Dead Silence (The Body Finder 4)

And Violet could.

She picked up her phone and pressed Call.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Jay asked, zipping his jacket all the way up to his chin.

The temperatures had dropped quickly, plummeting from brisk to downright chilly in the past several days, making it clear that summer was long gone as autumn bore down on them with a vengeance. Violet watched his breath as it hit the air in a cloud and then dissipated once more.

“Why? Are you scared?” she challenged, only half teasing.

She couldn’t help herself. She liked watching the way his pink scar puckered when he scoffed at the idea that he was afraid of being left alone in the cemetery, even though she’d only be a few steps away.

“Me? Scared of a few ghosts? Are you kidding?” His breath gusted again as his chest puffed up. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m kind of a hero around these parts. I singlehandedly caught a killer, you know?”

Violet shoved him, laughing at his stupid joke, one she’d heard about a million times already. And then she saw the man in the trench coat picking his way among the gravestones, searching for one in particular. “Stay here,” she told him, slipping out from behind the tree. “I’ll be right back.”

Instead of going to him, Violet went to their designated meeting spot and waited. Dr. Lee was just a few steps behind her, and he glanced down at the grave markers Violet stood in front of.

He shook his head. “It’s a shame, isn’t it?”

Violet looked too . . . at the markers for the Bowman family. Their imprints were at rest now that they were buried. She could see through the beautiful array of colors, and could barely smell the hint of coffee that hit her nose as she’d approached. She couldn’t see Veronica’s—the girl’s—echo but she was sure that if she could, it would have been the halo.

She stood in front of Tyler’s grave, though. The only one missing an echo altogether.

It didn’t matter—Violet knew he was at peace too. He was with his family.

As it turned out, Grady had been holding the key to the connection between Veronica Bowman and Evan’s unusual “family” all along. It had been on the iPod the police had recovered at his house. It was the band, Safe Word. Veronica had become obsessed with their songs, and had started slipping out to the clubs to see them perform live.

It had been at one of those clubs where Evan noticed her in the first place.

“What’s this about, Violet?” Dr. Lee asked, getting right to the point.

“I want you to know I’m staying. On the team.” She turned to watch him from the corner of her eye. “Without the threats. I’m doing this because I want to.”

A satisfied grin tugged at his lips, making him look far too smug. “What changed your mind?”

She closed her eyes. “Everything,” she answered. “But not you. It wasn’t because of anything you said or did. It was . . . other things. I still don’t trust you, and if I find out the Center is doing anything shady, I will expose all of you.”

He tilted his head, appraising her. “Is that it? Did you bring me all the way down here to tell me that?”

Violet squeezed her hands, her palms sweaty. Her heart fluttered, but not in a good way, and her vocal cords were paralyzed.

Dr. Lee took her silence as his cue to leave.

But Violet had one more thing, and she chased after him. “Wait!” she shouted, freeing her voice at last. She reached into her pocket and fumbled for something. She remembered that day at the park, not so long ago, when he’d come to her with an ultimatum . . . a warning. Now it was her turn. “There is one last thing.” Her fingers closed around the business card she’d looked at a hundred times since that day at the hospital, and she threw it on the ground between them as he turned back to face her. She bared her teeth at him, caution laced in her voice. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing. But I’m warning you, stay the hell away from my friend.”

And then she swiveled around on her heel and left him standing there.