CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

It took over an hour to get all the way up to the Springs, thanks to the most winding road Andrew had ever been on. The only reason he was able to hold his motion sickness back was that Sabrina was next to him, completely unfazed by the nauseating twists and turns. He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of her. Justin was tough, but Andrew thought Sabrina was probably the strongest of them all.

They piled out of the van and scattered around the area, searching for something, even though they weren’t sure what that something was. Andrew had seen pictures of what the Springs used to look like, but it was hard to believe the dry, cracked dirt underneath his feet had once been a pool the size of a football field.

He planted himself near a bed of twenty or so large rocks. Could Devon or his killer have hidden something underneath one? Andrew held his breath and picked one up.

Nothing but dirt underneath.

As he lifted another heavy rock, it occurred to him that a rock like this could’ve been used as a weapon, too. What if whoever killed Devon hit him over the head with a rock to knock him out? Andrew picked up one rock after another, bracing himself for a bloodstained one. He picked up the last rock and a lizard jumped out from beneath it, scaring him half to death.

“Did you find something?” Nash was suddenly right behind him. How did he get there so fast?

“I thought I saw something, but, um, turned out it was nothing.” Good save, Andrew told himself.

He ditched Nash and chose a new location, which he estimated to have been the center of the pool before it dried up. He roamed around between the small succulents that had sprung up over the years and started to question if coming here was a smart idea. What if Devon wasn’t talking about this place? The Springs could have been anything. A restaurant, a book, a last name. None of them had found anything remotely suspicious yet.

Andrew swatted at a fly that buzzed around him as if it was mocking his lack of progress. As soon as that one left him alone, a few others zipped around his face, as though the first fly had called all his friends over. Andrew pushed them away and strode toward another pile of rocks. He’d rather deal with lizards than flies. But the more steps he took, the more flies he encountered. The buzzing kept getting louder and louder until he reached a spot where there must have been hundreds of flies. They were all circling around the same area.

A thought suddenly occurred to him. Flies congregate near dead bodies.

There wasn’t a dead body on top of the dirt, but maybe there was a dead body buried underneath. “Guys! Over here!”

The group rushed over at once.

“The ground’s been disturbed,” Nash said, unperturbed by the flies buzzing in his face. “There’s something buried under here.” Andrew felt nauseated again when Nash went to grab a shovel.

“Wait,” Justin instructed. “Stand back. This’ll be faster.”

It was hard not to be impressed as Justin stared at the dirt and separated it into two huge clumps like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Andrew smelled the body before he saw it. In fact, all their hands immediately flew up to cover their noses. Then they looked down into the grave. Even though his face was now a greenish-blue color, it was definitely Devon Warner’s, or whatever his real name was.

“Guess that dude in the white van really was a reporter,” Justin said to Z. “’Cause this corpse definitely wasn’t driving it.” Z was breathing into her sweatshirt and couldn’t reply.

“We need to see if the serum is on him,” Patricia said, not missing a beat. “It’s obviously a long shot, but we need to check.”

Nash pulled out gloves and jumped into the grave without flinching. Show-off, Andrew thought. He could barely look at the body. Gabby almost had her back to it.

“There’s nothing,” Nash said, after going through Devon’s pockets. “Not even a wallet.”

“How long do you think he’s been dead?” Andrew asked, his voice nasal because he was trying not to breathe in that putrid smell.

“I’d guess four or five days,” Nash answered. “But we won’t know for sure until we talk to the medical examiner.”

“What do you think happened? Do you think someone killed him for the serum?” Sabrina asked.

“It could’ve been a deal gone wrong,” Andrew replied. “We know Devon was desperate for cash. He could’ve been trying to sell the serum to someone — and instead the guy just killed him for it.”

“Or what if Devon was more like a hit man?” Sabrina asked. “Somebody else paid him to kill Lily and steal the serum, and then once the job was done, he killed Devon, too. No loose ends.”

Z, who looked more fascinated than disgusted by the corpse, said, “How can we be positive his death is related to Lily and the serum at all? It seemed like he had a bad temper, after what he did to Sadie. Maybe he just crossed the wrong dude and got killed for it.”

“I don’t think so,” Nash said. He lifted up Devon’s shirt so they all could see what was underneath.

Burn marks. They were all over Devon’s stomach in the same shape and pattern as the strange ones that had been found on Lily.

Justin’s eyes went wide. “I’m confused. I thought Devon was the one who burned Lily. Now someone did the same thing to him?”

“Maybe Devon and whoever did this to him were both at Lily’s cabin that day,” Nash answered. “Working together to murder Lily and then steal the serum. So the same person who did this to Lily could’ve also done it to Devon.”

Sabrina nodded. “Remember what Lily said to me? ‘I know why they want it.’ ”

“Right,” Andrew agreed. “Devon and his killer could’ve started out as a team, as friends. That’s why Devon said, ‘Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.’ ”

“And once they had the serum, Devon’s killer stabbed him in the back. Metaphorically,” Justin said, making a point to mock Andrew.

Andrew ignored him because he’d actually been thinking the same thing. “Exactly. Devon’s friend could have tortured and killed him the same way they did Lily Carpenter so he could keep the serum for himself. If their plan was to sell it to the highest bidder, killing Devon meant not having to split the money.”

“So where do we think the serum is now, then?” Gabby asked, finally finding her voice.

“It’s possible Devon managed to hide it somewhere, but I think it’s much more likely that whoever killed him took it,” Nash answered, effortlessly pulling himself up and out of the grave. “That’s who we need to find now. We couldn’t find any connection between Devon and the FBI or Lily. But his killer could be the link.”

They were getting closer, but Andrew hoped they weren’t running out of time now that there was such a huge new development. Whoever had the serum was either going to exploit it for his own gain or sell it off to someone with an even worse plan in mind. It was up to them to get to the serum back before he could do either.

Patricia gripped her hands together so tightly that her knuckles were white. “We’ll have the FBI scour this entire scene for evidence to see if Devon’s killer left anything behind that we can trace. And once we get the fingerprints from the body, maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“When you’re done doing that stuff to the body,” Gabby said, practically gagging, “can you give me that shirt Devon’s wearing? Maybe I can get a vision from it. It might be wishful thinking, but it’s worth a try.”

“Better yet, maybe you’ll see who killed him,” Z added. Andrew was electrified by that thought.

“As soon as the medical examiner takes a look at the body, we’ll get you the shirt, Gabby,” Nash said.

Gabby nodded nervously and Andrew gave her an encouraging smile.

Patricia stared at the corpse as if she was willing it to supply answers. “Every second matters now. The more hands this serum moves between, the less chance we have of finding it.”