Page 113 of The Dearly Departed

I stared at the screen, unsure of what to say or what to do. If someone needed help, I wanted to help them … but I wasn’t sure I could do it from this phone. What if Gerald was watching? What if he had a way of reading these texts?

Logic told me it was likely fine, but I didn’t know, and that was the part that left me unsettled.

It could be a trap, I thought, staring at the screen. But what if it’s not and someone really needs me?

What if it’s …

Jekyll, are you there?

Analise. Nobody else called me by that name, and even though I couldn’t prove it wasn’t a trap, I refused to ignore her.

What do you need? I tapped out quickly, and then I waited for her to reply … but it never came.

Time passed, I worked, and when I checked the clock and saw an hour and a half had gone by since she'd last texted me, I couldn't wait any longer.

Something was wrong. She needed me, and though I’d denied her touch before, I couldn’t deny her my help.

"I need to buy cigarettes," I called to Shawn, who was working in the office.

Then I hurried down the hall and toward the back door, knowing my mask was already in the hearse, waiting for my inevitable return.

***

I drove to Seint Manor in broad daylight for the first time, not knowing where else to go. The truth was, I wasn’t sure Analise went anywhere outside the estate’s massive grounds, and if she did, I wouldn’t know where to look.

Dean opened the door before I could climb out of the hearse.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, surprised and panicked.

I held up my burner phone. "Got a text. By the way, you want to tell me how Analise has my number?"

He fixed his jaw before dropping his gaze to the stone driveway. "I gave it to her. I told her only to use it in case of an emergency.”

That made me breathe a little easier, as I knew she hadn't gone snooping for anything in Gerald's office. But it didn't answer the question of why she had texted in the first place when she never had in all the years she’d known me.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Upstairs in her room," Dean answered, lifting his gaze back to mine.

I brushed past him to head inside when he grabbed my arm, holding me back.

"Sometimes, it's better to look the other way," he warned, his eyes full of sincerity.

“Is that what you do? Is that what you would do with your own girls?” I asked, my voice low and whispered, using the girls we had saved against him, the ones he and his wife were now raising as their own.

His lips pressed in a terse line as his eyes volleyed around the foyer, making sure nobody was listening, and then he muttered, “I do what I can to keep my head above water. Surely, you can understand that.”

Wrenching my arm from his grasp, I replied, "Not when it comes to her.”

And with that, I hurried inside and headed up the curved marble staircase.

In my years of involvement with the goings-on in Seint Manor, I had only been up here a handful of times, and the only room I'd ever been permitted to go into was Gerald's office. I knew Analise's room was up here somewhere, but without ever having been there myself, I was forced to open several doors down the long hallway and peek inside, finding nothing but dark rooms and more secrets.

I didn’t know where Gerald or Virginia were, if they were somewhere inside the house or out conducting whatever crooked business they busied their days with. They could be behind any of these doors. I could walk in and unearth another one of their secrets, giving them another piece of blackmail to add to the accumulating mountain, but that was a risk I was willing to take now in order to find the woman who needed me.

But for once, luck was on my side as I went down the hallway, finally coming to a door with its edges illuminated with light.

I didn't know what awaited me on the other side. I didn't know what I'd see, what I'd have to do to stop whatever it was from happening. All I knew was, she needed me, and that was enough.