Page 9 of Sacrifice

I blinked. “You think she lied.”

“No, of course not. If she lied, she would’ve failed the Confession, but she passed. She genuinely believes that the story she told us is the truth, and we cannot fault her for that.”

I furrowed my brows. “What do you think happened to her?”

“Outsiders, Sebastian.” Augustus gave me a hard look. “They took her and kept her in torment for weeks.”

I felt as if I were sitting on a powder-keg. One strike of a match and it would all be blown to high hell.

“How do you know that?” I asked, still feigning ignorance.

Augustus snapped his fingers. “Jean-Pierre, do you have the phone?”

The big man nodded and produced a large black satellite phone from his pocket. Augustus pressed some buttons on it and turned the screen to me, leaving me face to face with the messages I’d sent from my burner.

“What is this?” I asked, frowning.

“This group of outsiders claimed responsibility for Rose’s disappearance. As you can see, they also accused us of all sorts of ridiculous untruths.”

“When did you get this message?”

“Thirty-six hours ago. Just a few hours before Rose’s return.”

I slowly shook my head. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone demand this weird ransom for her and then immediately let her go?”

“Believe me, we’re confused too.” Augustus frowned and set the phone down. “But we’ve come up with a theory. Before we share it, we want to know something from you. Have you ever shared our phone number with another outsider? Or any information about us at all?”

I rose to my feet, eyes narrowing. “I see what you’re getting at, but you can’t possibly accuse me of this,” I said. “I’ve been in the hospital for days, and I—”

“Calm down, Sebastian. Take a seat. We aren’t accusing you of anything. We know you aren’t behind this.”

Well, that was a fucking relief.

I slowly sank back into the chair. “So what are you trying to say?”

“We know it wasn’t you, but we are fairly sure we know the identity of the mastermind behind this group… and it’s someone very close to you.”

My eyes narrowed again. “Who?”

“Your father. He hates us, and he’s wanted to destroy us for years. So it makes sense that he’d try something like this,” he said. “He knows all those things he accused us of in the ransom message aren’t true, but he wanted to frighten us with it anyway. I’m sure he hoped we’d confess to all the lies just to get Rose back.”

My stomach began to churn.Oh, fuck.This shit was getting way out of hand.

“Why do you think it’s him?” I asked, pasting on a suitably shocked expression. “Plenty of outsiders despise you. You’ve said so yourself, multiple times.”

Augustus clasped his hands in front of him. “Here’s our theory. We believe your father recruited a group of like-minded individuals from Pinecrest Falls to help with his plan, which must’ve been formulated over a long time. Months, or even years,” he said. “We’ve heard of a new sort of outsider technology involving flying cameras. I forget the name.”

“Drones?” I said, forehead wrinkling.

“Yes, that’s it. We believe this group, headed by your father, used those things to spy on us for a very long time. They eventually decided to target Rose, because she often ventures close to the boundary fence when she goes berry-picking, which they would’ve realized after all their months of surveillance.”

“And then what?”

“We think they sent someone to lure her even closer to the fence. Then they were able to drug her with a hallucinogenic agent, and while she was under the influence of that, they convinced her to leave Alderwood,” he said. “After that, they kept her drugged to the gills for weeks. Due to the influence ofthese substances, she built up a fantastical story of being in Hell, and that’s what she now believes. But in reality, she was with these outsiders as their hostage.”

I shook my head. “That’s not possible. There’s no way Rose could’ve left Alderwood without being seen.”

“Actually, therewasa way. We recently discovered that there was a secret tunnel running beneath the fence. One the outsiders could have found, either on their own… or via your notes.” Augustus tilted his head slightly to one side. “Do you see what I’m saying now?”

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