Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)(59)

room in silence and stood over the body. Benny could tell that Tom was working something out. His brother kept looking toward the back door and then down at Sacchetto.

“Damn,” Tom said softly, “I hate it when I’m right.”

Benny stood over Sacchetto, looking down at the body. He did not see the zombie. He saw the man who had painted the portrait of the Lost Girl. A man who had helped establish and build this

town. A friend.

“What do you mean?” he asked Tom.

Tom studied his face for a moment and then nodded to himself, as if he’d just made a decision about whether it was safe to share his suspicions with Benny.

“Look at his fingers. Tell me what you see.”

Benny didn’t have to look. He’d already noticed how grotesquely crooked the artist’s hands had been.

“Someone did that to him,” Benny said. “While he was alive.”

Tom nodded. “His ribs are bruised, too, and it looks like someone knocked some of his teeth out, broke a couple others. Someone tortured him to death, Benny. And when he reanimated as a

zom, he was brought here.”

“Brought here? Why would someone bring a zom here?” Benny demanded.

Tom looked at him with cold and dangerous eyes.

“Why, to kill us, of course.”





27


“WHO WANTS TO KILL US?” BENNY SAID.

Tom didn’t answer. Instead he asked, “Did you see anyone outside? Hear anyone?”

“No. Just the storm,” Benny said, then paused. “Well … I did hear one thing. Something hit the side of the house. I think it was a bullet. You said that bullets could travel a long way,

so I figured it was a stray shot from the fight. Then someone started jiggling the doorknob. I thought you were trying to get back in. You didn’t take your keys with you, so I—”

Tom touched his shoulder. “It’s okay. I understand why you opened the door, and it’s my fault for not working out some kind of code. Like three knocks and then two.”

“Or how about just yelling through the door?” Benny said.

His brother grinned. “Right. Sorry. This has me a little rattled. But go back to the doorknob. You said someone turned it?”

“A couple of times.”

They looked down at the corpse. “I suppose Rob could have done it.”

“With broken fingers?”

“Zoms don’t feel pain, remember?”

“But … turning a doorknob? Zoms can’t—”

“It’s rare, but it’s been known to happen. Usually you get that sort of thing in the first couple of minutes after reanimation, because the longer someone is a zom, the less coordinated

they are. The brain continues to die.”

“Has Mr. Sacchetto been dead that long?”

Tom knelt and put his fingertips against the artist’s skin. “Mmm, hard to say. Hot day, cold rain. But I doubt he’s been dead more than an hour or two. So, we’re in a gray area.”

“What’s the alternative?”

“Well, if Rob didn’t turn that doorknob, then someone else did. That same person, or persons, brought Rob over here. I’ll maybe buy Rob having enough brain power left to jiggle a

doorknob, but no way I’ll buy that he turned zom and then walked all the way across town specifically to target us. Aside from the fact that zoms don’t do that, there are hundreds of

people living between us and the reservoir. No. This was as deliberate as if someone pointed a gun at us and pulled the trigger.”

“But … why?”

Tom’s lip curled into an almost feral grimace of anger. “‘Why,’ in this case, is the same as ‘who.’”

“What do you mean?”

“I would have thought it was obvious, kiddo. Whoever did this doesn’t want us to find the Lost Girl.”

That was all Benny needed. The pieces fell into place.

“Charlie?” he asked incredulously.

“Charlie. And Marion Hammer.”


“They weren’t out at Mr. Sacchetto’s house by accident, were they? They must have found out that the new set of Zombie Cards came out. Zak Matthias bought a dozen packs. He must have

gotten one of the Lost Girl cards, too, and showed it to his uncle.”

“I’d bet on it.”

“Zak was at the store when I found my card. Maybe he went home and told his uncle. But even so, why would Charlie care about Lilah? He doesn’t even know her.” He paused and stared at Tom.

“Does he?”

“Yes, he does,” said Tom. “And considering how tight Charlie is with Big Zak and your friend Zak Junior, Charlie probably has them primed to report back to him with any mention of the

Lost Girl. Even something as apparently innocent as her picture on a Zombie Card. I can imagine it gave Charlie quite a start to learn that my little brother found a picture of Lilah in his

Zombie Cards.” He glanced down at the body, then cocked his head to listen. “The rain’s almost stopped. Listen, Benny. I want to leave at first light, and I want you to go with me.”

“Leave? For where?”

“For the Rot and Ruin, kiddo.”