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I couldn’t trust him, and yet as I stood there, listening to him, I caught myself wondering what would happen if it was someone else… if Eastcreek had another monster, someone whose last name wasn’t Montgomery.
Shit. Then I’d owe Gareth an apology, I supposed… but I’d keep it to myself until I was absolutely certain he wasn’t the perpetrator.
Rick’s head bent, though his stare never released me. “I’ll do what I can to find out what happened to your friend, but you need to hold up your end of the bargain.” It sounded like he was trying to tell me I had to find something for him, first, but that wasn’t going to work for me.
I dropped my arms to my sides, inching closer to him. We stood less than a foot apart now. It was almost too easy to close my eyes and pretend we were back at the wedding. “Erin is a person. She’s innocent. She takes priority. You help me first, and I’ll do whatever you want.” Hell, I’d search Montgomery Manor top to bottom if I had to, over and over. I’d do whatever it took if he helped me find Erin.
I just hoped, wherever she was, that she and her family were still alive.
He nodded once. “Fine. I’ll text you once at her house, if I find anything.” He studied me for a moment, and then his gaze fell to my lips—or, at least, I was pretty sure it did—but in the end, all he did was pull himself away, head to the door, and open it for me, saying loudly, “Have a good day, Miss Dent.”
I could’ve rolled my eyes at the way he was trying to put distance between us. To me, it was obvious, but I supposed, if the others were still in the hall, they’d have no reason to suspect anything was going on between us.
But as I walked past Rick and stepped out into the hall, I found the girls had gone. They hadn’t waited in the hall for me; they’d gone outside and were waiting by their cars.
Kaity was the first to say, “What did he want to talk to you about?”
“Oh, nothing. Just wanted me to pass something along to Alistair,” I lied. What surprised me the most was the fact that the lie came to me quickly. I had to be careful here. Lying was becoming a second nature. If I let myself get caught up in all this, I might not recognize myself in the mirror.
Chapter Seven – Rick
Just after five fifteen, I pulled into the Watts’ driveway. There was only one senior girl named Erin at Eastcreek High; it didn’t take too much investigating to find out where she lived.
I parked my car, leaving it idling, and got out. Truth be told, I didn’t know what to think. Gareth had never taken out an entire family before, but you know what they said: never say never. There was a first time for everything and all that shit.
If Gareth killed them all, it’d be one hell of a cover-up I’d have to pull out of my ass, especially since there were multiple people asking questions about it.
Alistair would have to understand there was only so much I could do. I wasn’t a miracle worker. He should’ve tried harder to get that boy under control. Bringing in Brianna to try to control Gareth… what was Alistair thinking?
I felt for her, I did. She was given a shit hand, just like me… although my shit hand was of my own making, whereas hers was completely accidental.
The house looked just like any other house in Eastcreek, minus Montgomery Manor, of course: old, a little run-down, seen better days. I noticed the grass hadn’t been cut in a while as my feet took me to the front door.
Hitting my knuckle on the door, rattling the damned thing on its hinges, I spoke loudly, “Hello? Is anyone home? Just doing a wellness check.” I stopped knocking, leaning my ear close to the door to listen. I heard not a thing inside, so I knocked again and repeated what I’d said—only to get the exact same response: a whole lot of nothing.
I took a step away from the door, moving around the porch to one of the front windows that overlooked the living room. Peering inside, I found the lights were all off. Nothing looked out of place in the living room. It definitely seemed like no one was home. Hmm.
Before leaving the porch, I knocked again and waited a long minute. Nobody came to answer the door. I decided to walk around the property, moving around the house to the back door. I knocked on that one and received the same response. Just for kicks, I tried the knob and found it was locked.
My feet took me around the other side of the house, around the garage. I stopped at the man door to the garage. The door had small glass squares at its top, so I could peer inside, and what I saw… let’s just say Brianna’s suspicions were probably correct.
Two cars sat in the garage, and if I had to guess, I’d say they belonged to Erin’s parents.
I finished circling the house, walking right past my car to the edge of the driveway, where their mailbox sat. After glancing both ways on the road, I checked the mailbox and found mail that in no way, shape, or form could have accumulated in a single day. No, if I had to guess, I’d say the mail hadn’t been checked in about a week.
Goddamn it. All this time I’d been hoping Brianna was full of shit, but now I knew something was definitely up.
Once I was back in my car, I pulled out my phone and texted Brianna, asking if Erin had a car of her own. It was the first time I’d used her number, though it had been in my phone since the day she’d written it on a Post-It note and given it to me. I didn’t tell her it was me; hopefully she had enough context clues to make an assumption.
She replied within a minute, saying Erin did have her own car and asking why.
I asked her if she remembered what kind it was, and she told me the vague make and model, though she didn’t know the year it was. An older car, like many of the high schoolers drove because it’s all they and their parents could afford.
It was a long shot, but I dialed the school’s main office. I didn’t know how late the office staff stayed, but the moment the secretary picked up, I held in a sigh of relief. “Hey, Mary. It’s Rick. How late are you staying today? I need a favor.”
Turned out, she was there late putting in some overtime because the principal had asked her to do some work in the student files. And since there was a home basketball game tonight, she’d decided to work until the game started. She had a son on the team, so it saved her some gas.
But it worked for me. Once I hung up, I called the one person I probably shouldn’t, but given the possibilities here, he should know what was going on. The phone rang a few times, and then Alistair’s voice greeted me, “Rick. What now?”
