Deep Betrayal Page 0,52

course. Threw a kitchen chair. Stormed out. Mom and I waited up, but he didn’t come home. Then this morning, Chief Eaton calls.”

The front door of the station house opened and Mr. Pettit walked out, pushing Jack slightly ahead of him, his hand clamped down on Jack’s shoulder like a vice.

Gabby muttered, “So much for the lockup. I can’t catch a break.”

Jack stopped dead in his tracks and glared at Calder. “You,” he said, his hands balled into fists.

Calder stared him down, his expression emotionless, while my heart crashed against my rib cage.

“Guess who came to see me last night,” Jack said to Calder, spit flying with each word.

Pavati, I thought. She made good on her promise to see Jack, after all. Would this make things better or worse? But then I remembered what Gabby’d said about Jack’s late-night trip to the police station, and I answered my own question. Calder didn’t say a word.

“She got close enough for me to know she was there, but then she ran away.”

“Enough,” Mr. Pettit said, and he pushed Jack into the backseat of his car. “Sorry, Lily. Calder. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this to anyone.”

Gabby shook her head and climbed into the front seat, folding her arms over her chest.

After the car pulled away from the curb and raced up the street, Calder pinched the bridge of his nose and walked back to the park. He found a seat on the ground and leaned up against a tree.

I stood in front of him and looked down on the top of his head. “Do you believe him?” I asked. “About Pavati?”

“I have no reason not to.” He rested his elbows on his knees and laced his hands together, twisting his fingers.

“Do you think she knows that Jack’s been revealing her secret?”

“Doubtful. She wouldn’t risk being captured. She’s just doing her best to fulfill her promise to see him. Sick compulsion. We’ll go look again tonight. If Pavati came to see Jack, she might still be close. And if she’s close, your dad’s fast enough to catch up to her.”

“That’s good,” I said.

The look Calder gave me told me it wasn’t the same conclusion he’d drawn. I scrutinized his face to discern the cause of his conflict, but he didn’t explain.

21

EAVESDROPPER

The willow tree north of our dock must have been hit by lightning at some point in its history. While the whole tree was a beautiful umbrella of green, part of the trunk was split low, throwing a branch across the water with young shoots all along its length. I walked it as if it were a knobby balance beam, picking my way to a place where I could sit and dangle my feet in the water but still hide should someone want to drown me like poor Connor.

Didn’t work, though. Sophie found me. She followed, her arms held out to her sides, balancing, wavering, grinning at me. “Pretty dress,” she said. “Going somewhere?”

I looked down at the white, tiered minidress. I wasn’t going anywhere. With Calder gone, life—it seemed—had come to a standstill.

“Whatever you’re doing, can I watch?” Sophie asked.

“I’m just sitting here, Soph.”

“Really?” She scrunched up her face and sat beside me, kicking a spray of water out toward the dock. “You don’t look like you’re doing nothing.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Huh.” She picked bark off the willow branch and threw it at the water. “I thought maybe you were thinking about looking for Dad. He’s been gone a—”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” Every time Sophie brought up Dad, it also brought a liquefying feeling to my stomach. I tried to suppress it, but Sophie wasn’t fooled.

She said, “Settle down, Lily. I just thought maybe you could try looking for him. For Mom. She’s really worried.”

“If I could do something about it, I would have already,” I snapped back. I looked up at Sophie, and two red spots were burning in the center of her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Soph. But I don’t have any idea where to search.”

Sophie studied the water and nodded seriously, then, after a while, asked, “Do you wonder what Dad and Calder are doing?”

“What makes you think they’re together?”

She sighed dramatically and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Never mind,” she said. She got up.

“Sophie, what are you trying to say?”

“I’ll go. I can tell you don’t want me here.”

Her curly blond ponytail bobbed as she jumped from the branch down to the sand and walked up the yard. Before she reached the porch, she