Page 84 of Critical Doubt

"I can ask my mother. Tyler can stay with my dad. Should I tell Tyler his father is alive?"

"No," she said quickly. "Don't tell him anything."

"You really don't think he's going to make it, do you?"

"I don't know. But I'll be here until you get here. Text me when you figure out your plans."

"He has to live, Savannah. I can't say good-bye to him again. I can't mourn him again, not without knowing what happened, why he did this."

"One step at a time. That's all you can do."

"I'm so scared, Savannah. I thought I was getting a handle on him being gone. Now…"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Okay, I have to go. I have to figure things out."

"I'll see you soon."

When she ended the call, she let out a breath of frustration and anger and sadness. It wasn't fair for Abby to have to go through this again.

Ryker gave her an empathetic look. "That sounded rough."

"Beyond horrible. Abby is on her way. She didn't believe me at first. Actually, I'm not sure she believes me now."

"That's understandable."

"She never saw Paul's body, but Chief Tanner did, and so did Todd."

"Then they were both in on it."

"Or Tanner was in on it. Then Todd found out, and that's why he was killed."

"Or Todd isn't dead, either," Ryker suggested.

"What about Hank?"

"I don't know. Is he really dead?"

She frowned. "We have to figure out what is going on. We're clearly still missing a crucial piece of information."

"I think we're missing a lot of pieces."

"Remember when Jackie read that text about Hank telling Todd it was time to be a ghost. What if it wasn't about ghosting her but about faking his death?"

"I forgot about that comment."

She thought for another moment, still trying to put the picture together in her head. "If Todd and Paul aren't dead, maybe Hank isn't either. We know you're in the dark. What about Mason? Is he in on this with them? Or is he on the outside, like you?"

"Difficult to say, but since he hasn't been answering my texts tonight, I'm leaning toward him being involved as well. If he was innocent, why wouldn't he react to being told Hank is dead? Even if he's working, he'd have to check his phone sometime."

"So, we have a team of ghosts. Why do they need to be dead?"

He gazed back at her. "They're going to do something that they can't be held accountable for, because technically they're all deceased."

"But what is that something?"

"I wish I knew. I used to be their leader," he said tightly. "Now one or more of them is trying to kill me."

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