Page 47 of Summer Shivers
I gather her in my arms. “Where are you bleeding?”
“It’s my nose,” she says. “They broke my nose.” She sounds congested, so I believe it probably is broken. Her eyes are already starting to swell.
She pants for air and wraps her arms tightly around my neck, telling me, “Thank you,” over and over again.
“What happened? You hurt anywhere else?”
“I don’t think so.” She buries her head in my chest. “They hate me, Ty. They think I killed Harrison.”
I’m not sure if this is the right time to tell her what’s going on or not. But there’s probably no better time.
“They killed him, babe,” I say.
She looks up at me through wet lashes. “What?” Shock blankets her face.
“We’re pretty sure the video footage shows they killed their dad. Sarah knew and tried to cover for them by deleting it. It’s why she was at the house that day.”
“I don’t understand.”
The officers already have most of the kids in handcuffs. I help Genevieve stand and as she tries to steady herself on her feet so she can go talk to them.
The girls stare at us defiantly as we approach.
“Did you kill your dad?” she asks in disbelief.
One of them shrugs.
“Did you not know your dad had cameras in the whole house?” I ask.
They both look at each other.
“Not until after,” the first one says to Genevieve. “Mom was supposed to take care of that.”
“Lotta good that did us,” the other one says. I can’t tell the two girls apart. I’m sure Genevieve can. Not that I’m sure it matters at this point. Or if I care.
“Oh my god.” Genevieve collapses against me but addresses them. “What have you done?”
“He was mean to mom. She deserved more. It wasn’t fair,” the first one says.
“Me, Eerie, and Mom had a plan; we were going to kill you, too,” the other one says. Guess that makes her Curious. “We needed the money,” she continues.
“But someone got a little too anxious and hit dad over the head with a rock instead of following the plan,” Eerie adds.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Curious sneers.
“Do you call this working?”
“You and Mom had a stupid plan,” Curious says.
“Like you could do better!” Eerie throws back. “I’m going to tell her you said that.”
“Doesn’t matter now, idiot.” Curious rolls her eyes.
* * *
Genevieve breathes in deeply and lets it out slowly, shaking her head in disbelief. “How could you do this?” she asks them.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Eerie says. “You don’t have to worry about money.”
