“We weren’t following you,” Townsend told us. “We were following her.” He pointed to the woman tied to the chair, eyelids fluttering.
Finally, Abby released me and moved to examine Catherine.
“What did you do to her?” Abby asked. She picked up the empty syringe, smelled it. “Is that truth serum?” she asked, but Townsend just shook his head.
I could tell he was thinking about his own experience with that particular concoction when he huffed and said, “It’s stronger.”
“Well, isn’t this precious?” Catherine smiled weakly and forced her eyes open, almost like she didn’t dare drift off in the middle of the party.
“Abby, Catherine says the Circle is going to target Princess Amirah next,” Bex said.
“Yes,” Zach’s mother said with a decisive nod. Then, just as quickly, she shrugged. “I think so. No one knows exactly what the Circle leaders will do. They are capable of anything, after all. But I believe that is their next move. So I came here to tell the good guys so that they can save the day. Isn’t that what you do, darling?”
“Shut up! Just shut up!” Zach snapped. “I will never believe anything you say.”
She looked at him and shook her head, smiled a little as she told him, “You are so like your father.”
Then she looked past me and Zach, past Bex and Abby, to where Agent Townsend stood by the door with his arms crossed.
“What do you think, Townsend, darling? Isn’t he like you?” She looked at Zach again. “I think he’s just like you.”
And then she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-three
Things my aunt said: She lies.
Things my boyfriend said: She lies.
Things my gut said: She lies.
Things I couldn’t deny: She was under the influence of truth serum.
Things we all had to admit: She wasn’t lying.
“Zach?” I asked, my voice too quiet in the darkness. The wind was strong and I could hear the waves crashing on the beach. Another storm was blowing in. I could feel it in the air. And as I stepped off the creaking porch and across the yard I tried again. “Zach.” But he didn’t answer.
I saw a dark shadow moving against the waves, leaning into the wind, so I walked down the tiny path, careful not to trip any of the alarms that had been set inside of him. I rubbed my arms and wished I’d brought a sweater, but Zach just stood in the blowing mist, his gray T-shirt growing steadily darker in the damp.
“Townsend is looking for you.”
Zach laughed, a cold, cruel sound. “Well, eighteen years, folks. Glad he finally got around to it.”
“Zach, he didn’t—”
“Did you know?” he asked but didn’t turn to face me.
“No, Zach. Of course not. Why would I know that?”
“Did Joe say anything to you? Did your mom?”
“My mom didn’t know, Zach,” I told him. “No one knew.”
I thought about how Zach and Townsend had always reminded me of each other. They had the same posture, the same grin, the same earnest, serious nature. And now I knew why. I wished I’d seen it before then, and I also wished we could go back in time to before we knew. But we couldn’t do either.
“She never told me!” Townsend’s voice echoed from inside. Abby slammed a door, and the whole house shook.
“Has Abby killed him yet?” Zach asked.