The same one I hadn’t seen since the police took it.
The same one she had been wearing when she died!
It was Lily’s sweater!
My legs nearly gave out! I grabbed the doorframe to steady myself, breath caught in my chest.
“This… this isn’t possible,” I whispered.
I reached down with shaking hands to pick it up, but Baxter grabbed it again.
“Hey?! Where did you get this? Give that to me,” I said, tears burning behind my eyes.
Baxter didn’t bark or move for a few seconds. He just stared at me with those intelligent, urgent eyes, then turned his head sharply toward the backyard.
Then he took off!
My legs nearly gave out!
“Baxter!” I yelled, fumbling to throw on a pair of clogs as I chased after him. I didn’t even stop to put on a jacket.
He slipped through a gap in the wooden fence at the back of the yard — the one Lily used to squeeze through during summer to play in the empty lot next door. I hadn’t thought about that lot in months. We always said we’d put up a real barrier, but we never got around to it.
I followed, breathless, sweater clenched in one hand. The air smelled of wet leaves and distant rain. I hadn’t been beyond that fence in years.
I didn’t even stop
to put on a jacket.
“Where are you taking me?” I called after him, my voice cracking.
Baxter stopped every few yards, looking over his shoulder to make sure I was still coming. And I was. Something told me I had to. It was like he wanted to show me something connected to Lily.
