Chapter 57
KAIDEN
Over the next few days, the cops find nothing to hint at who committed both murders.
All the fingerprints discovered at the crypt where they found Sage’s body end up belonging to Sage, me, Becks, and Vinny.
We’re all brought in for questioning, but my dad provides an alibi for me and Vinny, and Beckham’s dad provides one for him for the timeframe when Sage was murdered.
It’s easily explained to the police why our fingerprints were found in the Hallows Crypt, especially because one of the officers was a Hallows Boy once upon a time.
They do ask for our keys, though, so we can prove that we’re telling the truth, and all but Beckham’s key is turned in. It turns out that he lost his. Maybe it was stolen by whoever killed Sage, or maybe even Sage herself.
Since Blackmore is such a small town, any evidence they find has to be sent to the county sheriff for examination, and it takes days for answers.
We’re brought into the station again that following Monday for questioning about why our fingerprints were found at Sage’s grandmother’s house.
“We’d been helping Joyce plan Sage’s funeral,” I say, crossing my legs. They haven’t bothered to put us inside the one small interrogation room they have here, instead sitting us at the desk of the investigating officer.
“Why?” the officer asks, his face bored but thoughtful.
“Why?” I repeat, taking control of the conversation as Becks and Vinny listen. “I don’t understand the question.”
“Why were you helping Joyce Spencer plan the funeral? What is your connection to Sage Blackmore?” the officer clarifies, now looking annoyed.
“Oh,” I say, twisting my lips to the side. “We were all friends with Sage. She was—is important to us.”
“Got it.” The officer scribbles something down in his notebook, nodding as he does. After a minute of thick tension and silence, he speaks again without looking up from his paper. “Doesn’t look good that you’re tied to both scenes.”
“You would’ve had to do a shit job investigating if you didn’t link us to both scenes.” The officer looks up at me, eyebrow quirked slightly. “We’ve explained everything you’ve brought to us, so are we free to go?”
I’m surprised Vinny and Beckham have sat without a word this whole time, but I think after everything they went through with Beckham’s previous arrest, they don’t want to have a slip of the tongue or make things worse. It’s easier when I just control the situation.
The officer clears his throat. “If you three are linked to another murder, I’ll have to bring you back in.”
Chuckling, I stand up and brush my hands down the front of my jeans, dismissing myself. “Maybe do a better job at making sure your residents don’t get murdered.”
Vinny laughs, and he and Becks stand up to follow me out of the room before I have a chance to hear the retort the officer throws my way.
We exit the police station and step out into the day, heading down the quiet road toward my neighborhood.
Becks and Vinny are walking with three feet separating them, and part of me wants to interject myself into the tension, since it’s partly my fault, but I’m too emotionally exhausted from my head to my toes to take on one more thing right now.
I feel like someone’s scooped out my insides, all the good parts that had started to grow when Sage came into my life now thrown away, leaving me the person I used to be. Hard, angry, mean, empty.
Sage was that spark inside of me, that part that lit me up and turned me into a brighter color.
She changed everything, and I know my brothers are feeling the same way.
When we step onto my street, Vinny speaks. “How are we going to find who killed them?”
“I don’t know,” I say, feeling hopeless and shaking my head as I stare up into the sun. “Where do we even start looking?”
No one answers me, and we walk the rest of the way to my house in silence.
I decide to go inside to grab something to eat while Vinny and Becks head directly to the garage. My father isn’t home from work yet, and I’m thankful. I don’t want to have to explain why I’m not at school again or tell him that I was speaking to the cops.
My dad wouldn’t be disappointed in me; he’d be furious.
There isn’t anything he wants more than my future, I don’t think, and it makes my stomach hurt thinking about telling him what’s been going on lately.
I haven’t checked in with teachers or coaches, and I haven’t cared to.
Maybe they’re still giving everyone that small grace period after we lost a classmate.
Whatever. I don’t plan on going back. I don’t care anymore.
That part of me that used to be built for academics and succeeding is dead.
Just like Sage.
I make each of us a sandwich, grab a bag of tortilla chips and a few bottles of water, then I balance it all in my arms as I make my way out to the garage.
When I reach the door, there’s a letter-sized brown envelope, made of that thick paper you’d see in old movies, sitting on the mat, and my eyebrows lower in concern.
I don’t have a free hand to grab it, so as I kick through the door, I call for someone.
“Hey! Was this here when you came in?”
Vinny looks up from his phone, stands up, and walks over to me to grab a sandwich, then he looks down at the envelope. “Nope.”
Beckham appears a second later, and he bends down to pick up the envelope so I can close the door and shut us inside the garage.
As I go across the room and put everything down on the table, Becks and Vinny follow me. When my hands are free, I grab the envelope.
Flipping it over in my hand, I examine it. There’s no writing on it, and only one piece of tape holds the flap closed. Shrugging, I slide my finger under the tape and tear it open.
“What is it?” Becks asks before I’ve even pulled anything out, and I ignore him.
Pushing the envelope open, I look inside.
Suddenly, oxygen becomes too thin to breathe into my lungs, and I stand motionless as I stare into the envelope.
“Kai,” Vinny says, stepping closer to me. “Your face just turned white. What is it?”
I swallow thickly, pouring the contents of the envelope onto my palm so they can see what’s inside—a necklace, the pendant on the end in the shape of a K.
The necklace Sage was wearing when she died.
A small piece of paper falls out as well, but I don’t manage to catch it in my numb hands, instead letting it fall to the floor. I’m too stunned from seeing her necklace, the necklace she barely got to wear for a week before someone killed her.
Vinny bends down, though, picking up the paper and unfolding it.
When he reads the note, his voice sounds foreign and far away.
“You should have protected her.”