Detective Harding looked down at the book spread out in front of him on the steel table, then back at Reece. The cop’s brows rose and he shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to do about this.”
Reece swallowed back his anger. “You don’t find it odd that a woman working at Stonecliff keeps a collection of articles about the disappearances? That she’s fixated on one of the men?”
“Certainly,” Harding leaned back in his chair and shrugged, “but she’s done nothing illegal.”
Reece gritted his teeth and glanced around the police station’s interrogation room while he mentally counted to ten. Dull yellow paint, faded and chipped, covered the walls. The green linoleum floor was the same shade as guacamole.
He drew a deep breath and said as calmly as possible, “The staff at the seniors’ home where she worked believed she was murdering residents.”
“None of them issued a complaint or reported the woman. It’s hearsay.”
“Shouldn’t you at least look into this woman? Find out who the man in the pictures is to her?”
The mild humor in Harding’s face vanished. “Are you telling me how to run my investigation?” He didn’t give Reece a chance to respond, which was probably lucky for them both. “I brought you here for one reason only and you’re letting me down, son. Now, if you can’t do what you’re supposed to, then maybe I ought to see to those charges.”
Bloody hell, he was so tired of having that dangled over his head. “Aye, well maybe you ought to. But before you do, maybe you ought to consider that the problem isn’t my doing a poor job as bait, but that you have me baiting the wrong woman. Eleri was in your custody when Olivia Dodd was murdered.”
“Maybe she has an accomplice, someone helping her. That sister you’re so fond of, perhaps.”
Reece went cold.
Harding sat forward, his voice turning low and menacing. “Maybe that nurse is trying to drive Eleri mad, maybe she plans to kill her. Whatever she’s got up her sleeve isn’t for you to worry about. You’re not in a jail cell for one reason and one reason only. So you best get back to that house and bring me proof that little bitch is the killer we all know her to be. Trap her, trick her, talk to your spirit guide. But do it or I’ll see you finally pay for the people you stole from.”
What was the point? This bastard wasn’t interested in investigating the crimes. He was determined to railroad Eleri. Reece wasn’t convinced she was innocent, but he was certain Ruth was up to something.
“Have I made myself clear, then?” Harding asked, straightening, a smug smile returning to his mouth.
Reece nodded. The muscle in his jaw so tight the side of his face ached.
“No confusion about what you’re supposed to be doing? I won’t be hearing any more about nurses’ scrapbooks?”
Reece nodded again.
“Sorry. Didn’t quite hear that?”
“No, there’s no confusion,” Reece ground out. He tightened his fingers into fists at his sides.
“Right, then.” Harding leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. “I know you hate me, son. The sooner you do what I brought you here for, the sooner you can get as far from me as you want. Why don’t you use your magic powers to help you?”
Harding guffawed at his own joke. Fury pumped through Reece’s veins, thicker and hotter than his own blood. His gaze flicked to the pale lad skulking in the corner. The boy the detective couldn’t see.
Reece cocked his head to one side, a hard smile puling at his mouth. “There’s a boy who follows you.”
Harding’s own smile dissolved, his expression turning stony. The boy, having finally been acknowledged, crept closer to the table, his flat blue eyes fixed on Reece.
“He’s thin. Stringy blond hair. Looks about fifteen, but he’s probably older.” The boy’s voice squeaked like a rusty hinge when he spoke, and Reece continued. “He is older. Eighteen. Or he was when he died six years ago. His eyes are blue. The same color as yours, Detective. But he’s your son so it stands to reason.”
“If you think you’re being cute—” Harding began, but his voice was hoarse and his skin had paled beneath the patchwork stubble on his sagging cheeks.
Reece ignored him. “There are track marks on his arms.”
Harding jumped to his feet so fast his steel chair tipped back and crashed to the floor.
“You can’t forgive him,” Reece went on, holding his ground as the detective came around the table, bearing down on him. “You can’t forgive him in death any more than you could when he was alive.”
Harding’s hands closed around the collar of Reece’s jacket and he hauled him to his feet.
“Shut your lying fucking mouth, do you hear me!” His eyes shone with mad fury. Tiny drops of spittle flew from his lips and struck Reece’s cheek. Harding drew his arm back ready to let his fist fly.
