surprised.
Apparently, Lilly had asked for tea, but now she seemed barely aware
that it had been put before her. The power of her repressed emotions ,
was growing so visible that she wouldn’t be able to maintain her
composure much longer, yet for the moment she continued to speak in an
uninflected drone, “Phone’s dead. Okay. What if I drive to my
mother-in-law’s? To tell her about Jimmy. Will I be stopped? Stopped on
the way? Advised to be silent? For Jimmy’s sake? And if I won’t stop? If
I won’t be silent? ”
“How much has Sasha told you? ” I asked.
Lilly’s eyes fixed on mine, then moved at once away. “Something happened
at Wyvern. Something strange. Bad. In some way it affects us.
Every one in Moonlight Bay. They’re trying to keep it quiet. It might
explain Jimmy’s disappearance. Somehow.” I turned to look at Sasha, who
had retreated to the farther side of the kitchen. “That’s all? ”
“Isn’t she in greater danger if she knows more? ” Sasha asked.
“Definitely, ” Bobby said from his watch position at the rear door.
Considering the depth of Lilly’s distress, I agreed that it was not wise
to tell her every detail of what we knew. If she understood the
apocalyptic threat looming over us, over all humanity, she might lose
her last desperate faith that she would see her little boy alive again.
I would never be the one who robbed her of that remaining hope.
Besides, I detected a dusting of gray in the night beyond the kitchen
windows, a precursor of dawn so subtle that anyone without my heightened
appreciation for shades of darkness was not likely to notice. We were
running out of time. Soon I would have to hide from the sun, which I
preferred to do in the well-prepared sanctuary of my own home.
Lilly said, “I deserve to know. To know everything.”
“Yes, ” I agreed.
“Everything.”
“But there’s not enough time now. We”
“I’m scared, ” she whispered.
I pushed aside her cup of tea and reached across the table with both
hands. “You aren’t alone.” She looked at my hands but didn’t take them,
perhaps because she was afraid that by putting her hands in mine, she
would lose her grip on her emotions.
Keeping my hands on the table, palms up, I said, “Knowing more now won’t
help you. Later, I’ll tell you everything. Everything.
But now .
.. If whoever took Jimmy has nothing to do with … the mess at Wyvern,
Manuel will try hard to bring him back to you. I know he will.
But if it is related to Wyvern, then none of the police, Manuel
included, can be trusted. Then it’s up to us. And we’ve got to assume it
will be up to us.”
“This is so wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Crazy.”
“Yes.”
“So wrong, ” she repeated, and her flat voice was increasingly eerie.
Her effort to maintain her composure left her face clenched as tight as
a fist.
I couldn’t bear the sight of her in such acute pain, but I did not avert
my gaze. When she was able to look at me, I wanted her to see the
commitment in my eyes, perhaps she could take some comfort from it.
“You’ve got to stay here, ” I said, “so we’ll know where to get hold of
you if … when we find Jimmy.”
“What hope do you have? ” she said, and though her voice remained flat,
a flutter passed through it.
“You against … who? The police? The army? The government? You against
all of them? ”
“It isn’t hopeless. Nothing’s hopeless in this worldunless we want it to
be. But, Lilly … you’ve got to stay here. Because if this isn’t about
Wyvern, isn’t connected, then the police might need your help. Or might
bring you good news. Even the police.”
“But you shouldn’t be alone, ” Sasha said.
“When we leave, ” Bobby said, “I’ll bring Jenna here.” Jenna Wing was
Lilly’s mother-in-law. “Would that be okay? ” Lilly nodded.
She was not going to take my hands, so I folded them on the table, as
hers were folded.