Page 63 of The Eleventh Hour

Jacob beams at Rafael, and then looks at me. “You didn’t tell them?”

I shake my head, confused.

“Oh, man, I had the worst crush on Miss Jackie here. I was so in love with her, but she only had eyes for Lou.”

Dane moves closer, brushing his arm against mine. My mouth falls open, and I rearrange my childhood with this new information.

“I didn’t know that!”

Jacob looks astounded. “How could you not know? I wrote you all those notes?”

“What notes?” I glance at Rafe like he can tell me.

The pastor looks at me long and hard, and then sighs. “Lou,” he clucks his tongue, “of course, Lou got rid of them, stupid me. He denied how jealous he would get, but I knew he felt it.”

I scowl. “Louis took them?”

“Louis was going to give them to you,” Jacob scowls. “It took a long time to see how manipulative that man was. A long time. His absence is like having curtains drawn back. Is it that way for you?”

I nod. “Kind of. He got better at hiding stuff. I find a lot more out from other people’s interactions with him than from my own.”

Jacob scowls. “And this is what it comes down to, doesn’t it? He’s back, killing in his home court advantage.”

“And we’re going to stop him,” Dane growls.

I nod. “See, the issue, Jacob, is that we need to know the real Louis in order to discover if there are any clues that might help us unravel his life. But it turns out Louis Falcon was an alias.”

“Jam on a sandwich!”

Rafael explodes in laughter. “Sorry, Father, I mean, Pastor, I just never heard jam used as a curse before. Please, continue.”

Jacob’s smile isn’t at all feigned, and his dimples make him seem much younger.

“Well, Lou was a man of many mysteries. Take the library, for example. I never did find out what he was doing in there.”

“Drawing in the back of every book,” Dane says, and his fingers brush mine.

I look down at our hands, and then try to focus on the conversation.

“Drawing in the back- wow.” Jacob stands up and circles his desk to sit down.

“Who was his family? Where did he live? Which way did he walk home?” I ask desperately.

“I don’t know!” Jacob says slowly.

“Please, Jacob, try. Anything, something.”

Dane’s hand closes on mine, and I cling to him like he’s a life line.

“What’s happened?” Pastor Jacob asks. “Don’t lie to me, I know you want to, but I still know your tell, Jackie!”

“A girl is missing, a girl I worked with,” I speak in a whisper, but it seems to reach every nook and cranny of the room. Such a raw, horrible sentence.

Jacob pales. “I never saw him leave, but I had to get home before he did. I never went to his house.” Jacob reaches into his drawer and pulls out a black book. He flicks through it, and we wait impatiently. He closes it and leans back, closing his eyes.

“I saw him once, when my grandfather died. We were at the funeral, and he was sitting on some gravestones. It looked like he was talking to them. I almost went and said hello, but he looked so raw and emotional, like I’ve never seen. Louis was my god, you have to understand, I had no one else. I would have done anything for him. So, when I thought he was upset, I would have gone to him, but then I saw his face. He wasn’t sad. He was mad. And I realised he was furious, angrier than I’ve ever seen him. I was a coward. Yeah, I can admit now that Louis scared me as much as I worshiped him.”

“Where is this cemetery?” Rafael asks urgently.