𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 [𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤]

𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰

Sarah dipped off when we reached the chateau to go meet Wheezie. I offered to take her, but she insisted I update Pope and Kie and what I heard at the sheriff's station.

"Hey, how'd things go?" I asked as I walked into the house. Kiara's clothes were stacked on the other couch cushion leaving me to pull up one of the chairs from the table.

Pope started, "Well, Pops was upset."

"Upset? After you left the truck in Charleston? What for?" Kiara asked sarcastically, making me chuckle.

"You know, I'm actually trying to figure that out for myself. I can't really see any reason..." Pope played along before he got serious, "But I did ask him about the key and he said his grandmother had something like it. So, I went over there and," he began to rummage through his pockets and pulled out an older looking container and rushed to open it and out came a key. "Found this."

The key must've been pretty significant considering Kiara had given Pope quite the reaction to him finding it. I, on the other hand, had no idea what it meant or how it was important to anything that was going on. All I did know it might be able to help us clear John B's name, but I wasn't exactly sure how that was going to work. "Holy shit Pope!" They were both getting excited and I was starting to feel a little left out.

Pope jumped up to turn off the light and turned on his flashlight, "Look at this." He shined the light through the dust on the pillow to show the writing etched onto the key. Now I was fully invested seeing as I had never seen something like this before.

Kiara and I spoke at the same time saying, "Holy shit."

"How did you even figure out it did that?" Kie asked, I was still stunned, "Wait, do it again." We watched as the dust filled the air once more and I began to read.

"The path to the tomb, begins in the island room." I repeated it again, "What does that even mean?"

"I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Denmark Tanny." I was excited to hear and wanted to share it with Sarah, but she wasn't back yet. Why was it taking so long?

"Has Sarah texted you guys?" they shook their heads no and I began to worry a little bit more. I sat around with them for a bit longer before I left. Maybe I could go by Tannyhill to see if she was there?

The drive was shorter than I remembered, leaving me only able to jam to two songs instead of my normal four. As I pulled down the street, there was another car pulling into the yard. I sped up a tad to try and get them to open the gate for me. I was hoping it was Rose, but my luck it was Liam dropping off Rafe. No way was I asking them about Sarah.

"Laney?" Liam shared a look with Rafe who had stopped off on the side of the driveway before flagging him on to put the code back in the gate. I pulled in and parked my car. Liam watched the gate close before walking over to my car. I rolled the window down as I looked over to Rafe and took in his facial expression and body language. Something had happened, I wasn't sure what. But after remembering what Pope told me about the day Sheriff Peterkin died, I knew to be wary of him.

"Hey." I sat in my car as he leaned into the window.

"Everything okay?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I was just looking for Sarah," I watched him look back over his shoulder to Rafe before turning back to me, "if you haven't seen her, that's totally cool."

"I haven't since, uh, yesterday?" I raised a brow, "We just passed by each other really, nothing too special."  As Liam spoke, Rafe walked away into the house leaving us alone. "Was there anything else you needed?" As he spoke, his dimples poked through with a small smile. "We can catch up?" I gave him a look, raising my eyebrow at the suggestion, "Only if you want to.."

He chuckled and a smile came to his face, "Just catch up? Remember the last time you tried to catch up with me?" I didn't want things to be awkward but I also really had no desire to entertain his request. I guess he was starting to catch on. "I just know there's a lot going on right now and it's nice to see a familiar face still hanging around." He looked from me to the house, then back to me.

"Did you want to come in?" I looked at the time on my radio and saw it was almost 2 am.

I shook my head no, "I would love to, but my dad's been on my ass about being home at a reasonable hour since I came home. But maybe another time?" he laughed at my response but nodded anyway. I had let things go on too long.

"I totally get it." He backed away from my car, "You still have my number?" I pulled out my phone to check, telling him yes.

"Use it, Foster." We laughed together as he punched in the code to open the gate. I waved as I pulled out of the yard and started my drive back home. Even though Taylor Swift was playing through the bluetooth, I was still uncomfortable after talking to Liam. He gave me the feeling that something bad happened and that he knew about it.

Once I got home, I sat in the driveway for a second to collect my thoughts and delete his number before heading in the house. I would not be using it.