38

Kailey

The Vigenère cipher. It sounded like something from a movie. A spy movie. Maybe a James Bond or a Mission Impossible movie. Kailey gripped her steering wheel with her hands at ten and two, even though typically she used only one hand. There was an intensity in her now. She needed to get back to Foxglove Manor. Needed to unravel the code they’d found so far and see if they could figure out what might be missing and still hidden in the walls and mantels of Foxglove. Apparently, if Manchester Bluff truly was the common key used by the Confederacy, then it would serve to crack the code. She’d already Googled on her phone, and sure enough, Gary was right. There was an easy “enter your key, enter your code” form that would auto-interpret. She didn’t even have to figure out the math of it. Praise God or they’d be doomed.

Trees flew by on either side. Her clock read 3:20, so she knew Axel would probably be frigid by the time she returned. Preparing herself for a lecture, Kailey reached for the radio dial for some sort of calming distraction.

She saw the deer in the road the second she lifted her head. Ramming her foot against the brake pedal, Kailey braced herself to jolt forward at the resistance. But she didn’t. Instead, the brake pedal hit the carpeted floor. She pumped it. Over and over and—the awful sound of crunching metal was met with the impact of the deer as its body was catapulted onto the hood of the car. Its antlers cracked into the windshield, and the airbag deployed, knocking the wind from Kailey as her body flew into it with force. Kailey could feel the car spin out of control, until another massive thrust sent her sideways into the window of the driver’s door.

Dazed, Kailey could hear her own breath in her ears. The dinging of her car, like she’d opened the car door and left the keys in the ignition. She tried to push away the airbag, but her arm connected with something thin and hard that had poked into the bag, deflating much of it already. Antlers. Clawing at the bag, Kailey could hear herself crying as she saw the vacant eyes of the deer, his antlers busted through the windshield. Much farther and she might have been skewered alive. Kailey looked to the passenger side and noted the tree and the branches pushing through broken windows. She wiped at water that dripped down her face and then looked at her hand. Blood.

Her phone. Where was her phone? Kailey spotted it on the floor by her foot. She was able to reach for it, ignoring the sharp pain in her left side. When her hand wrapped around it, Kailey checked for service. There was a signal. She called Foxglove Manor’s landline.

“Where the heck are you?” Axel wasted no time answering the phone.

Bewildered, Kailey fumbled for an explanation. “I left a voicemail.”

Silence. Then, “I didn’t get it.”

“Axel?”

“Yeah?” He still sounded perturbed.

“Um . . .” Kailey winced as a throbbing ache pounded in her head. “I hit a deer.”

“Are you okay?”

“I-I don’t think . . . well, I’m not dead.”

A short laugh void of humor. “Great. Call 911, hon, okay?”

“Hon?” She winced again, feeling another trickle of blood down her cheek.

“I’ll call. Never mind. Hang tight. I’m on my way.”

Axel disconnected the call. There was only one main highway to town, so at least she wouldn’t be hard to find, out here, mashed against the trees in the woods, staring into the dead eyes of a rather monstrous deer.

“Brake line was cut right through.”

Kailey heard Axel’s quiet announcement, along with the steady beeping of the hospital’s heart monitor. “I’m awake and I can hear you,” she said a bit crankily.

“Well, praise the Lord!” Teri exclaimed from beside Axel. They both stood over her bed with anxious expressions.

“What did you say, my brake line was cut?” Kailey ignored their obvious concern as she lifted her hand to feel the side of her head. A bandage met her fingertips. “Where’s Jude?”

“Jude is safe with Tracee back at the manor. Careful.” Axel reached out and pushed her hand away gently. “You just got seven stitches there.”

“Am I going to need plastic surgery?” she joked.

“No. They had the plastic surgeon do the stitching,” Teri supplied. Then added, “I requested him.”

“Thanks.” Kailey had been kidding. Now she was more aware of the potential seriousness of her injuries. “Am I okay?” She looked at Axel.

He nodded. “Bruised and scratched. The worst was the laceration on the right side of your head just above your ear. They think the antler grazed you.”

