Free Blood Will Tell by April Henry Page A

and made jokes and faces in class. He wrote stories set in Iraq about heroic soldiers battling overwhelming odds. In his notebooks, he drew battle scenes and bits from horror movies and showed them around, heartened by any reaction, good or grossed out.
    But nothing Nick had ever done had gotten Kyle’s attention. Not until now, anyway.
    Leaning in, Kyle said in a low voice, “So have you guys found anything interesting besides that mitten? Any clues? I tried asking one of the cops, but he wouldn’t say anything.”
    â€œYou know I can’t tell you that.” Nick took a bite of his cheese sandwich, which suddenly tasted better. In the weeks since he had joined SAR, how many times had he told Kyle he wasn’t allowed to talk about anything they did that was crime-related? And how many times had Kyle not even asked him a single question, seemed to not even be paying attention? When Nick had been itching to talk—after, of course, swearing him to secrecy? But now he really wasn’t going to say a thing.
    Kyle was undeterred. “Do they have any suspects? Do they know where she was before she ended up here?”
    â€œIf they know that stuff, they’re not telling us.” Nick rewound the conversation. “How come you know it was a she?”
    Kyle shrugged. “I just guessed. Besides, that’s a striped mitten. And no guy is going to wear a striped mitten.”
    This was his brother. Not a reporter. Not some random guy. Nick pulled Kyle even farther away from the crowd, then leaned closer. “You can’t tell anyone, okay?”
    â€œI won’t.”
    â€œIt was a girl. She was stabbed once in the back and then hit on the head, but she was alive when she was found. She died on the way to the hospital.”
    â€œAre you serious?” Kyle was finally looking at him, not the cops. “Did she say who did it?”
    Nick thought back to what Harriman had said. “It doesn’t sound like she said anything.”
    â€œDid you see her?”
    â€œShe was gone before we got here.” He could see Kyle already losing interest, so he added, “I saw her picture, though.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure Harriman was still busy. “The detective told me she lives around here, but she didn’t look familiar to me.”
    â€œWhat did she look like?”
    â€œPretty. Twenty-two or so. White with dark curly hair. High cheekbones and her chin kind of came to a point.”
    Kyle went still. “Wait—what was her name?”
    â€œHe didn’t say. Why? Do you know her?” She did sort of sound like Kyle’s type. Pretty was a given, but most of his girlfriends had also been white with dark hair.
    His brother started to open his mouth. But before he could say anything, a wail cut through the air.
    They turned. A cop grabbed the arm of a woman with frizzy, graying hair just as she tried to go through the crime scene tape. Even as they struggled, she didn’t stop screaming. A second cop hurried over and grabbed her other arm, and she fell to her knees. She was wearing jeans and a purple ski jacket. Her lips were pulled back, her mouth open, her eyes slitted from the force of her screams.
    She looked crazy.
    But the words coming out of her mouth made perfect sense.
    â€œMy baby! Oh my God, my baby died here!”

 
    CHAPTER 21
    NICK
    MONDAY
    PINNED IN PLACE
    The only person Nick could see moving was the TV cameraman. He was filming the grieving mother. The other onlookers had frozen at the sound of the woman’s anguished screams. Some watched her helplessly, while others looked away, wincing. Even the cops restraining her looked like they had no idea what to do now.
    Nick wanted to run over and kick the TV guy in the crotch and then break his camera. But like everyone else, he was pinned in place as shriek followed shriek with barely a pause for breath. It was like listening to someone being tortured. Kyle