Aaron abruptly let go of my neck and turned sharply, carrying Evie back to the laundry room. With my baby in his arms, he squatted down and opened the trapdoor.
“Aaron—Aaron, what are you doing?” I said, following.
“Get up here!” he shouted at Olive, and she stumbled up the steps, keeping her eyes on Evie as my baby, wearing only a towel, hung from Aaron’s arm over that hole. I stepped back as he pushed Olive into the kitchen.
“What did you do to Nathan?” she cried.
But Aaron ignored her question. “Where are Madison and Vicki?” he asked her.
“I don’t know.” Olive glanced at me. “Is Nathan going to be okay?”
“Where are they?” Aaron boomed.
“She doesn’t know,” I said. “Aaron, for god’s sake, leave her alone!”
But he kept his eyes on her. “I know they’re still on the island. Tell me where Madison and Vicki are, now.” He held Evie over the kitchen sink, and her towel dipped into the water. “Or do I need to give Evie another bath?”
“No!” Olive cried, holding out both hands.
“Aaron, please!” I said.
“Then tell me where they are!”
Olive froze. Above her, on the kitchen wall, the eyes of the Kit-Cat Klock slid back and forth. “They’re at the hunt camp,” she said. “The forest Kira owns.”
Aaron turned to me. “Where is it?”
I hesitated.
“Where is it?” he roared.
“Not far,” I said. “A short drive.”
“Where?”
I cringed as he took a step to hover menacingly over me. “Close,” I said. “There’s a sign, like those deer warning signs, the jumping deer, only homemade.”
He turned on his heel to the door. “Let’s go. Kira, grab Evie’s diaper bag. We can get her dressed on the road.” He pushed through the old screen door, carrying Evie. Olive followed.
I hesitated, looking down at Nathan. Thank god, he was still breathing, but he was out cold. He needed medical attention, now.
“We need to phone for an ambulance,” I said.
“Get in the Jeep!” Aaron yelled.
“We can’t leave him here like this.”
“Move!”
I grabbed my purse and Evie’s diaper bag, and took one last look at Nathan before stepping outside, leaving the door open behind me. Hopefully Teresa or another neighbor would see that the door was open and find Nathan.
“Aaron, what are you going to do?” I asked as I joined them outside.
“Get in my rental.”
“We need the car seat for Evie,” I said, going around to the driver’s side of my truck, forgetting for a moment that the car seat was still inside, where Teresa had left it. From there, over Aaron’s shoulder, I could see into Teresa’s living room window. She was watching us, as I’d known she would be. She knew me well enough to know when I was lying. She held up her landline phone and pointed to it, asking, Should I phone the police? I nodded slightly, looking pointedly back at my summer house, hoping she would find Nathan and help him. Seeming to understand, she stood back a little, just out of Aaron’s view should he turn to look, the morning light reflecting off the glass. Please let her phone the cops, I thought. But would she know where to send them?
“Leave the car seat,” Aaron said. “I’m going to hold Evie. In case you get any ideas.” He tossed me the keys as I reached his Jeep. “You’re driving.”
I opened the back door and threw my purse and diaper bag on the back seat beside Aaron’s travel case. “You’re going to hold her? That’s not safe!”
He waved a hand by his ear as if that was too much to deal with. “I don’t care! Just get in the fucking Jeep!” He got in the passenger side himself.
I slid into the driver’s side as Olive sat in the back, in tears, clicking her seatbelt into place. Aaron held Evie, still naked and wrapped in a towel, on his lap. She whined and fussed, holding her hands out for me.
“It’s dangerous to drive with her like that,” I said again, knowing he was beyond caring. He had just threatened to drown Evie, several times.
“Drive,” he said. “Straight to the hunt camp.”
“Sarah and Madison may not even be there,” I said. “As I said, they have likely left already.”
“That neighbor of yours seemed to think otherwise. Drive.”
I backed onto the street and drove up the laneway, turning off onto the main road. “Why do you need to see Sarah so badly?” I asked. “What do you want from her?”
Aaron kept his eyes on the road. “Shut up and drive.”
“She’s a threat to you in some way, isn’t she?”
But what kind of threat? He’d managed to evade charges of abuse. Surely he couldn’t be afraid of that now, after all this time.
His jaw tensed as he spoke quietly, to himself more than me. “I should have finished the job I started years ago,” he said.
“You’re not going to hurt Sarah and Maddy, are you?” Olive asked from the back.
I studied the side of his face a moment, the sharp angle of his nose. “Aaron, please, no.”
Aaron flicked a glance at me but didn’t answer. I put a hand to my throat, picturing the ring of finger-sized bruises that were blooming there. Aaron had dragged Olive by her hair and thrown her into a cellar. He had threatened to kill Evie. He had put his hand around my neck, just as he had with Sarah and Madison in the past. Whatever threat Sarah posed to him, he seemed bent on silencing her, and likely Madison as well. And—my god—the girls and I could well be next.