Bran New Death(43)
“Your car is still hammering away,” I commented to Shilo. “You ought to have that thing looked at.”
She frowned and squinted at the car. “It’s getting worse. Oh well, if it breaks down, it breaks down.” Her insouciance was part of her charm.
“Ladies,” Virgil said, striding up to us. “I need to ask you a few questions.” He frowned and looked over at Shilo’s car. “You realize your car is making a funny noise?”
“Ignore it,” I said airily. “It always makes funny noises.”
He cocked his head. “Does it always yell ‘Help, help, help’?” He raced around to the trunk. “Open this up!” he yelled.
Shilo, eyes wide, got out her key, dashed to the rear of the car, and jiggled it in the lock. I joined them just as the trunk lid sprang open and we found a girl curled up in the trunk, gasping for air.
She clambered out and blasted us with an icy look. “I almost died in there!” she yelled.
Fists on his hips, Virgil glared at us. “You want to explain this?”
“I know you!” I said, pointing at the girl. “You’re Lizzie; I met you at Golden Acres. Shilo, why did you have Lizzie locked in your trunk?” I know I shouldn’t have said that; it made Shi look bad. But it wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing she’s ever had in her trunk. I’m just saying . . . you never know with Shilo.
“I didn’t put her in there,” she said pointedly, and switched her glare to the girl. “Why were you in my trunk?”
Note she did not ask her how she got in there, she asked why. I told you about her car being a rattletrap, and that extended to the anti-theft system; a teething two-year-old could pop that lock.
“How should I know you didn’t have one of those lock-release thingies that are supposed to prevent people from dying in freaking car trunks,” Lizzie grumbled, brushing off her plaid skirt and black leggings. “You should clean it out, you know,” she said, pulling a wad of old gum out of her frizzy, dark hair. She tugged her hair back into an elastic. “It’s like a landfill site in there, and smells like a petting zoo.”
“Well, pardon me! I didn’t know anyone was moving in.”
Virgil had been monitoring the exchange with a wary look, which had now turned weary. “Lizzie, why did you climb in the trunk?”
The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. “Well, duh . . . so I could come out here and get a good look at the castle. I’ve been out walking in these woods a lot,” she said, waving her hand around to take in the whole of the Wynter Woods, “but I’ve never been able to break into . . . uh . . .” She trailed off, and shifted gears, finishing with, “That is, I’ve never gotten to see the inside of the castle.”
She had a camera around her neck, a really good camera. I squinted at her with, I’ll admit it, some suspicion. I was remembering Gogi’s story about the girl having to do community service because she spray-painted on gravestones. “Why didn’t you just ask me if you could come out and have a look?”
She shrugged. Virgil’s puzzled gaze shifted from one of us to the next.
“Shi, why don’t you take her inside and feed her muffins,” I suggested, “while I talk to the sheriff.”
“Sure. Want to meet my bunny?” Shilo said, leading the girl away.
“As long as that’s not code for something weird,” Lizzie said, trudging after her.
“I’ll be in soon,” I yelled after them. Shilo waved without looking back. “And don’t let her out of your sight.”
“I won’t,” Lizzie shot back.
I chuckled and shook my head. “I know a bit about her story,” I said, turning to Virgil. “Gogi told me she was caught spray-painting gravestones.”
He nodded. “Yeah, not good, I know; her mom is a piece of work. Just showed back up in Autumn Vale a year or so ago with Lizzie in tow, after being gone for years. Lizzie will not say why she was vandalizing tombstones.”
I turned and watched Shilo and Lizzie as they entered the castle. “I heard that she’s living with her grandmother?”
“Yeah, her mom’s mom. No one knows who Lizzie’s dad is, or even if he’s local. The dad could be some dude her mother picked up wherever she took off to after high school.”
One more mystery in a town that seemed to offer them by the gross. “What do you want to know, Sheriff?”
He took me back through my interaction with Tom, and even my brief encounters with Binny, giving me no hint what he was looking for. I also told him all that I’d heard in town, about Junior Bradley and Tom Turner’s fight a while ago. When I was done, he shook his head.