Page 101 of Deliver us from Evil

As if someone on the other side of the door hears my prayers, it swings open.

I fall forward, stumble, catch myself, and go hurtling into the light. I can’t see a thing—it’s just white, and there’s shouting and movement.

I run into someone.

They grab me.

Is it Hoody? The man with the polo shirt under his sweater? Or the woman with the gun?

I don’t care.

I don’t care.

I swipe my hands over my face, push hair out of my eyes.

The man in front of me, the one I ran into, he spreads his arms.

Smiles.

I recognize that smile.

But I don’t know how.

Because the man staring at me is a stranger.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Apollo

“Trinity’s dad faked his own death?” I murmur.

I’m still staring at the letter Cass passed me. He read it out, but I’m reading it again. I was hoping I could get something—anything—by the font or type of paper he used.

But it’s a standard font in Word printed on ordinary, cheap, letter-sized paper.

Even the signature just reads ‘Gabriel’ with an indecipherable flourish that could be anything.

Cass blows a plume of cigarette smoke out of the car window. “It would appear so.”

We moved the car to the far side of the parking lot a few minutes ago. We should have started driving already, but we don’t know where to go. Which means we could be heading in the wrong direction, moving further away from Trinity.

“What if he’s lying?” Zach asks, twisting in his seat to scan our faces.

“Gabriel? Why would he?” Rube sits forward a little in his seat. “He’s dead.”

According to Gabriel’s letter, Trinity’s father—Keith Malone—is still alive. And although he states it as a fact, he doesn’t back it up with evidence.

“Then what about her mom? Is she alive too?”

“It doesn’t say,” Cass reminds me.

“Yeah…but…”

“Look, this isn’t getting us any closer to finding them,” Cass says. He flicks the butt of the cigarette out of the window.

“What will?” Rube asks.

Quiet settles down. I’ve been trying to figure that out the past ten minutes, and I’m sure everyone else has too. But we don’t have any leads.

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