Chapter 38
Lucan
Avein in my forehead throbs.
While Cormac drives, I’ve spent the trip home from the city trying to break the code in the notebook I liberated from Parker’s bedroom.
With the assistance of an ex-military analyst, I’ve decoded a few precious letters, but not enough to make sense of my cousin’s journal entries. Parker seems to have developed the mysterious symbols himself.
Scowling in concentration, I stare in the dim light at his final entry. I can’t seem to make anything fit.
Outside, the hand-painted sign for Briarvale rolls past as we enter the town, barely visible in the dense night fog. My girl’s hometown.
She’d still be at the Halloween party in the mountains.
I’ve managed to avoid spying on her via the tracking app, but I did ask Madox to keep tabs on her. I requested it in the most casual way I could, which, in retrospect, was probably more of a command than anything remotely casual.
Space and time are what Sadie needs, so I’m trying to give them to her.
If I can figure out this code and find the murderous piece of shit endangering her, maybe I’ll actually start sleeping again.
As the car glides through town, packs of masked teenagers chase each other in the street and set off fireworks. Cormac jerks the steering wheel hard to avoid one. The sedan hits the curb with a sickening crunch and two bangs, bringing us to a sharp stop.
The teens scatter like ants, whooping and cheering and leaving behind drifts of pungent smoke.
We climb from the car to survey the damage. Cormac circles the vehicle once, then crouches to look underneath.
“Two blown tires.” He grimaces. “And the suspension took a hit. I’ve got one tire in the back, but we’re not going anywhere without a second.”
I point up the street. “There’s a garage over here.”
Thanks to my avid watching of Sadie for the better part of a year, I know her town like the back of my hand.
“They’ll be closed though,” says Cormac. “It’s near midnight.”
“The garage is old-style, attached to a house. I’d bet the mechanic’s upstairs.”
“Ah,” says the driver, understanding my meaning.
I carry cash for situations like this.
“How much should I offer, do you think?” I ask Cormac, who has a better grasp on everyday economics than I do.
He shifts his weight between his feet. “Er—”
I squint. “Thirty grand?”
He gives a small cough. “That’ll do it, sir.”
After I fetch some bundles from a compartment in the back of the car, we walk to the garage.
Ten minutes later, the bleary-eyed mechanic is cheerily raising the sedan to look at the damage.
“Yeah.” He scratches his disheveled hair. “I can replace the tires, no problem, and I’ll patch up your suspension. It’ll get you to Ember Falls for tonight, but I wouldn’t push it.”
“How long do you need?” I ask.
“Give me half an hour and you’ll be on your way.” He points his thumb at the house. “Want me to wake my wife to make some coffee?”
“No. And thank you for doing this.”
“Ain’t like we’ve slept much anyway.” The mechanic chuckles. “Halloween’s not the restful type of night, you know?”
“I do.”
Cormac pulls up a seat in the garage while I head into the backyard, unable to relax.
I’ve felt off all day, wired and tense. I try to convince myself that it’s just the usual strange Halloween atmosphere, but my damn subconscious mind won’t stop nagging at me that something’s wrong.
With superhuman self-control, I resist the urge to pass the time by checking on Sadie’s whereabouts with the tracking app.
I’ve no reason to do it. None at all.
Madox messaged me from a satellite phone at the mansion to say she was fine. He also said she was sad, which cuts up my heart, but she’s perfectly unharmed.
I distract myself by pacing instead.
The mechanic’s backyard is more like a graveyard, except for cars. They’re packed in like sardines. Some are newer, missing panels or seats, while others are rusted skeletons with long grass growing through their bones.
The air smells like pine sap and cold earth. Ravens startle suddenly from trees, taking off into the cloudy sky with melancholy caws. The sound does nothing for my jagged nerves.
Absentmindedly, I run my hand over the vehicles as I walk the labyrinth, hoping the cold metal will soothe me somehow.
When I see the car, I know immediately. It’s like my brain memorized every single crack of the shattered rear window from the brick I threw.
My breath leaves my lungs as I stare at it. This is the one. The car that the killer stole from Darkbloom to abduct Sadie. The car that apparently vanished without a trace.
Except it didn’t, because it’s sitting right here.
“The silver Corolla,” I shout, striding into the garage. “Who brought it here?”
Cormac stands, his face pinched with concern. The mechanic, Andy, comes out from under the car, spanner in hand.
“What’s that?” he asks with a frown.
I point. “The silver Corolla in the yard. Where did you get it?”
His baffled gaze clears.
“Ah, the broken rear window.” He rubs his neck. “Yeah, funny thing. The guy who brought it in wanted me to junk the car for scrap metal. I told him the car was too good for that, but he insisted. I said okay, because he didn’t even want money for it. Just left it to me.”
My pulse speeds up. “But you didn’t scrap it?”
“Nah.” Andy flashes a guilty smile. “I figure, it’s mine now, right? Worth more to sell it. It’s a good car. I just gotta get around to fixing the window.”
“Detectives didn’t come here?” I demand. “Asking if anyone brought a car in for rear-window repair?”
The mechanic seems to shrink, his shoulders rounding and smile fading. “Ah, yeah, they did come asking. But that’s not what the guy brought it in for, ya know? Technically speaking, he didn’t want repairs. So I said no.”
Wild fury branches through me like lightning.
The case could’ve been solved already. It should’ve been.
If she dies for this…
“Who was he?” My voice is so loud it bounces off the oily concrete floor and corrugated-iron walls.
The mechanic gurgles, and I realize I’m holding him by his throat, crushing his windpipe with both hands.
His spanner clatters to the floor.
“Lucan,” comes Cormac’s steady voice from behind. “We need him to speak.”
My chest heaving, I loosen my grip to drop Andy and step away.
“Who?” I ask through clenched teeth. “Do you know his name?”
“Yeah, I know it.” The mechanic’s voice is hoarse and he clutches his throat. “He stands out around here.”
Andy says the name and my heart fucking plummets.
It’s someone she knows.
If he goes for Sadie tonight, during all the Halloween mayhem, she’s dead.
“I have to get out of here,” I say, feeling like I’m in a nightmare. “Now.”
The car’s ready and I drive like a madman. Next to me in the passenger seat, Cormac dictates aloud Sadie’s exact location on the tracking app.
She’s not at the party in the mountains, like I expect. Making a sharp turn in the main street, I head in a different direction.
My senses become hyperaware and my blood roars with urgency.
Please let me be in time. If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.
I’ll never forgive anyone.