They went into his office, not a single word spoken between them until the door was shut. Evie went straight to the window, setting down her things on the ledge. As she stared out at the fun in the backyard, Mason couldn’t help but worry for her. He closed the door and slumped into his desk chair, which they had barely used since hiring a building for the investigation business.
“What’s bugging you?” he asked, resting his hands in his lap.
“Is it true? Is he back?”
Mason had a myriad of replies to this, but none of them offered the peace of mind she was after. The truth was, he was just as unsettled as she was. The only difference being that he could do something about it. It felt like Evie’s only option was to wait and hope. And when he got right down to it, Mason supposed he was in the same boat.
“He’s back,” he told her.
Evie lowered her head. She didn’t turn around. “How is this possible?”
“You’re asking the wrong guy.”
“How can you be the wrong guy, for crying out loud? You quarantined him, tortured him, then burnt his body to a crisp.” Evie turned then, with ire lighting up her eyes. “How can that even happen? You saw his corpse, didn’t you?”
Mason fell silent. In fact, he had not seen Marvin Wendell’s corpse. After the torture—though he hated to use that word when he truly believed it was mere punishment—it was Bill who had taken the Lullaby Killer away and finished him off. That had been the deal, and when Bill had said he didn’t want to talk about it, Mason had granted him that peace. He just didn’t know it would come back to bite them in the ass eight years down the line.
“I’m confused,” he confessed. “Same as you. But I’m on top of it. I think.”
“You think?”
“I’m doing what I can, Evie.”
Evie stormed toward the desk, placed her hands on the dusty wood, and stared him down. “I’m going to ask you one question, and I need you to be totally honest with me. I won’t be mad, but I want the truth… Is she safe?”
“Who?”
“You know who.”
Mason paused for thought. It became clear quite quickly who she was talking about, but even hearing her name inside his head felt unnatural. After all, he hadn’t heard it in so many years, and now… “Maybe you should keep an eye on her. From a distance.”
“Goddamn it.”
Evie stood up straight and began to pace. Mason watched her, anxiety flooding his body as the tension ramped up in his brain. The truth was, he didn’t know what to make of this whole situation. Whether they should all run and hide, or stand and fight was anybody’s guess. All he knew for certain was that they couldn’t do a damn thing until the Lullaby Killer emerged from the woodwork like the insect he was.
Until then, they could only wait to die.