Page 55 of Everyone Loved Her

He nodded, glancing down to the shards of glass around hisboots. “I, uh, I was with Beth, but my guess is that you already know that, since y’all have the phone now.”

“Was it planned?”

Garrett’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“Was seeing Beth planned? Like had you talked about it toanyone?”

He shook his head. “Really last minute.”

“Which means someone is watching you,” Dylan ran a finger along his jaw, his eyes scanning the room again. “And they would’ve been taking a big risk to show up while you were gone. For all they knew, you could’ve shown right back up here.”

“Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “But maybe they didn’t care. I mean, Ty Miller showed up and tried to take a bat to Beth’s car. Maybe he did this.”

“Maybe,” Dylan hummed. “Sure as hell feelsreallypersonal, doesn’t it? I just don’t know who you pissed off bad enough forthis.”

“A lot of people are talking,” Garrett was careful with his words. “It’s not that big of surprise to me, I guess. I don’t have a memory after I saw Beth, either. For all I know, they’re pointing the finger at the right guy.” His chest tightened at that admission, but wasn’t it the truth? Couldn’t he have done it? He couldn’t think of one good reason for him to ever hurt anyone at all, but at the same time, he never thought he’d do half the things he did when he was drinking.

“You know you can’t stay here, right?” Dylan said, reaching down and picking up a broken picture frame. He flipped it over, the picture of Dylan, Garrett, and their dad underneath a fractured piece of glass.

“I know.”

“Someone isreallypissed off at you, Garrett,”Dylan muttered, tossing the frame back to the floor. “And we have so much goin’ on right now, I don’t know how we can handle it all. We’ve only got eight employees total down there, the homicide is hard enough, and nowthis.”

“You don’t have to worry about this,” Garrett said plainly. “It’s not your problem, and for the record, I’m not making a report.”

“Why the hell would you not report this?” Dylan snapped at him, glaring. “You’re an idiot not to. This shows thatsomeoneis out to get you, and who knows what they’ll do next.”

“Let them.”

Dylan fell into silence, and then gestured back down the hallway. “Your shotgun is still under your bed. I’m not gonna confiscate it, but when I file a report on this, I need you to move it. It can’t be here. We already have that pistol we’re dealing with. Hopefully, it can just get swept under the rug.”

“Doubt it.”

“You’re just glowing with optimism,” Dylan snorted, shaking his head. “We’re gonna figure this out. Believe it or not, Idon’tthink you’re capable of, uh,” his eyes drifted to the wall, “Whatever it is they’re accusing you of.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Garrett rubbed the back of his neck, his stomach churning with nausea.

“You can crash at my place,” Dylan added. “It’s a wreck and you’ll have to sleep on the couch, but that’s better than nothing, right?”

He nodded, just as his phone started to buzz in his pocket. He glanced down to see Beth’s name lighting up the screen. He stared at it for a few minutes, thinking back to the evening and their kiss. Every ounce of him wanted to pick it up and answerit, tell her everything that had happened—and all the secrets he kept under lock and key…

But instead, he silenced the call and put the phone back in his pocket.It’s just better this way.When he looked back up, he noticed Dylan staring at the words on the wall.

“What’s with the words on the wall? Do you know what that means?”

Garrett sucked in a deep breath. “Sarah was pregnant, and I knew it.”

Chapter 26

“Please just look at this,”I urged, shoving the note into his hand.

“I don’t know,” Blaze said, staring down at the words now in a plastic Ziplock bag. “It could just be someone doesn’t want you in town. I mean, I don’t find it all that far-fetched.”

“Really?” I snapped, shaking my head. “So, this is just some weird coincidence then? Has nothing to do with everything surrounding Sarah’s murder?”

“I don’t know, Beth!” He threw his hands up as I stood just inside of his apartment, his outburst startling me. “I mean,” he let out a forced sigh, “I’ll take it down to the station, but that’s the best I can do. I don’t know if Sheriff Myers will want to do anything with it.”

“Well, you could test it for prints or something.”

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