looking for something.
    Katie waited, hoping Eric would offer a soothing phrase. It took a long ten, twenty seconds. For a crazy moment, she was afraid he was going to ask Teddy when he was coming back to the gym.
    “Hailey’s strong, Teddy,” Eric said, at last. “She’ll get through this.”
    “Sure,” he said, with a hint of his usual buoyancy and vigor. “Sure she will.”
    Eric glanced over at the house as if looking for her.
    “It’s hard not to think of doing things different, though,” Teddy said, pulling on his ball cap. “I had my worries about him.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Katie moved over to the screen door, so close her earlobe pressed against its mesh.
    “Drugs. He was just a kid. An arrest for possession, no charges filed. Petty stuff.” Listening, Katie felt her eyebrows lift in surprise. “But it makes you wonder. I always had one eye on him. For Hailey.”
    “You have to be that way,” Eric said, shifting in his chair. “You have to protect them.”
    Teddy nodded, pointing a finger at Eric, like That’s right, that’s right .
    “We do. And like my own granddad used to say, if you get down to the nub of it, people don’t change.”
    That’s not true, Katie thought. Not at all. Everyone changed, all the time. That was what was so hard.
    As if sensing her at the screen door, Eric waved her outside eagerly.
    She walked over and when Teddy looked up at her, she could see the measure and breadth of his face under the bug-eyed security light, a look of such weariness, hollowed-out dismay.
    With both hands, she grabbed for one of his massive shoulders, rubbed it. She’d never seen Coach T.—or any of the strong, durable, steadfast men she’d known—like this.
    “Oh, Katie, thank you, honey,” he said, smiling up at her. “I’m sorry to be taking up your night. Sorry to be…”
    His voice drifted helplessly into nothingness, and Katie felt her eyes filling, though it was too dark for anyone to see.
      
    It was after ten, Eric and Teddy still talking outside, when Katie peeked behind her daughter’s half-open door. At her desk, Devon was leaning over her book, Physics Principles and Problems , brow wrinkled, face close enough to touch the pages.
    “It’s all so strange, Mom,” she said, not lifting her head, her earbuds dangling. Katie hadn’t even realized she’d seen her at the door.
    “Which part?” Katie said, stepping inside quickly.
    “Everyone at the gym was saying things today.” Devon looked up, her earbuds sliding off. “I hope Coach hasn’t heard what they’re saying.”
    “What do you mean? About Ryan?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “Is it true the police are interviewing people?”
    “What?” Katie said. Interviewing people . This was new. “That’s their job, honey. Who told you that?”
    “I don’t know. Lacey Weaver, I think. I was trying not to listen.” She flexed her thumbs, staring down at them. “I’ve completely lost my double Yurchenko. My turnaround is pathetic. There was just so much noise.”
    “People are going to gossip. Don’t listen. Just keep your focus. Like you always do.”
    “That’s what Dad said.”
    “You already talked to him about this?” Feeling a twinge.
    “Yeah.” She tapped her highlighter on the edge of her desk for a second. “He said he saw the spot it happened. On Ash Road.”
    Katie looked at her. “He told you that?”
    “He seemed freaked out by it. Is he okay, Mom?”
    Katie