Grim delight filled Reece. Finally, he’d shown that smug bastard just a piece of what he saw. He squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for the hit, making no effort to defend himself or fight back. He wasn’t stupid enough to hit a cop—no matter how badly he wanted to.
Instead, Harding shoved him away.
“Don’t you play your sick games with me.” Harding jabbed his finger at Reece, but his hand shook badly. His voice rasped. “I’ll make your life hell.”
The initial thrill of having finally gotten to the detective faded quickly, leaving Reece hollow. Everyone had their demons. He and Harding weren’t so different there. “That’s why he stays. When you forgive him, he’ll move on.”
“Get out,” Harding growled. “And don’t come back until you have what I want.”
* * *
Eleri was cold. It was the first coherent thought to penetrate the dull swirling mists inside her head. Her teeth chattered and she reached out a hand for a blanket. Instead, her fingers trailed through a gritty, soggy mess.
She wanted to give in to the exhaustion pulling at her, willing her to sink back into black oblivion. But something was wrong. She couldn’t remember what, but the feeling gnawed at her growing consciousness with tiny, razor teeth.
She forced her eyes open, shifted on the hard ground, her body sore and freezing. A thin layer of snow covered her. She tried to sit up, but the world tilted and unconsciousness reached for her with dark tentacles once more.
She couldn’t give in. Something was wrong. She didn’t know how she’d ended up outside in the snow, but if she didn’t get herself moving, she’d freeze to death.
Ruth. The woman’s image popped into her head like a light switching on. Ruth catching her alone in her room, jabbing her with something and the world going dark.
Was the woman trying to freeze her to death? Eleri didn’t have a clue, but she couldn’t stay where she was.
Her limbs felt heavy and moving them took an unusual amount of concentration. Breathing hard, she pulled herself into a sitting position, and her stomach sank. There, less than two feet from her, Brynn lay on her side, a blanket of fresh snow slowly covering her.
Eleri scrambled to her sister’s side. Brynn’s chest rose and fell with each deep breath, but how long until she froze to death?
Until they both did?
Eleri’s teeth chattered and she shivered uncontrollably. Snow-laden trees and indigo sky reflected in The Devil’s Eye’s glassy water. Silence gripped the woods surrounding them as though the forest itself was holding its breath—waiting.
They were too far from the house for anyone to come if she yelled, and she didn’t want to alert Ruth that she was awake. She couldn’t even guarantee she’d stay that way for much longer. The simple act of crawling to Brynn’s side had exhausted her.
She gripped Brynn’s shoulder and shook her. “Wake up.”
Brynn didn’t budge.
“Please, you have to wake up.” Eleri didn’t know if she had enough strength to get herself back to the house. There was no way she could haul her unconscious sister with her.
Panic welled inside her. She shook Brynn harder. “Wake up! We have to go.”
Brynn didn’t move.
“Right,” Eleri murmured to herself, running a shaking hand through her cold, wet hair. “I have to get help.” She looked down at Brynn’s slack face, colorless lips. She hoped she was doing the right thing. “I’ll be back, I promise.”
Eleri stood on wobbly legs. The world tilted, dizziness threatening to pull her under again. She squeezed her eyes closed, locked her knees and waited for the sensation to pass. Her breathing came hard, but when she opened her eyes, the forest walls had stopped spinning.
She forced her feet to move, stumbling into the underbrush. She’d stay away from the main path. If she ran into Ruth, she wouldn’t have the strength to defend herself.
And how would Brynn defend herself if Ruth returned to the Eye before Eleri found help?
Her stomach churned. She couldn’t think that way. She had to stay focused and keep going.
Whatever Ruth had given her still pumped through her veins, turning her movements clumsy. The fading light made it even harder to focus her blurring vision. The more effort she exerted, the closer those gray mists came to dragging her back under.
A light carpet of snow turned the forest floor slick beneath her wet socks, her toes numb from the cold.
Pale electric light spilled through the trees. It had to be the house. She was almost there.
She forced her heavy legs toward the glow. She’d find Reece. Tell him about Brynn. He didn’t like Eleri, didn’t trust her, but he cared for her sister, and he would save her.
Her foot caught on something beneath the snow, and she fell forward, sprawling across the ground. Air left her lungs with an oomph. High ringing filled her ears. Darkness crept from the edges of her vision. She tried to blink away the gray haze, focusing on the pristine snow spread before her.
