Page 9 of Beautiful Dreamer

“Yep. What can I help you with?” Mike asked. His big, bushyeyebrows cast a shadow on his face.

Devyn leapt right in. “I’m looking for my sister. She was here twonights ago. On Tuesday.” She flashed a photo on her phone and handed it to him.

He nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Already talked to thecops. Sorry about your sister, but I can’t say I remember her. We’re packedwhen there’s karaoke.” He moved to close the door, but Devyn stepped forward.

“Well, we know she was here for sure, because she came withfriends.” Devyn paused and offered him a smile, which seemed to slow everythingdown. It was highly effective, making it clear to Elizabeth that Devyn knew howto handle people and turn it on when it benefited her. “Would you mind takinganother look?” she asked softly. Mike fell for it. Who wouldn’t?

He studied the phone. “I don’t know her, but she comes in a lot.Sometimes with other women. They sit together and drink wine, a group of them.”The other teachers. Elizabeth nodded. “And sometimes she comes with a guy.”

“A guy?” Devyn’s ears seemed to prick and Elizabeth passed her alook.

“What did he look like?”

Elizabeth didn’t hear the answer because her phone was ringing.With volunteers out in the field, she couldn’t ignore the call. She clicked theAccept button and covered one ear in order to hear better. As the news wasrelayed to her from the very last team she’d sent out, she closed her eyes.Harris, who worked at the mail supply store, was speaking a mile a minute, andthough Elizabeth struggled to understand each detail, she absorbed enough tounderstand what they’d found. No, no, no. She looked to Devyn and attempted to figureout the right words. Her heart sank and her limbs felt like tree trunks.

“What is it?” Devyn asked, noticing her expression. She abandonedher conversation with Mike and moved to Elizabeth, who could only stare at her.“Why aren’t you saying anything? Say something,” Devyn said, squeaking out thewords. Her arms wrapped around her body. She was clutching herself, as ifbraced for a blow.

Elizabeth took a breath. “They found her car about fifty yardsfrom the road, under a branch. That’s why we missed her. She’d hit a tree.Hard. They say it looks pretty bad.”

Devyn took Elizabeth by the shoulders and squeezed, her eyes goingwide. She was hanging on by a delicate thread that was likely to snap. “Is shegoing to be okay, though?” The voice no longer sounded like hers. “What didthey say?”

Elizabeth placed her hands on her own shoulders, on top ofDevyn’s. Anything to let her know that she wasn’t alone. Devyn’s eyes searchedElizabeth’s for answers, and in that moment, she would have given anything totell Devyn what she wanted, what sheneededto hear.

Unfortunately, those weren’t words Elizabeth could deliver.

Chapter Four

They didn’t know much. The volunteer who’d found the car couldn’tget inside. But Jill was in there, either gone or clinging to life. Two dayswithout food or water, and exposed to the elements. God.

As they sped to the scene, just three and a half miles outside ofHalper’s Glen, Devyn braced herself for the worst but in the same breathrefused to accept it as a possibility. If Jill was dead, if she had been thepast two days, Devyn would have felt it. Wouldn’t she? She stared atElizabeth’s profile and wondered if this woman, who’d been so unnecessarilykind, would be the last image she’d see before her world turned upside down.She memorized the profile so she could hold on to it, remember it forever.Elizabeth was beautiful, more so than she’d realized. Somehow, if she couldanchor herself in that beauty, then surely the worst wouldn’t happen to her. Itcouldn’t. She released the image and allowed her shoulders to fold onto herchest as she cried, clenching her fists in worried anguish.

Elizabeth pulled the truck alongside the two other civilianvehicles. Two men and a woman stood nearby with a white dog, who whined quietlyoff to the side. They must have been the volunteers, but no one Devynrecognized. The trio who’d found the car nodded to them. Devyn blinked back,fear holding her hostage. Farther down she saw the emergency lights flashing.Two police cars and a fire truck. She walked toward them automatically, butElizabeth caught her by the arm.

“We need to wait here,” she said quietly in Devyn’s ear.

“No. Let go. I need to go to her.”

“Not yet,” Elizabeth said, holding on as Devyn pulled against her.

Then Devyn understood. Elizabeth didn’t want her to see Jill’sbody, to have that image forever burned into her memory.

“You need to let them work. Can you do that?”

Devyn stopped resisting as the reality of it all hit her like afreight train. She moved right past terror to hysteria, shoving her fingersinto her hair. She whined or hummed quietly, not a sound she had any controlover. These were crucial moments, and she had a sinking feeling that her lifewas about to be changed forever. She looked helplessly at Elizabeth for alifeline, but the darkness in her expression communicated so much, none of itgood.

Behind her there was the wail of a siren approaching. She turned intime to see the ambulance pull off the road. The sob she heard tear through theearly evening air was one she recognized as her own. She felt for the hood ofthe car and found it, using it to keep herself steady. She was shivering butfelt the warmth of Elizabeth’s arms around her and sank back, letting them holdher more fully. If they’d run the siren, there was still hope. They didn’t runthe siren if it was too late. With Elizabeth’s arms still offering support, shewatched as the EMTs exited the back of the ambulance in a hurry and raced pastthem to the scene she could only glimpse through the trees. In ahurry, she reiteratedto herself. Devyn squinted through the wash of tears. Her heart jackhammered.The wind rustled. How could it rustle so normally in a moment that was anythingbut? Who’d allowed that?

“Hold steady. Maybe that’s a good sign,” Elizabeth said quietly inher ear. She didn’t want to get Devyn’s hopes up. She’d used the wordmaybeto shield her.Devyn wanted to run down the short hill to the car and see for herself, yet shewas too afraid of what she’d find, what she’d see. Instead, she carefully remindedherself to breathe, focusing all of her attention on doing just that untilshouting erupted from the scene. There were several voices, and each onemuffled the other. What were they shouting about, damn it? She craned her neckand Elizabeth released her. Her skin prickled uncomfortably and time seemed tohave stopped moving forward.

“She’s alive!” a male voice shouted up to them.

Devyn dropped to the ground and was left sitting there in a pileof moss. She held her head in her hands and cried tears of relief andgratitude. She held her eyes closed and thanked any and all higher powers. Jillwas all she had left, and she was still with them. She’d worry about the restlater. For now, her world didn’t have to end, and that felt like everything.When she opened her eyes, she was face-to-face with the white dog she’d seenearlier, who promptly dragged its tongue across her cheek. She was too numb toreact. When the dog continued to lick her, someone pulled it away.

“Yours?” she heard a voice ask.

“Nah. Was alongside the road when we stopped. She’s the reason wedid. That dog was some sort of beacon. Led us straight down to the car.”

She made note of the words but couldn’t quite make sense of themin this moment.

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