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No one argued with her. Everyone who’d come to see filed into the library. Kaity, Angelina, Cherith, and I were last.
The library was a small place with not that many books. Half of its area was taken up by a computer lab with computers that looked to be at least ten years old. A few round tables with five chairs each were scattered in the open area before the librarian’s desk, and each seat was already taken by the time we walked in.
We found ourselves a corner of the library and sat down on the carpet. We were hidden away from everyone else, in a darker corner of the place, which let Kaity and the others cry in peace.
My hands were sweaty, but not for the reason you’d think. My skin itched, mostly because being around three crying girls made me uncomfortable, more uncomfortable than Erin’s corpse outside. It occurred to me then that I should try to act sad, try to tear up and join them in their fit of misery, but I couldn’t.
I’d faced my sadness for Erin’s disappearance a long time ago, just like I’d faced my guilt. I could not feel sad when all I wanted to do was find Brett and make him regret ever finishing Neo’s plan.
Except, I realized, this wasn’t Neo’s plan. I didn’t inspire Neo. I inspired Brett. Neo’s plan involved taking Gareth and Alistair down, revealing how dirty of a sheriff Rick was. Brett’s plan, on the other hand, focused on taunting and terrorizing me for what I did to Neo.
The crazy thing was, Brett didn’t even know the state I’d left Neo’s body. He didn’t know how much I’d dug into him after killing him. If he did… I didn’t doubt all of this would be ten times worse.
My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out, half expecting it to be ringing with a call from Brett, but it was only a message from Gareth. He wanted to know where I was, if I was okay. I told him the truth. I said I was in the library with some other students, that I’d seen Erin’s body in the back parking lot.
He responded by saying he’d message Alistair and let him know.
Time passed slowly. Eventually a deputy came into the library, asking everybody questions. When he found us in the corner, I saw it wasn’t Rick, so we got no special treatment.
The rest of the school day was canceled after that, and the announcement was made there would be no school tomorrow, either. When I saw Gareth waiting for me at his car, I could tell he wanted to ask me a million questions.
Did I get another call? What’d the body look like? That sort of thing. He’d tried to ask when we were in the library, but since I was with the others, I didn’t want to risk any of them glancing at my phone and seeing.
Only once we were inside the car, the outside world shut away, did Gareth ask, “Anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. He didn’t call.”
“Hmm.” Gareth pulled out of his parking spot, getting us on the road. “Maybe he’s waiting a while, giving you time to simmer and stew about it.” He glanced at me, and behind his thick-rimmed glasses, his green eyes were serious. “I heard she was skinned.”
How on earth he’d heard that when he’d been locked in a classroom on the other side of the high school was beyond me. No point in lying to him or trying to hide the truth; Rick would tell Alistair anyway, so I might as well tell Gareth.
“She was. Every single part of her. She looked like an alien.” It was strange to think we all looked like that underneath our skin, how it was our outsides that separated us so much from each other.
“And her skin wasn’t there?”
I shook my head.
“Hmm. Wonder what he’s doing with it, then.”
That got me to look at him and ask, “What do you mean?” Deep down, I guess I already suspected, but hearing it said aloud was a whole different story.
“Her skin. If it wasn’t there, then it’s got to be somewhere else. He might be keeping it, waiting to use it later, otherwise why not just dump it there, too?” He shot me a look. “Did you really have to go and inspire a freak like that?”
I wanted to smack Gareth for making a comment like that. “I didn’t inspire him on purpose.”
“No, no, of course not. Still, I don’t think he’s done with you yet.” His hands tightened on the wheel. “We need to talk to my uncle and see if his guys saw anything today. It’ll be some real shitty luck if they didn’t see anything.”
We made it to Montgomery Manor, and, what would you know, we had some real shitty luck. The men Alistair was paying to watch over me and Gareth had been watching the front of the school from afar, not the back. They hadn’t seen anything. Not the car, not Brett, not the drop off of the body and the staging of the corpse.
We were up shit creek without a paddle, right where we were in the beginning, as clueless as ever, and I think I spoke for all of us when I said it sucked.
Gareth and I were about to leave Alistair’s office, but Alistair stopped Gareth by saying, “Gareth, I need a word.” When I stopped with him, he added, “Alone.”
My mouth dropped open, and I glared at Alistair from across the room. He wore a black suit, his black hair slicked back. No tie. The top button near his neck was undone, showing off his Adam’s apple. His blue eyes were cold and emotionless, as they usually were, but for some reason, the whole thing didn’t sit well with me.
He wanted to talk to Gareth alone? That seemed fishy, didn’t it? Maybe I was reading too much into it, maybe it was all in my head, but as I huffed and puffed and left Alistair’s office, I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something he wasn’t telling me.
Chapter Fifteen – Alistair