A shadow moved over the ground, long and shaped like a man. Fear squeezed her heart, cutting off her breath. She was losing the battle to stay conscious and the thing that had terrorized her since childhood was here, coming to devour her.
Footsteps crunched in the snow, moving closer. Not the shadow man, he never made a sound when he walked. Ruth, then?
She tried to turn her head to see who it was, but whatever receptors connected her brain to her limbs had fizzled.
“Help me,” she croaked, and darkness claimed her once more.
* * *
Reece parked the SUV in the courtyard and glanced at the scrapbook next to him. So now what? Harding refused to help, and he had no idea what game Ruth was playing.
He needed to get Brynn away from Stonecliff. The idea left him empty, but he didn’t have a choice. No more playing investigator. No more searching for answers. Without Harding’s help, they were on their own, and there was no way he’d stand by and let anything happen to her.
After tucking the book between the seats, he climbed out of the truck. He’d figure out a way to return it to Ruth’s room later, without her seeing him. Yellow light glowed softly from the kitchen window. He drew a deep breath and pulled open the back door.
The meaty stink of Mrs. Voyle’s cooking reached his nose as her muttered list of complaints reached his ears. After toeing off his boots—no need to give the housekeeper a reason to turn her ire on him—he entered the kitchen.
“Looking for your dinner, no doubt,” Mrs. Voyle said, the moment her gaze landed on him.
Reece frowned and lowered himself into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, pretending unease wasn’t tying his insides into knots. “Have you seen Brynn or Eleri?”
He expected they would have been waiting for him to find out what the detective said.
Mrs. Voyle shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Reece’s heart rate kicked up. Where the hell could she have gone? Brynn had said she’d wait at the house until he got back.
“Mr. Warlow sent me down to see what’s keeping dinner.” Ruth entered the kitchen and Reece tensed.
“You can tell him that he’ll get his meal when he gets it, and if he has a problem, then he should take it up with you since you had me out all day waiting on prescriptions.”
Reece jerked his attention to the nurse, but she didn’t glance his way. She kept her attention fixed on the housekeeper, a faint smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
“My mistake. I apologize.” Ruth’s thick brows pulled together. “They’re not back yet?”
Reece sat up straight. “Who?”
“Eleri and Brynn. I saw them go into the woods together. I’d assumed they’d gone off to the pub.”
Sick cold coated his insides. Reece turned his attention to Mrs. Voyle. Her thin face had paled, her expression softening.
“Eleri would never go to the pub,” she said.
No, she wouldn’t. Had Ruth set something up, or had he been right about Eleri all along? “How long ago?”
Ruth shrugged, still frowning as though their reactions perplexed her. “About two hours.”
Anything could have happened in that time. Icy panic crawled up his spine. “I’ll look for them.” He turned to Mrs. Voyle. “Call Harding and tell him to come. I have what he wants.”
* * *
Brynn’s eyes fluttered open and a feathery snowflake landed in one. She blinked away the frigid moisture and stared up at the swirling blue clouds overhead. Or was she the one spinning? Her muddled head ached, her body felt weak, stomach hollow and not quite stable like she was just getting over a bad flu.
She was also freezing.
Why in the hell was she lying outside in the snow?
She willed her fuzzy head to remember. Ruth leaping on her back, the sensation of something sharp pricking her neck filled her head.
Ruth had drugged her and dragged her here—wherever here was.
With a deep breath, she forced her rubbery limbs to move and sat up. Fear cut through her like a jagged blade, stealing her breath.
The Devil’s Eye.
Snow covered the ground, clung to trees and undergrowth, the water still and glassy. The twilight sky cast a blue hue over the woods and snow and even the bog, leaving the grounds dreamlike.
Shaking from the cold, she tucked her freezing hands under her armpits to regain some feeling in the numb digits. Her wrist throbbed.
She had to get out of here.
She struggled to her feet and the world teetered sideways, vertigo threatening to knock her back on her ass. Hunching her shoulders against the cold, she waited for the queasiness to ease, for her vision to right itself.
“Where’s the other one?” Ruth’s voice from behind her made her jump, and she stumbled a little, nearly falling before she regained her balance.