“Gored by a deer. I always wanted a creative way to die.” Kailey closed her eyes against the pain in her head. “Tell me I at least have a concussion.”

Teri’s laugh hurt to listen to. “Miraculously no, ma’am. You’ll be released, and Tracee and I will take care of you back at Foxglove.”

“And the deer is dead?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“Very.” Axel nodded. He stepped aside as another woman joined them. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She had blond wisps floating around and framing her face and massive blue eyes. Kailey glanced between her and Axel and was stunned by the sudden flood of jealousy that shot through her as fast as adrenaline.

The woman ignored Axel and focused on Kailey. “Miss Gibson, I’m Detective Finnegan.”

Detective? Oh. Cut brake line. Kailey tried to collect her thoughts. At least it wasn’t that male detective who had first told them about Riley. The one who flirted with Teri. This woman seemed more focused by the way her facial expressions didn’t waver from seriousness.

“Can I ask you a few questions?” Detective Finnegan asked politely.

Still, maybe the other guy would have been better. This detective was prettier—obviously—and young. Lithe. Fit. Gosh, Kailey almost felt chunky lying in the bed. What if Axel noticed the attractive detective? What if—?

“Hey. Hon.” Axel’s hand was on hers.

“When did you ever start calling me that?” She was irritable. Could feel it in every inch of her body. She jerked her hand away from Axel at the same time Kailey wanted to launch herself into him and be held. Just be held.

Detective Finnegan shot Axel a look and then smiled at Kailey. “It’s okay. I know you’re wiped out and shook up. I just wanted to know if you saw anyone around your vehicle today?”

Kailey shook her head. “No.”

“Did you have a run-in with anyone today or recently? Someone who may want to hurt you?”

Kailey searched her memory. “Outside of my kidnappers, I can’t think of anyone.”

“Your kidnappers?” Detective Finnegan couldn’t have disguised the shrill lift of her tone if she’d wanted to. Surprise was etched on her face. Kailey felt a little bit bad. She couldn’t reason through her words. Even her thoughts. It was all murky.

“Manchester Bluff,” she said. Gosh, she sounded almost drunk.

“What’s that, Miss Gibson?”

Kailey waved weakly at the detective. “No, not you. Axel. Manchester Bluff. You can look it up online.”

Teri stepped up. “Umm, I don’t think Kailey is ready for questions right now.”

“I see. That’s quite all right.” Detective Finnegan moved to leave, and Axel followed.

Well, that wouldn’t do.

“Axel!” Kailey half shouted, even though it made her head pound. The room spun. He didn’t return. “Hey! Hon!” she shouted.

Axel retreated a few steps and leaned over her. There was a twinkle in his eye but a very distinct firmness in his voice. “Rest, Kailey.”

“I’m hon, remember?” she insisted. Gosh, had they given her drugs? “I’m your hon. Not her—not that blond chick. Me.”

“Yes.” Axel’s smile seemed lopsided to her. Was he laughing? He was laughing. No, he was serious. He was talking to Detective Finnegan. Something about her being taken when she was little. Riley. Riley Bascom. Foxglove Manor.

She met Teri’s concerned expression. “I’m his hon,” she repeated. “You tell that pretty cop to back off.”

Teri bit her bottom lip. “Yes, Kailey. I will.”

“Okay.” Kailey felt satisfied at Teri’s confirmation. Gosh, sleep would feel good right now. It was sure nice not to be gored by that deer.

Foxglove Manor had never been friendly at nighttime, even in the best of nights when she didn’t see ghosts. Now, Kailey was propped up with pillows in a dimly lit room, with the shutters wide open expressing a very blue-black view of the lake. She half expected to see the ghost girl. Lucy. But she didn’t. Her mind felt fuzzy, her head throbbing. The gash with stitches both burned and ached simultaneously. Jude wasn’t on the air mattress. How anyone had convinced him to sleep elsewhere without an ensuing anxiety attack was beyond her. Somehow she had a feeling Axel was behind it.

Kailey squinted at the clock, willing her eyes to clear enough to read the hands. She couldn’t see her phone anywhere, which would have been easier.

