AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wanted to protect Penny, but from what? No new youths had gone missing in weeks, none of the bodies belonged to anyone younger than Ashley Parsons, and I didn’t want to make anyone worry unjustly. So I held my tongue.
“Okay. ” Grace caved under the pressure of her children’s collective gazes and plucked a five-dollar bill from her purse, which was waiting on the dining room table like it knew it would be needed. “But no lollygagging. Straight there and home, understand?”
Penny’s response was lost to me. I was too shocked that someone other than my grandmere used the word lollygagging.
Chapter Twelve
A half hour later Christmas was the last thing on our minds.
Dominick hung up the phone in the kitchen and came back into the living room with a grim expression on his face.
“The police say there’s nothing they can do. They ‘appreciate our concern’, but she hasn’t been gone long enough for them to classify her as a missing person. ”
Grace nodded, keeping her cool remarkably well for a mother whose daughter had vanished off the street. But judging by the hard set of her jawline and the death grip she had on the dishcloth, the calm exterior was a lie. The house was still filled with the homey scents of dinner being prepared, only now something was burning and it made the situation feel more dismal somehow.
The front door banged open, greeting us with a wall of cold air, and Dominick, Grace and I all pivoted towards it. Desmond gave a halfhearted apologetic smile and came into the room, still wearing his coat. He knelt in front of his mother and took her hands, rubbing them between his own in a gesture meant to comfort.
His news wouldn’t be good.
“Eddie at the Paradiso said she came and went. I asked all the neighbors, but she didn’t stop anywhere and no one remembers seeing anything. ”
Grace’s breath heaved and finally she broke. Tears streamed down her cheeks, seeming to multiply with each wretched sigh. The towel fell from her hands.
I stared at the front door and found myself unable to tear my eyes from it. I kept picturing Penny the way she looked as she left, with her bright red parka and her white hat with its oversize yarn pom-pom that bounced up and down when she trotted down the steps.
I shouldn’t have let her go.
Guilt clawed at the inside of my stomach, and looking around the room I could see I wasn’t alone. Everyone seemed like they were being eaten alive by their own misgivings. Each of us must be wondering how things would be right now if we had done something differently. What if I’d spoken up, or Desmond had gone instead, or Dominick had seen her on the street? Could we have prevented any of this from happening?
My phone rang and we all jumped.
“Sorry,” I whispered, scrambling to silence the inappropriately cheerful ringer. It was the office. Giving Desmond a nod, I said, “I have to take this. ”
In the kitchen I kept my volume as low as possible. “Nolan?”
“Secret, I think I found somethin’. ” I could tell from the tone of his voice he was excited, and I hoped whatever was causing his excitement might provide the Alvarezes a little comfort.
“Do you know what’s doing this?”
“Not exactly. ”
My heart fell like a deflated balloon. “Then I really need—”
“The deaths’re connected,” Nolan announced before I could finish.
“Connected how?” I sat in the chair nearest to me and picked up a dinner roll from the basket on the table. Eating was the last thing on my mind, and I didn’t go for carbs in the first place, but I needed something to keep my hands busy. Ripping apart a bun seemed like a decent place to start.
“I talked to the parents of the missing kids, and some of the families of the other victims. I told ’em we were doing a private investigation, and I mentioned Keats’s name. Turns out that’s all you need for some people to know you’re workin’ the paranormal side of things. I got the idea from that missing-persons case I’ve been workin’. I know you thought it might be connected, so I followed it as a lead. ”
“Nolan, what are you talking about?”
“All the victims’re shifters. ”
“What? No, that’s impossible. If any weres had gone missing, Lucas or Desmond would have known. ”
“I didn’t say they’re wolves. It’s a mixed bag of big cats, foxes and a few others, but none of ’em were wolves. ”
My breath caught in my throat, but I managed to choke out, “Until now. ”
