They moved together, found the tank down the side of the shed. Like the others, it was hooked up to some sort of dryer exhaust tube.
Same digital, remote release valve.
Using the bottom of his shirt to cover his hand, Vaughn fiddled with the knob. When this did nothing, he tore off the digital valve and then turned the knob beneath one way, then the other. A sharp, intense whine, then the gas stopped flowing.
Ivy returned to Dr.Moorehead, hoping that, by some miracle, he’d be up, coughing and vomiting.
Pissed off.
Adding being abducted, tied up, thrown in a barn to his list of things he loathed.
He wasn’t.
Dr.Moorehead was completely still.
Ivy checked his pulse for the hundredth time.
She couldn’t believe it. The man she’d spoken to just hours ago—who had reamed her out—was dead.
Rebecca, too.
Her mind whirred, and she recalled what Vaughn had said in the car.
Or was it before that?
She didn’t know.
Everything was just so fucked up.
Was it Zeke? Could he have set this all up?
A car parked behind Vaughn’s, drawing her eyes, a reason to peel them away from Dr.Moorehead’s blue-tinged face. It was that asshole cop who had pointed his gun at her and her father, and Kachinski, too.
“Delaney!” Vaughn waved a hand. “Put your mask on and bring that fucking detector thing.”
Another vehicle—a black cube van—arrived behind the PPD squad car.
Delaney went to his trunk. Reappeared wearing a mask and holding a handheld gas detector. His footsteps faltered when he noticed Dr.Moorehead lying on the grass.
“Aw, shit—another game?” Delaney’s voice was oddly high-pitched, resonant.
Ivy couldn’t answer, even if she’d wanted to. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
But it had been a game, hadn’t it? The poem? Riddle?
Only Dr.Moorehead had no chance of winning this one.
It was on her.
This was all on her.
“We’re going to have to cordon this area off for a bit. Levels are too high,” Delaney said, his voice returning close to normal. His eyes were locked on the device in his hand. It was beeping incessantly. “Tell Landon—”
He looked up, noticed Ivy for the first time. Squinted at her, trying to make sure it really was Ivy behind the mask.
“Detective Ryan?”
Vaughn stared back.
