"Jack!" Lilly shook me again and this time I responded. I pointed at the Bible and she reached out to pick it up.
"Don't touch it!" She recoiled at the sound of my voice. "Sorry, babe, but trust me, your dad wouldn't want you to touch it."
"My dad?" She leaned over, keeping her hands at her sides, and read the words. I watched the color drain from her face. She sat down next to me. "Jack, what are we going to do?"
From somewhere, deep in the fog that clouded my brain, an answer surfaced. "First, you're going to call your dad and tell him he needs to get over here, fast. Then we're going to go out front and tell Rob that we agree with him. Something is wrong, and the sheriff's coming to look around. We're not going to mention the Bible."
"What if he asks if we found anything?" Lilly said.
"Then we distract him so we don't have to lie." I pushed myself to my feet. My legs still felt shaky, but I could stand. "Whatever we do, we can't let him know about the Bible. He'll either freak out or come back here and grab it."
"Yeah, if he touches it, that might mess with the forensics," Lilly said as I pulled her up. "And we have to figure out who's using Garret's name."
"Right."
I was just glad she was thinking it was someone using Garret's name and not what I was thinking: that Garret wasn't as dead as we'd thought. It was a crazy thought, I knew. I'd watched his body spasm after my mom stabbed him in the eye. There was no way he'd survived. But I could understand the fear that he might've. There were just some people so evil that it didn't seem possible for them to die.
"Hey, Dad," I heard Lilly say. I'd been so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn't realized she'd taken out her phone and made the call. "Yes, we're all fine. It's Melanie. She's missing."
I listened as she gave the sheriff the run-down of everything that had happened so far. Despite the fact that her hands were shaking, her voice was steady and she kept everything matter-of-fact. If her dad wasn't impressed, he should've been. I wasn't sure I could've gotten through it without cracking. In fact, I was dreading going back out to Rob because I didn't think I'd be able to lie to him about what we'd found—or not found, rather. Because I knew, deep down, if our positions were reversed and he withheld something like this from me, I'd be pissed.
"Ready?" Lilly took my hand.
"Is he coming?"
She nodded. "He was already on his way before I finished telling him everything."
There were definitely some advantages to being the sheriff's daughter. He never doubted her, and accepted whatever she said as the truth. I'd often worried that when she'd hid my infection from him, back when we'd first met, that it would've somehow damaged their relationship after he found out. But if anything, I think what we'd all gone through only made their bond that much stronger.
"So, are you ready?" Lilly asked.
"Not really," I admitted, pulling her to me and hugging her tight. "I can't imagine what I'd do if that was me."
"I can," she said. "You'd do everything in your power to get me back and find whoever was responsible—and make them pay." She looked up at me, her eyes fierce. "And that's exactly what we're going to do for Melanie."
I nodded, gave her a quick kiss, and headed back through the house. My stomach was churning. If I'd eaten anything before coming over, I probably would've thrown it up right then and there. And the hopeful expression on Rob's face, when we came out the front door, only made things worse. I wondered what he'd been thinking while we were gone— that she'd miraculously appeared in the house and we'd all been in there having a good laugh over what a worrier he was? I don't know what he thought, but the moment he saw my face, his shoulders slumped.