One in the morning.

Lovely.

The time Lucy started wandering halls, beckoning someone to hide her, and doing that horror movie thing where she hollowed out her eyes and acted more poltergeist than wandering soul.

“Kailey?”

“Gah!” Kailey jumped and yelped, then squeezed her eyes shut against the pain pounding in her head.

Teri padded into the room. She wore beige moccasins with her scrubs so her footsteps didn’t disturb sleeping residents. Her dark hair was pinned back on the sides, and she held a small paper medicine cup in her hand.

“How’re you feeling?” Teri set the little cup on the bedside table.

“Like I got hit by a deer,” Kailey retorted.

Teri set about checking her vitals. Her fingers were gentle and soft as they searched for Kailey’s pulse on her wrist. She looked directly into Kailey’s eyes when she talked. “I was planning to wake you. I didn’t want you to fall too deeply asleep, just in case.”

Kailey closed her eyes and smiled. “I woke up on my own. I was half expecting Lucy Miranda to walk through the door.”

Teri laughed quietly. “I’m not a ghost. Sorry to disappoint.” She held a stethoscope to Kailey’s chest.

“Have you ever seen her?” Kailey couldn’t help but inquire.

Teri frowned in denial. “No. No, I’ve walked these halls so many times at night, and not even a shadow. Unless—” she paused and gave Kailey a stern look—“you count Poe. He darted out in front of me the other night on his way to the litter box from Raymond’s room. Flash of furry white and I just about peed myself.”

Kailey half laughed, half choked at Teri’s bluntness. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Teri hung the stethoscope around her neck. “That cat has brought Raymond some much-needed comfort. He’s spent too many hours worshiping Maddie from afar. I doubt Maddie has a clue Raymond is totally in love with her.”

“Do you find it weird?”

“Find what weird?” Teri ran a thermometer across Kailey’s forehead.

“Raymond and Maddie. I mean, romance when you’re in your eighties . . . why bother?” She didn’t mean it to sound so harsh. She tried to soften it with an explanation. “I mean, you’re going to die in less than twenty years—at least the odds are high.” Somehow that didn’t help her sound more sensitive. “Why risk the loss, the ache, the grief for such a short span?”

Teri straightened the blankets around Kailey’s feet. “I don’t know. Aren’t we supposed to live every moment we can to its fullest?”

“What does that even mean?” Kailey asked before she could bite back her words.

Teri’s eyes grew soft, and her hand stilled on the blankets. “I think it gives us purpose. To invest in something—someone. We all need someone.”

“Do you believe God gives us purpose?”

Teri lifted her shoulders. “Sure? Maybe for some? I think love is purpose enough, don’t you?”

Kailey wanted to say yes. Wanted to say that love was the answer to everything. But love died. She knew that firsthand. It also failed. Miserably. She’d no doubt her parents loved her, but had they been adequate parents? Hardly. And Jude. He’d loved to the best of his ability, but that had been thwarted by his disability and . . .

Kailey turned her head away from Teri. She really didn’t want the nurse to see the tear that ran down her cheek and wet the pillowcase. How could life have purpose when it was filled with tragedy? Selfish greed that chased down little girls, haunted old homes, and kept life in a chaotic toss and turn? How could life have purpose when you loved only to die, or to break apart, or to . . . Didn’t love have a deeper, longer-lasting purpose? Because circumstances didn’t necessarily lend themselves very well to love being the all-consuming resolution to life.

“You’re thinking way too deep for someone who just sidestepped a head concussion.” Teri held out the paper medicine cup. “Take this. Rest. It’ll all look better in the morning.”

Kailey obliged and took a proffered sip of water to wash down the pill. “I hope so,” she muttered, feeling more like a little kid than Teri’s adult equal.

Teri patted her shoulder and flicked out the bedside lamp.

“Get some rest.”

Kailey heard her feet pad softly out of the room. The door closed. For a moment, Kailey was certain she could see a girl in white, staring at her from the corner. But when she blinked, the girl had disappeared. In her place was a vacancy that was more lonely and more desperate than had Lucy stayed to stare at her with hollow eyes.