Ruth glared at her, her eyes hot and furious. A man’s winter coat draped her square frame, and if Brynn were feeling stronger she might have wrestled the other woman for it.
“Where did she go?” Ruth asked, again
“I…I…don’t know who you mean.” Her voice was rough, as though she hadn’t used it in years.
Ruth descended on her, long strides eating up the distance between them. Brynn tried to back away, but her wobbly leg muscles combined with her shoes on the slick snow sent her tumbling back and landing hard on her backside. The impact jarred her body. Her teeth clicked together. Renewed pain shot up her arm from her wrist.
“I don’t know who she is.”
Ruth stopped and stared down at Brynn for a long moment.
“It’s all right,” she muttered, slipping her hands into the pockets of her coat.
Brynn tensed. Who knew what needles or knives the woman had tucked away? But Ruth had lost interest in her altogether. The nurse paced back and forth, creating a deep rut in the fluffy snow.
“It can still work without her. It will work. It will.”
Brynn eased back from the woman, pushing with her feet and pulling herself along with her good hand and doing her best to ignore the frigid burn from the snow on her bare skin. She didn’t want to attract attention by standing until she had more space between them. Her head swam with whatever Ruth had shot her up with, her limbs felt heavily, ill fitting, like they belonged to someone else.
If she tried to make a run for it, she wasn’t convinced her body would cooperate.
Ruth faced her. Blank madness filled the woman’s dark eyes.
Ruth was going to kill her. There was no reasoning with whatever insanity was driving her. All Brynn could do was play into the craziness and hopefully buy herself enough time to escape.
“You killed Matthew Langley.”
“I had to. I’d worked here for months and there was no sign of Eleri. People in the village said they saw her all the time, but she never really came back. I knew that if another man died, they’d think it was her. I would finally have justice for Daniel.”
Brynn wrapped her arms around her middle, but couldn’t stop shivering. “But you killed an innocent man. How is that justice?”
Ruth smirked. “He was hardly innocent. Matthew Langley wasn’t even his real name. He was a thief and a con man. I saved more people from being hurt by him. And at least his dying gave his life meaning, a sense of purpose. He’ll help me destroy Eleri for what she took from me.”
Brynn’s insides shriveled. “Is that what you’re doing? Punishing Eleri?”
“They took my child, but I knew I’d find him. When I finally did, your bitch sister had stolen him from me again. I have nothing because of her, and when I’m done she’ll have nothing either.”
Ruth took a step toward her and Brynn scrambled back. She had to keep her talking, keep her distracted, while trying to put more distance between them. Her head was still so thick. If she was actually going to try to outrun this nutjob, she’d need as big a head start as possible. “You’re killing innocent people. Olivia Dodd wasn’t a criminal.”
Ruth’s dark eyes flashed. “She was a slut. Daniel might have come looking for me, we might have found each other. He stayed because of her. He died because of her.”
“Whether you think she deserved to die or not, your plan backfired. You gave Eleri an alibi.”
“I miscalculated.” Ruth nodded slowly. “I had to stay away from the house, so that no one would suspect me when they found your body in the drive.”
Brynn swallowed hard. Listening to this woman describe her plan to murder her so casually iced her blood more than the frigid air ever could. “You claimed to be with your son. I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken a great deal of detective work for Harding to realize you don’t have one.”
“I have a son!” Ruth stormed closer.
Brynn scrambled back. “I know, I meant that he’d died.”
“He was murdered,” Ruth ground out, but she’d stopped moving. “Why would the detective bother checking my alibi? He wants Eleri to be guilty. He and everyone else in the village. They already believe Eleri only invited you here to finish what she started, and I left the necklace. You returned too soon, though, and I couldn’t be sure that it was enough. This time, they’ll know it was her.”
Brynn stood slowly and shifted back another step. “If you’re so determined to see Eleri punished, why kill everyone but her?”
Not that Brynn was in any hurry to turn a murderer on her sister, but she needed more time, more space between them.
Ruth’s expression hardened. “She took everything from me. I’ll take everything from her. She’ll have to live the rest of her life with nothing.”
Ruth started toward her, and Brynn took a few unsteady steps toward the path, away from the eerily still waters.
“How will you justify killing me?” Brynn asked quickly, desperate to stall her for even a few minutes more. With every second that ticked by, her head cleared a little more, her limbs strengthened. “I had nothing to do with your son. I’ve never committed a crime.”
