“Who do you think is behind this, then?” I ask.
“Human traffickers—at least the ones who took us—train their potential cargo. Not everyone lives through the training, so they need to get rid of those bodies.”
“You are not telling me what I think you are. You’re totally not telling me that you think some human smuggler is hiding dead bodies on Steel property.” Sweat drips from my forehead into my eyes. I blink against the sting. It’s November, but it’s hot up here in this makeshift attic.
“It’s just a theory,” Donny says. “But we know what these people are capable of.”
“There’s a kink in your theory,” I say. “This is Steel property. It belongs to our family. Our family. The Steel family—the family that can buy and sell almost every other family in this country. Surely there are better places to hide your dead bodies.”
“There are,” Dale says.
“Oh, fuck.” I rub my eyes with my gloved fingers, making them sting even more.
“See what I mean?” Dale says.
“Somebody has it out for us. Somebody’s trying to incriminate the family.” I curl my hands into fists. “But if that’s the case, why would they move the evidence? Wouldn’t they want to incriminate us?”
“Maybe,” Donny says. “Maybe not. Or maybe they want to do this on their own terms.”
“Who?” I demand. “Who the hell would want to do this on their own terms? And why would it matter? If they want to incriminate us—leave disgusting rotting human flesh evidence on our property—what the hell does it matter what their terms are?”
“I don’t know,” Dale says. “But this is far more sinister than we originally thought.”
“How is this more sinister?” I ask. “Whoever is behind it moved the evidence so we wouldn’t find it. Wouldn’t that make this less sinister?”
“I don’t know,” Dale says. “I just don’t fucking know. But this feels wrong. All wrong.”
“Of course it feels wrong. Someone has potentially been storing dead bodies on our property.” I flash my light around the dark attic. “What is this building hiding? What are we not seeing?”
And then I see it.
I fucking see it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rory
I roll my eyes at my sister. “I’m pretty sure you can read.”
“Seriously? You’re going to try to get pregnant?”
“No. I mean…maybe.”
“Without telling Brock?”
“I don’t know. Brock turned me down.”
She nods. “You haven’t seen him since Monday night, right?”
“Right.”
“You said you had a nice time. That he took you to dinner and dancing.”
“He did.”
Callie sets the box down on top of my dresser. Then she opens my top dresser drawer and shoves the box inside. “You shouldn’t leave this sitting out. Sometimes Mom comes in here on a sanitizing rampage and cleans our bathroom.”
“Right. I wasn’t thinking.”
Normally I clean the bathroom. I know it’s strange, but I actually enjoy cleaning, especially bathrooms. But Callie is right. Mom has been known to come in and straighten up. I quickly walk into the bathroom, find the stick that I peed on, wrap it in tissue, and shove it to the bottom of my purse. I’ll throw it away when I get into town sometime.
“I still can’t believe it,” I say. “Brock Steel, who will lay anything in a dress, turned me down. Rory Pike. The woman everybody says is the most beautiful woman in Snow Creek. How does that happen?”
“I don’t know,” Callie says. “It is pretty off-brand for him.”
“Right? I’m beginning to question my power of seduction.”
“Has anyone ever turned you down, Rory?”
“No. Male or female. That’s my point.” I’m embellishing a little. A few of the straight girls in college didn’t bite. Very few.
Callie sighs and sits next to me on my bed. “I know you’re freaking out right now, but we need to think about this email we just got.”
I sigh. “You’re right. What do we do? It’s not like they asked us to meet them somewhere or anything.”
“I don’t know. I need to talk to Donny. Maybe he’ll have an idea.”
“Yeah. Maybe he will. Right now, though, we don’t have any evidence that Pat and Brittany actually have the photos.”
“But he says he does.”
“Except we don’t know it was him. It came from Doc Sheraton’s email account.”
“Which means it’s from Brittany. Brittany and Pat.”
“Is it?” I shake my head. “I swear to God, I don’t know which end is up anymore, Callie.”
“Doc Sheraton is a good guy. In fact…”
“What?” I ask.
“He couldn’t keep his eyes off you, Ror.”
“You better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”
She sighs. “No, I’m not. Never again will I ask you to put yourself in that kind of position.”
“Especially after where we ended up the first time.”
“I know.”
My sister gives me an idea, though. “What if we went into town? Went to see Doc Sheraton and asked him what the heck this email means?”
“We know what it means.”
“Sure, we know. But it came from his account. Maybe it’s time Daddy finds out what his little darling is up to.”