Page 91 of Dark Roads
“I’ll say he talked about you.”
“Yeah, okay, that’s good.” We didn’t have much time. I got to my feet and ran down the hall. Three rooms. One looked like storage with cardboard boxes, one was a spare bedroom with a small bed, and the last one was an office of sorts with a filing cabinet and a desk. On top of the desk I found an iPad. I searched around but I couldn’t find a computer. I’d never seen him with a laptop at the diner. I had to hope the iPad was all he used for recording security video.
Back in the living room, I opened the front door. No sirens yet. I stood on a crate on the porch and ripped the security camera off the wall. It left a few small holes, but the cops wouldn’t know for sure what had been there.
Beth was slumped in that ugly blanket. I crouched in front of her.
“I need his cell phone. Did you see him with it?”
“I can’t remember.”
“I’ll check the garage before I leave.” I walked to the door and looked back at her. “You’ll be okay. The ambulance will be here soon.”
“I’ve never seen where Amber died. The ditch.”
“Okay…” I stared at her, one hand still on the door handle. She was mumbling, and I worried that she was going into worse shock. Some sort of concussion side effect.
“I know there’s a cross,” she said. “But I couldn’t go there. Why do people do that? She was dumped there like a piece ofgarbage.” She was holding my gaze like she wanted me to make sense of it all, but I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t good at those sorts of conversations.
“I think it helps them.”
“Helps?” She choked a bitter laugh. “What could it help?”
“They want her to know she isn’t forgotten.”
Her eyes filled with fresh tears and she swallowed, then winced. “They didn’t even know her.”
I bowed my head, nodded because it didn’t matter what I said. She was exhausted, in pain, and there was nothing that was going to fix those wounds. Sirens trilled in the distance.
“I have to go.”
She looked at up at me. “Be careful.”
“Of what? We killed the big bad wolf.” I made a face at her, then dashed out the door and sprinted toward the garage. I found Mason’s cell phone in his back pocket. His body was cooling, his eyes turned blindly to the side, the blood a wide black pool. I thought of Amber.
I looked down at him. “I hope you rot in hell.”
The sirens grew louder as I jogged through the woods. Soon red and blue lights were flashing through the trees. Wolf jumped all over me, frantic with his kisses and warbles of relief.
“Hang on. We’re going to go fast.” I hopped onto the bike, and Wolf landed in his crate. We were on the logging road in under a minute. I hoped the sirens would drown out the noise of my bike. I skidded around a corner near where my dad had crashed, and caught my breath, but then an invisible hand righted my wheel. I was straight and heading out of the curve. I’d made it.
CHAPTER 36
Beth
Hailey was gone. Her hiking boots had stepped out of sight, the door closed behind her, and now Beth was alone. In Mason’s house. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She didn’t want strangers to see her naked, beaten body. She retched onto the floor, crying as bitter liquid slid up her damaged throat.
She had to think, had to remember not to slip and reveal anything about Hailey. Hot tears stung the cuts on her face. Hailey had saved her. She hoped she got away.
The sirens were closer. Right outside now. They sounded like a long scream that went on and on. She pressed the palms of her hands to her ears, noticed more blood, her raw wrists.
Her body was a live wire of sensation. Her skin felt open to the air. She’d pretended to Hailey that she was okay, that she was managing the pain. Hailey wouldn’t have left her alone otherwise. Then she would’ve been caught. Maybe it shouldn’t matter, now that Mason was dead. But it felt like it mattered even more, like Hailey was the last reason to hang on to this world.
One of the sirens stopped in front of the house with a suddenwhoop. Lights reflected on the wall. The door burst open. Vaughn appeared with his gun drawn. “Police!”
Beth shrank against the cupboard, tried to lift her sore hands. “I’m alone.”
Vaughn was looking around, gun drawn, his legs braced. “Where is he?”
