“We will,” Tracy said, her gaze fixed on Brooke as she stroked the girl’s long dark hair.

“She didn’t say anything about what happened?” Angela asked.

Sam shook her head. “She was too agitated and out of it for most of the time I was with her. She had a few lucid moments, but for the most part, she couldn’t process what had happened, and I didn’t give her more information than she needed.”

Mike came over to hug Sam. “Thank you so much for being in there with her.”

“Sure, no problem.” Sam tried not to think about the huge problem this case was already causing between her and Nick. “Nick said to tell you he’ll help Celia with Abby and Ethan for as long as you need him.”

“That’s great. Thank you.”

“I’m going to see if I can start to make some sense of all of this.”

“Will you let us know what you find out?”

“Yes, of course.” She eyed Brooke in the bed, pale and sick and changed forever by the events of the previous evening. “Do the names Hugo Springer or Michael Chastain mean anything to you?”

Mike shook his head. “Should they?”

“They’re two of the kids who were found dead in the Springer home last night.”

“What’s that got to do with Brooke?”

“I don’t know yet. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.”

“Sam...what aren’t you saying?”

“She was naked, stoned, bruised, possibly raped and had blood all over her that wasn’t hers. An hour later, six other kids roughly her age are found stabbed to death in a local home. All of them naked, stoned, bloody and killed while having sex. I’d love to think there was absolutely no connection between these two events, but...”

His already pale face lost all remaining color. “How can they not be connected?” he asked in little more than a whisper.

“Exactly.”

“What does this mean for Brooke?”

“I wish I could say. Let me do my job and get some answers for all of us.”

“I feel like I’m coming out of my skin. I don’t know what to do. Tracy... She’s a wreck, and I want to comfort her, but I’m so damned mad with Brooke. I’ve been mad with her for such a long time, sometimes I forget that I used to love her more than just about anything.” Mike’s voice caught on a sob. He covered his eyes with his hands. “I feel like a monster for even saying that out loud, but what she’s done to our family...”

Sam put her arms around the brother-in-law who’d been like a big brother to her for fifteen years. “You’re not a monster. You’re human, and she’s been a huge pain in the ass by anyone’s standards. We’ve all seen it over the last year or two.”