Vial Things (A Resurrectionist Novel Book 1) by Leah Clifford Page B

the police can trace that call.”
    She holds the phone up. “Burner,” she says and then powers it off. “With a dead battery.”
    “Two, my fingerprints are on that picture frame, Allie.”
    “And I’m her niece,” she shoots back. “I brought my boyfriend over a few days ago to visit. Honestly,” she sighs.
    I know she doesn’t mean it for real, the boyfriend thing. My prints are in the house, at a murder scene. She’s not going to be so willing to supply an alibi when she figures out what brought me into her life in the first place.
    I’m shaking my head when I catch the light in the window. It’s not the glow of a lamp. Not a reflection of the sunset on the glass because it’s flickering. “Oh!” I whisper under my breath. Jamison, what have you done?
    Innocent people don’t cover up crimes.
    “Let’s go,” I say to Allie. “Now.”
    “But we need to…” As she turns toward me in the dimming twilight, she must catch the flash of pity in my eyes. “What?” she says, searching the covered section of the porch. Her eyes don’t stray high enough. “What is it?”
    I’ve got to get her out of here before the flames eat through the roof. “We need to go before they find the car. They’ll run into the woods when the cops get here,” I say. It all makes sense on the surface, but I can tell by her stance that she can’t help but feel she missed something important.
    “Okay,” she whispers. “This way.”
    A minute later, I hear a yell of frustration.
    “Faster,” Allie says. “They saw the tires.” The brush closes in around us as we trudge. “We’re going to get lost if we go much deeper. There’s nothing for miles. It just gets swampier until you get to the river.”
    I don’t care about getting lost. For now, I only need her away from Jamison until I can talk to him, get an explanation. We’re heading away from the neighborhoods, from anyone who could help us. The bugs sing a chorus. If anything, I hope the noise will hide the sound of our movements. The crouched near-running already has my calves aching. A breeze blows past and I catch the scent of rain and then the light fragrance of a nearby bonfire.
    Allie’s footsteps stall. “No,” she whispers, whipping around, tears already brimming in her eyes as she puts everything together.
    I give up my quest to get her deeper into the forest. She stands quietly, staring through the trees. I can’t help it when I reach out to grip her shoulder. I’m afraid she’ll take off. Instead of running back though, she reaches up over her shoulder and lays her fingers on mine. Her breath hitches. “Sarah’s in there,” she chokes out.
    “There’s nothing you can do, Allie,” I say. “We’ve got to put space between us and them.”
    The brush scrapes against me as I take a dozen steps further into the woods in the hope that she’ll follow. It doesn’t work. “Allie,” I bark as I plod back to her. My fingers bite into her cheeks as I turn her face to mine. “We need,” I say slowly. “To go. You need to trust me right now, okay?” I can’t explain anymore. We don’t have time. I reach for her hand and grip it too tightly.
    Her lips form a line, eyes slipping shut for a beat. “Yeah,” she says.
    I take off like a shot, give up on keeping us low. The dim light fades with every second that passes. Soon, it will be full dark. The wind kicks up again. My lungs fill with the smoke smell.
    “Why is he doing this?” Her voice is so low I’m not sure if she meant me to hear.
    “I don’t know,” I answer anyway. “But I’m going to find out for you.” The second the words leave my mouth, I regret them. They give too much away. Will make her think if she’s paying attention. The thing is, they’re true. Jamison has answers he will be giving me.
    “We’re just letting him go, you realize that?”
    “Would you kill him,” I ask. “If you could?”
    I wonder if she has it in her. For all her vengeance, she looks