“Don’t you see?” Ruth asked, moving closer. The lines of her face softened with a strange sort of sympathy. Brynn shifted back, but too quickly. Her vision tilted. She froze, waiting, willing the world to right itself. “This place is evil. You haven’t been here long enough for it to affect you, but it will. It’s in your blood. You’ll turn out just like Eleri. Take up where she left off. And you don’t want that. I’ll save you—save others—you’ll go in peace.”
She took her hand from pocket, a thin hypodermic needle pinched between her fingers. “I can help you. It doesn’t have to go badly, once you’re in the water.”
Brynn’s heart jumped into her throat. She glanced at The Devil’s Eye’s glassy surface and her chest squeezed.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
She couldn’t outrun Ruth. Her only option was to stand and fight.
“I can make this easy,” Ruth said, drawing closer, “painless.”
Brynn locked her rubbery knees, struggled to control her ragged breaths.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Ruth stopped in her tracks, eyes narrowing, mouth thinning, obviously not buying Brynn’s easy acceptance.
“I can’t run,” she admitted, pushing up her sleeve. “And if I’m going to drown, I don’t want to know what’s happening.”
“Good.” Ruth’s shoulders drooped with relief, obviously pleased she wouldn’t have a fight. She gripped Brynn’s bad wrist. Tiny bolts of pain shot up Brynn’s arm. Her eyes started to water.
“You won’t know what’s happening,” Ruth said, her voice smooth and comforting. “You’ll go to sleep just like before, and everything will be fine.”
Brynn curled the fingers on her free hand into a tight fist. As Ruth positioned the needle above the crook of her elbow, Brynn swung. She had surprise in her favor, but her movements were sluggish and awkward. Ruth managed to shift back and lift her arm to block Brynn’s fist from connecting with her face. Instead, Brynn struck Ruth’s hand with a hard thwack. The needle flew from her grip, hit the ground and vanished in the fluffy carpet of snow.
“You bitch!” Ruth’s eyes glowed with unholy rage, her skin blotchy and red. She hauled back her arm, and before Brynn could react, the back of Ruth’s hand connected with her mouth.
Pain exploded like a firework. Her head snapped back, lips grinding against teeth and the metallic flavor of her own blood on her tongue. Brynn staggered sideways, legs giving out, and she crumpled to the ground. A high ringing filled her ears, consciousness ebbed.
Oh God, no. She couldn’t, not now. She squeezed her eyes closed, pressed her hand to her throbbing lips.
Rough fingers tunneled through her hair and yanked. Brynn’s eyes popped wide; she clawed at the hand hauling her to her feet.
“You’re making this harder on yourself,” Ruth growled. She released Brynn’s hair and wrapped both arms around her in a tight bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides and crushing her back to Ruth’s chest.
Brynn tried to twist free, lift her arms to break Ruth’s grip. She even went limp, hoping to slip from the woman’s grasp. But Ruth’s vicelike arms held on, and she dragged Brynn toward the weathered dock.
“It could have been easy,” Ruth grunted, hot breath fanning Brynn’s cheek. “Painless. But you ruined that.”
Brynn’s world spun crazily, but despite the dizzying vertigo she could see the water’s edge growing closer. Blind panic exploded inside her. She struggled wildly, dug her feet in, but the flat soles of her shoes slid over the wet snow, and Ruth managed to haul her onto the dock. The old wood, dark from the wet, creaked and rocked beneath their weight.
“Brynn!”
At the sound of her name, both she and Ruth froze. Had she actually heard that? She must have because Ruth had, too.
Brynn strained her ears, listening for the sound again. She would have held her breath had she not been panting so hard.
“Brynn!”
The sound of Reece’s voice, distant and urgent, turned her muscles soft with relief.
“It’s about time,” Ruth muttered. “He’s looking for you. Answer him.”
So Ruth could kill him, too? No way. Brynn swallowed hard and shook her head, then gave a sharp twist to yank away from the woman.
Ruth held tight, with a muttered curse, then shouted, “She’s here. I’ve found her.”
Brynn’s stomach sank, but before she could do anything more, Ruth gave her a shove and sent her tumbling into The Devil’s Eye.