Still Waters Run Deep

Chapter 10: Beneath the Surface

Chapter 10:

Beneath the Surface

The hollow burned out SUV was found by two teenagers roaming the woods two days after Grace's funeral. They'd poked at it for a day before they decided to tell someone about it. The vehicle had been stripped down to its bare essentials and the fire had gutted the remains. It wasn't in Rosewood's jurisdiction, but because Toby had a friend on the neighboring town's force, they were contacted when it was found. The local PD there knew that Rosewood was trying to find a vehicle that was involved in a hit and run.

Toby had a hunch about it, so he and Lorenzo rode out to take a look at it. Despite the vehicle being nothing but bare bones, they could tell that it had recently been in an accident. Toby looked at it and got a twisted feeling in his stomach. He knew it was the SUV they'd been looking for. He'd stared at the wreckage of Emily's car long enough get a picture in his head of the size and build of the vehicle that had hit her. With the permission of the state police, they took the car back to Rosewood to comb it for evidence related to the hit and run. He didn't say anything to Ali and Emily. He didn't want to tell them anything until they knew something for sure. They had their hands full.

Lily was not handling the death of her sister well. When she wasn't with her friends, Pam, or Jason she was in her room. At night she'd crawl out of her bed and go sleep in Ali's bed, or she'd wake up and call for Ali to come to her room. She didn't say anything once she was next to her mother. She just curled up and went to sleep. Like Emily and Ali, she had bad dreams. They weren't as twisted as Ali's or as aggressive as Emily's, but she would thrash around just enough to wake Ali. When she woke up and saw that her mom was there she was fine. She didn't talk about her dreams. She didn't talk much at all.

Every time Lily went to see Emily she just hugged her and sat with her, rarely ever saying anything. Emily tried to get her to talk, but Lily just answered in short quiet responses, something she'd done since she was little when she internalized something. Emily could see the pain written all over her face. Heartbreak didn't even begin to cover it. Devastated didn't touch the feelings she knew Lily was facing. And knowing that she was a part of why her daughter was in so much pain burrowed into a part of Emily's heart that couldn't be soothed in any way. After one soberingly quiet visit Ali faced Emily after Pam took Lily to get something to eat. Ali was completely at a loss.

"What are we going to do?" She took Emily's hand. "Should we be forcing her to go to grief counseling?"

"She doesn't want to go." Emily sighed. "It's only been six days. She's not going to talk to anyone at this point, much less someone she doesn't know."

She knew her child, and she knew that Lily had inherited her stubborn nature. When Lily made up her mind about something there was no talking her out of it.

"I'm worried she's going to backslide when the kids go back to school tomorrow. She's had them around for support every day since they found out."

None of the kids had been back to school yet. Emily and Ali had decided to keep Lily home for a while, knowing she needed to process in her own way. She would be overwhelmed if every single student in the hallway kept looking at her like she was a wounded puppy. Both girls remembered how it felt to be the center of attention in high school when they were just trying to move forward with their lives. Emily had hated it. Ali was more uncomfortable than she let on, but she had been able to deal with the stares and whispers with the fierceness of a prideful lioness. They didn't want Lily having to deal with the student body again until she was ready.

Their friends' kids had also missed a couple of days of school to deal with their own grief, as well as be there for Lily. The kids had all come to that decision on their own, and it was a decision that their parents quickly got behind. Spencer had been wary about it at first, but Hanna had convinced her with the classic argument,