Page 72 of Not Quite Dead Yet

He pulled a red box down from the highest shelf. Infants’ Tylenol. Opened the flap to pull out the glass bottle and littleplastic syringe. ‘OK, it’s coming, Cam. Shh-shh,’ he said, which made absolutely no difference at all.

Jet’s head ached, pushing back against the sound, returning fire.

‘Shit, I don’t know how much.’ Luke narrowed his eyes at the tiny syringe. ‘Jet, can you check my phone? Sophia texted about it the other day. There, on the table. Should say the amount.’

Jet sighed, tapped the darkened phone screen. ‘Code?’ She repeated the phone’s demand.

‘213024,’ Luke said, unscrewing the medicine as Jet tapped the code in.

She pressed theMessagesicon, opened Luke’s thread with Sophia.

‘What am I looking for?’ she asked, scrolling up.

‘Tylenol,’ Luke said through gritted teeth, like the sound had made its way inside his head too.

‘OK.’ Jet clicked her tongue, scanning the screen. ‘Is it normal to talk about your baby’s poop this much?’

‘Jet!’

‘Found it.Just called doctor,’ she read from the screen. ‘He says try Tylenol instead of Advil when he’s bad. 3ml.’

‘Three,’ Luke repeated. ‘Perfect.’ He dipped the syringe into the bottle, but Jet’s eyes strayed back to Luke’s phone screen, to that message from Sophia.

It was sent on Friday, at 3:06 p.m. But wait … Jet shifted. Wasn’t that in the time span between the Sophia sightings on the doorbell camera, when she said she’d left her phone at the Masons’? How was Sophia texting from a phone she’d left behind?

Maybe Jet was wrong; she’d have to check the times in her notebook.

But there was something else too, a few messages below.

A text from Sophia to Luke.

Call me.

That’s all it said. Jet swiped to the left and the screen told her it had been sent at 10:52 p.m. that Friday night. Six minutes after Jet’s head was split open. When Luke and Sophia were supposed to be here, together, in this house. That was what they’d said in their police statements. But Sophia wouldn’t have textedCall meif they were here, together, watchingFriends.So … one of them wasn’t in the house, and both of them had lied about it.

Jet narrowed her eyes. Billy caught her, widening his in response. She shook her head. Not here, not now.

‘There we go,’ Luke said, oblivious, his back turned, pressing the plunger of pink liquid into Cameron’s open mouth.

The baby swallowed and the screaming stopped, Jet’s ears ringing with relief. Cameron clacked his tongue, poked it through his lips. Then his little mouth bared again, a silent scream, revving up, followed by a not-silent one.

‘He’s still screaming,’ Jet said, hands to her ears.

‘It doesn’t work immediately.’ Luke threw her a look, rinsing the plunger.

‘OK, I need to leave.’ Jet crossed the kitchen, heading for the hall. ‘Send me that list of employees, Luke. As soon as you get to the office. Or I’ll ask Dad instead.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Luke said, head over the sink, the loud splatter of the water joining in with the screams, an assault of sound.

Jet ran away from it, to the front door, Billy on her heels.

‘What was that face for?’ he asked her, closing the front door behind them, shutting away all that noise. They headed to her truck, parked in front of the double garage. ‘What did you see on Luke’s phone?’

‘Luke and Sophia lied.’ Jet opened her door, slid inside. ‘One of them wasn’t at home around the time of the attack,like they said. Sophia lied twice, actually. Said she left her phone at my parents’ house that afternoon, but I’m pretty sure she was texting Luke at that time. I’ll have to show you the doorbell footage.’

Billy clicked in his seatbelt. ‘So, what are we going to do now?’

Jet slotted the keys into the ignition.

---