Page 54 of Everyone Loved Her

“But what? I didn’t shoot her.”

“Son…”

“What?” he demanded.

“There were multiple calls from your phone to Sarah’s the night she went missing. They stopped somewhere around the time she left the bar—probably a little before. There’re a few other numbers we’re still trying to figure out… But yours… Why? Why were you calling her?”

Garrett’s stomach knotted up. “It’s… It’s because she was going out for drinks with Beth. She had told me earlier in the day to stay sober and come with her. You know, stage a run-in and all that. But I guess I couldn’t handle the pressure. I showed up to the bar drunk, and Dylan immediately kicked me out. I walked to the liquor store, got a lot more, and then tried to call Sarah—to see Beth. I don’t really remember what happened after I saw Beth.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone, andGarrett pulled it away from his face, just to make sure that it was still connected.

“Sarah left the bar before Beth,” Sheriff Myers finally said, sounding perplexed. “Beth said she went out the back door.”

“She probably did,” Garrett said, his stomach churning at his inability to remember. “But I swear, I didn’t see her. If I had, she would’ve laid into me about how drunk I’d been.” He chuckled at the thought of what she’d already said when she first saw him—before Beth had gotten there.

‘Are you kidding me right now? I’m trying to help you, Garrett. I know how you feel about her, but you look like trash right now. You’re such a freaking dumpster fire sometimes.’

“I can’t help you if this goes south,” his dad’s words drew him back. “I can’t. I’m already at risk of losing my position here over the gun. All I can hope is that I can hold Blaze’s past as leverage.”

“What past? He’s just some rodeo cowboy, right?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Sheriff Myers grunted. “He skips town a lot. Can’t seem to stay in one place for more than a couple years—this is his first law enforcement job. I hired him ‘cause we’re so shorthanded all the time, but there’s something off with him. I’ve already started putting out some feelers.”

“Hmm,” was all Garrett could say to that. It wasn’t like he could pass judgment on Blaze. He reached for the keys in his ignition then, shutting off the diesel truck. As he did, he glanced up to the porch…

And froze.

“What the…” His voice trailed off as he noted the open front door, the storm door slapping in the wind. “I think someone broke in.”

“Ah, hell, I’ll send Dylan out there. It’s probably some ofWilson bunch. Lucas is a hothead, and he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that he thinks you did it. Sit tight.” With that, his father hung up, disconnecting the call.

Garrett sat the phone down on the console once more, and stared at the door, slapping the wood siding of his cabin. He knew it was better to wait for his brother, but after everything, he wasn’t sure he cared if he stumbled onto someone inside. Pulling the door handle, he slid out into the night.

Defenseless.

Boots crunching on the gravel, he made his way to the front porch, tuning his ear into anything that might key him in that he wasn’t alone. However, the only sound was the soft thud of his boots on the steps and the slamming of the door against the wood. As soon as he could, he grabbed the metal framed door and silenced it.

He adjusted the bar at the top, allowing the door to close, and stepped through the threshold into his entryway. There was an unsettling chill in the air, and he pulled the storm door the rest of the way shut, as his eyes raked over the front door. At the bottom were black marks, from where someone kicked it, maybe? Garrett checked the knob and door frame, but nothing was splintered.

Maybe I forgot to lock it.He wouldn’t have put it past himself to forget with the rush he had been in to get to Beth.Maybe the wind just caught the storm door, and I didn’t even shut the door all the way,he thought, but the moment he stepped into the living room, Garrett knew he was dead wrong.

“Jeez…” He took in the ransacked living room, the shattered ceramic dishes all over the floor of the kitchen, but even more disturbing…was thewritingon the wall.

BABY KILLERwas scrawled in red spray paint across thewhite walls of his living room, just above the shattered TV lying face down on the floor. He stared at the words, zoning out on the block letters as the sound of a vehicle pulled into his driveway. Numbness crept through his body, replacing anything else he could’ve felt in the moment.

“What the…” His brother’s voice came from behind him. “This is…”

“Bad,” Garrett finished, his eyes still on the name he’d been called. “This is really bad.” A hand landed on his shoulder, and he turned to see Dylan, concern written all over his face.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Garrett shook his head. “Looks like someone thinks they already did.” He stepped away from him, keeping his eyes off the disturbing words for a moment. “I haven’t checked the rest of the house.”

Dylan nodded. “Doubt they’re still here, but I’ll double check.” His brother pulled his weapon, and then checked the two bedrooms and one bathroom. Meanwhile, Garrett felt frozen in place. Someone had found out a truth that he had been keeping close to his chest, and that fact was nearly as chilling as walking into his ransacked home.

Who did you tell, Sarah?He swallowed hard, sweat beading up across his forehead. Carefully, he stepped across the broken coffee table, the glass top shattered. Stepping closer to the writing, he took in the way the paint ran down the wall from the bottom of each letter. It was eerie.

“Where were you tonight when this happened?” Dylan was back in the living room, holstering his Glock. “Someone went nuts in this house. All the back bedrooms have been trashed, too.”

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