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“I hope you enjoyed your sandwich,” Deslon said as I finished it off and put down the plate.
“Thank you,” I said. “You’re the best.”
He smiled at me. A rewarding smile. “Now it’s time to get down to business. Remember how I told you Ella isn’t to be trusted? Pick up the knife Breezy.”
I did as I was told. I saw Ella’s eyes widen in fear.
“You were so mad at Ella when you thought she’d disappeared, weren’t you? I saw her phone. Full of texts from you. At first you were so worried, but then you got mad. You were going out of your mind. Now it’s time to let her know what that feels like.”
I paused. I was standing opposite Ella, holding the knife in my right hand. She was watching me, her eyes wide and bright.
“You’re ambivalent, I know. You don’t like hurting people. Nobody does. But Ella hurt you, didn’t she? And you can’t let someone keep hurting you.”
“Maybe the knife isn’t sharp enough,” I said.
“I sharpened it before you got here. It’s extremely sharp.”
“Tell me again where exactly I need to do it.”
He walked over and pointed to a spot on her chest. Ella flinched.
“Breezy!” She begged. I could see she was torn between believing I wouldn’t do it and being scared that I would.
“Quiet!” he hissed at her.
I turned to him again. “You want me to do it.” My tone was flat.
He nodded.
“I will,” I said, stepping forward. He was standing right next to her. I lifted the knife.
At the last minute, before plunging it into Ella, I swiveled, pointed the knife at Deslon’s chest and yelled, “Grab his arms or kick his nuts.” Ella lunged at him, pulling his arms behind him and kicking his knees so that they buckled. He fell to the floor, banging his forehead on the rug, his hat flying onto the floor.
Immediately he rolled over. “What the hell? You’re in a trance!”
“Do I look like I’m in a fucking trance?” I yelled, standing over him and pointing the knife at the same spot on his chest that he’d so helpfully shown me on Ella. “Now, roll over onto your front, unless you want me to stick this in you right now.”
He did as he was told, and I promptly sat down heavily on him. He struggled, but I’m a big girl and there was no way he was getting out from under me.
“Get something to tie him with, quick!” I told Ella. She raced into the bedroom and reappeared a few moments later with a length of rope. I moved up toward his chest so she could secure his hands tight behind him.
“I can’t breathe,” he gasped, “you’re suffocating me.”
“You should have thought of that before you ordered me to stab my fiancée, you moron.” I turned to Ella. “Who is this guy? I mean, I know it’s Deslon, but who is he?”
“Long story. When did you realize it was him?” Ella lowered herself next to me, sitting on his lower back. I wanted to take her in my arms and hug her fiercely, but I didn’t want us to topple off his back. I had no idea what was going to happen next, and I wanted to keep us safe.
“His disguise was bad, but I might have thought he was just some country bumpkin if I hadn’t been on the lookout. Kat warned me. We’d already figured out Mr. Charlie Deslon was trouble.”
“But how could you have?”
“Kat worked it out. Did he hypnotize you into coming up here?”
Ella looked taken aback. “No. Why would he? He’s been avoiding me ever since he killed my parents.”
My stomach lurched. What was she talking about? How could this guy have been in California?
Deslon yanked his head up. “Not both. Only one,” he said. I felt a shiver run through me. Even though I was sitting on top of him, and he was powerless, I was freaked out. Who tried to defend themselves after being accused of murdering two people by admitting they only murdered one?
“Shut up,” I said and banged his head hard onto the floor. I could feel my emotions starting to swirl uncontrollably. It was all too much.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered in Ella’s ear. “I’m coming unglued.”
“You can.” She turned my face to hers. “You are the strongest woman I know, and you just saved my life.”
Beneath us, Deslon was squirming. What if he managed to get free of us? We couldn’t sit here forever. Neither of us had any kind of weapon, beyond the knife I was holding in my hand. Could I really plunge it in him if I had to? Could Ella?
We had to call the police. I whispered in her ear. “Is your phone working? I lost my signal after I turned off the main road.”
She shook her head. “He smashed it, after he read all the messages.”
Shit. This was crazy.
Deslon began struggling again. “Coulda sworn she was in a trance,” he muttered under his breath.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You don’t know me, mister, but if you did, you’d know I’m one screwed up bitch who’s tried every form of therapy she can, including hypnotherapy. Thought it would be an easy way out of all my problems. Turns out I have low susceptibility. I can’t go into a trance. Too bad you succeeded with all the others.”
Ella frowned and looked puzzled.
“What others? Has he done this before?”
That’s when I realized she left before it all started. “Oh my god, you don’t know, do you? The same day you left a bunch of other people left their spouses too. Larry left Norm—”
“Your friend Norm? But haven’t they been together forever?”
“Yes. I’m telling you, there were a bunch of people. You were one of them. Kat figured Deslon hypnotized them all and made them leave.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Deslon said, his words muffled by the carpet, but clear enough to understand. “Get off me and we can talk about this like adults.”
“Don’t move,” I said to Ella. “Yeah, like you’d admit the truth. You are so beyond screwed you may as well confess to everything.”
“There’s nothing to confess. You saw me in Gulfport. I made a bunch of people dance around the room, and I helped someone stop eating cake. That’s all I did.”
