The Lost Causes
Page 31
* * *
Z rolled into the kitchen the next morning a bit earlier than usual, surprised to find her father was the only one present until she realized it was a Saturday. That meant her mother was still sleeping off the effects of the double sedative she’d no doubt taken the night before, and she vaguely remembered Scott discussing plans to go helicopter-skiing in Telluride with some of his friends.
Relishing the quiet, Z took her cup of espresso to the table where her father sat reading the paper.
“You’re up early,” her father commented, surprising Z. She hadn’t realized her movements through the house ever registered on his radar.
Z shrugged as she grabbed a muffin from the plate Louise, their housekeeper, had left out. She’d had a hard time sleeping since Nash had informed them all the previous night that the serum was still out there somewhere. It was killing her not to be part of the investigation. How were they supposed to go back to their “normal lives” when some psycho had the serum and could unleash it at any time?
Her father put down the Wall Street Journal, moving on to the local Cedar Springs paper, whose front page was still dominated by the Brandt story.
As was no surprise to Z, the FBI had intervened immediately to control and whitewash the news flow. There was no mention, of course, of the Lost Causes past or present, the serum or Brandt’s true identity as Kevin Beswick. Instead, the official story as reported by the police and FBI was that evidence had been found in Brandt’s house implicating him in the murder of Lily Carpenter. Patricia was being hailed as the FBI agent who’d tracked him down, sacrificing her life as she attempted to bring him into custody. After Brandt fatally shot her, it was explained, he set fire to his house in an apparent suicide.
Z had to hand it to the FBI — they’d managed to tie up all the loose ends in a neat-enough bow, though the frenzy for information still hadn’t slowed. Every time she saw a new article speculating on why the fire had started or how Patricia had tracked Brandt down, it was tantalizingly difficult to refrain from revealing all she knew. Even now, as her father skimmed the front page, she found herself wanting to skate around the issue.
“Have they figured out why that guy killed Lily Carpenter?” she asked innocently.
“Their best guess is a robbery gone bad. Sounds like this guy was unstable to begin with.”
Z had to literally bite her tongue as she reached for her blueberry muffin. But the ringing in her ears jerked her head up. It was the first time she had heard a thought from her father. It came through loud and clear the way all the others usually had.
But this one shook her to the core.
She froze, clutching the underside of the table as if it was a life raft. Her father’s expression remained impassive as he flipped through the pages, but Z knew what she’d just heard.
Feeling her gaze, her father looked up at her, taking in her wide-eyed stare.
“Zelda, are you okay?”
She could call him out right this second. The words tingled in her throat, eager to escape. But who knew how he would react?
Instead, she nodded demurely, dropping her eyes to the floor. “I, uh, forgot something. Upstairs.”
Her legs shaking, she took the back staircase up to her room, two steps at a time.
Only when she was firmly ensconced in her bedroom, the door assuredly locked behind her, did she take out her phone and call Nash.
“I know who bought the serum. I was just eating breakfast with him.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, we want to thank our readers, especially the ones who loved this book enough to even read the acknowledgments. We hope living in the world of the Lost Causes was as much fun for you as it was for us.
This book wouldn’t have been possible without the following people lending us their minds and hearts:
The world “brilliant” gets thrown around a lot but in the case of our editor, Kate Egan, it is not only true, it’s the best word to describe her. Kate, thank you for making us better writers. You helped us shape this book into everything we hoped it could be.
Huge thanks to Holly Root, our tenacious literary agent at Waxman Leavell, who instantly got this book when it was still an idea in our heads and never stopped fighting for it.
To the team at Kids Can Press and KCP Loft, we cannot thank you enough for your support and enthusiasm for this project.
A shout-out to Melanie Downing, whose early thoughts gave us the motivation to push forward.
(And speaking of shout-outs, thank you to whoever invented leggings, which you can write in all day and sleep in, too.)
We want to thank the co-presidents of our fan club (our mothers), as well as our entire families for being an endless source of love and support for us always.
And finally, the biggest thank you of all to Josh and Dan who never doubt us even when we doubt ourselves. We’re publicly admitting that sometimes you guys are right. Thank you for taking over everything and not blinking an eye when we were in our writing cocoons. You guys are our therapists, cheerleaders, best friends and the most amazing husbands in the world.