ALLISON
I had to leave. Go. Go. My brain, my body, was screaming. Get out of here. Tammy was dead. Was I next? I needed to go to the police station, find Clapper. It wasn’t an accident. There was no way Tammy would’ve gone wandering on the pier at night in that kind of weather. He’d believe that. He had to.
I headed downstairs. Opened the front door and felt the chill. There was a thickness to the air, a wet winter cold. I closed the door, threw the dead bolt and rushed downstairs to the garage, my purse bouncing behind me.
The car started. I don’t know why I’d thought it wouldn’t. I clicked the button for the garage door and angled my neck as I slowly began to back up.
I screamed and slammed the brake.
Zeke was standing in the middle of the driveway, same black overcoat, black knit cap smashed onto his head, waving his hands. In the dim light of the storm, his coat flapping around him, he looked like a specter, something I’d conjured out of the horror movie I’d watched days ago.
He gestured wildly for me to roll down my window, shouting something I couldn’t hear.
I cracked the window, my arms poised to steer away. “I have to go,” I yelled. “Family emergency.”
He was still shouting, but the wind kept thrusting the sound away. I watched him wrestle with his scarf. Finally I caught a word. “Letty...”
“What?”
Zeke came closer, breathing heavy. “Have you seen her?” His bright blue eyes blinked rapidly, like a nervous animal, and he rested a hand on the hood of my car. “My grandniece? She ran out here somewhere and I can’t find her. Have you seen her?”
I shook my head. Go, go, go, my brain was still saying. But Zeke was in the way. I thought I caught a flash of movement between the houses. Letty? Or someone else? I couldn’t think straight. How had they allowed Letty to go out in this kind of weather?
“Can you help?” he called. “I’m afraid, with the weather, that she might...”
I poked my head out of the window. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
He nodded slowly and lifted his weight from my hood. “It’s okay.” He waved, turning. “I’ll do what I can.” He was frailer than I remembered. Hunched over, moving slow. Was I being ridiculous?
No.
I put the car in Drive. Zeke shifted out of the way, and just as the car started to roll, I saw Zeke in the rearview mirror, heard him shout as he fell on the ice at the edge of my driveway. He went down hard. And wasn’t moving.
“Shit,” I said, putting the car in park and getting out. The ice cracked beneath my boots. I hadn’t grabbed my coat, and even as I pulled my sweater across my body, the wind whipped right through to my skin. I hurried over, bent down. “Mr. Bishop, are you okay?”
He was making some sort of noise, his coat billowed out around him. “That would be...” I thought I heard him say. And then he was up, quick and light, standing there with an odd smile on his face. “Your concern is so delightful, Allison,” he said. Then I looked down to see the gun pointed at me. “But perhaps we can chat first.”