“You didn’t even do that. She’s back to eating sweets again,” I said, unable to stop myself from goading him.
Ella suddenly found her voice. “How dare you?” She punched him hard in the small of his back. “How dare you say you have nothing to confess. You killed my parents. Why don’t you tell Breezy about that? You were happy enough to tell me.”
I yanked his head, pulling hard on his hair. “You better tell me, mister.”
“Just get off me, I can’t breathe.”
I moved slightly so that I was sitting on his trussed hands, but so that his chest was slightly freer.
“Let me roll over. I want to see your face when I tell you.”
This guy was a sick bastard. I hit him hard on the side of his head. “Fucking talk, man. Or I’m plunging this knife into you and I’m not stopping until there’s a pool of blood longer than that river we drove past.”
“Ella’s dad was having an affair with his best friend’s wife. Best friend was called Hank. Hank came to see me. Wanted to get over his anger. He told me about the affair, told me the guy was a school principal. That made it all the sweeter for me.” I heard Ella gasp and turned to her.
“Do you want me to shut him up?” I whispered. She shook her head.
“When I was a kid, the principal at the high school I attended had me expelled for anti-social behavior. Ruined my life. I hate school principals. Narcissistic control freaks. I got to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”
“Oh...” Ella’s whole body slumped. Deslon must have felt it. All of a sudden, he thrashed around and managed to push us both off him. He pulled himself to his feet, kicking out at both of us. His boot caught my shoulder and I heard a sickening crack. He got Ella somewhere too, but she still dove to stop him. He was too quick for her. He was already at the door, pulling on the handle.
“Don’t let him get away!” I yelled.
Ella scrambled to her feet and leaned forward to pull me up.
I screamed from the pain shooting through my shoulder as I got to my feet. We had to stop him. I didn’t think he could drive with his hands tied, but it was dark out now and if he disappeared into the woods, we’d have a hard time finding him. Ella rushed through the front door and ran outside. I followed her. He wasn’t getting into his car. He must have headed for the woods. But which way? The whole cabin was surrounded by trees.
“Flashlights?” I gasped, as she headed into the driveway.
“In the closet near the door.”
I yanked open the closet and had to rummage around before finding two large flashlights. We were losing valuable time. He was handicapped by having his hands tied, but if he was able to hide in the trees, he’d have time to work his hands free. I ran out to Ella and shoved one of the flashlights in her hand.
“You take this direction, I’ll take the opposite,” she said. “Yell if you find him and I’ll come help you. You do the same for me,” she said as she took off toward the woods.
I moved in the opposite direction, immediately cursing myself for keeping the larger flashlight. It was heavy and awkward, but I couldn’t shift it to my other hand because every time I moved, I felt my shoulder pull unbearably. I swung the light from side to side, then up into the trees, hoping desperately I might spot him. I had no idea whether he had any familiarity with this area but if he didn’t, it would make sense that he’d try to get to the road. Shit, I thought, we shouldn’t have come into the woods. One of us should have headed for the main road, while the other one stayed with his car. What if he saw us leave and headed back to his vehicle?
“Ella,” I yelled as loud as I could. “Change of plan!”
From the other side of the driveway, she came charging toward me. “You found him?”
“We need to do it differently,” I said, and explained my thinking.
“You’re right. You stay by his car, I’ll run down the driveway.” She started to go, then turned toward me.
“I love you Breezy. I never stopped and I never will,” she said, and I could hear in her voice that she was all choked up.
“Go!” I commanded. “And for chrissake, be careful. If he gets his hands free, he could try to whack you with something.”
I watched as she bounded down the driveway. I stood quietly, trying to see if I could hear anything. It was deathly quiet. No crickets, or cicadas. Just the sound of Ella, running into the distance. I turned around and looked at his car. If only I could move mine, but he’d been clever, wedging me in. I had a sudden thought. What if his keys were still in the house? He’d come in behind me, so I couldn’t see him. I doubted he would have put them down anywhere, but it was worth a shot. I ran back into the house and stood in the doorway, scanning the room. Was that something glinting on the end table? I moved toward it, but as soon as I got close enough, I saw it was the damn knife I’d been holding earlier. A sudden noise made me jump. A car engine. For a moment I thought it was Deslon’s but then realized it had come from farther away. I ran back outside. My shoulder was killing me, and I’d just about used up all my energy. I wanted to sprint down the driveway like Ella had, but I could barely move.
I was suddenly full of misgivings. I should never have sent Ella off by herself. It was so dark out. She was a woman alone in a black, moonless night. Tree branches could become weapons, the gravel could trip her up. And somewhere out there was a man far more dangerous than I’d realized. All along, I’d been thinking of him as some lunatic hypnotist who had persuaded loving partners to leave their spouses. In a worst-case scenario, I’d imagined Larry, Amber and the Red Hat husband holed up somewhere forced into helping him with his act. But Ella had known he was something far more sinister: a murderer. And I’d sent her off, alone. Was I crazy? Suddenly I couldn’t bear the thought of her out there by herself. I’d told her I’d wait here, but I couldn’t. Fuck my pulsing shoulder and my leaden legs. I had to go to her. I lumbered down the driveway and into the night.