“Erica!” Grady shouted up. “I told you we are not done talking!”
Well … at least I had finally gotten him on the Ferris wheel.
“Freddie?” I slumped down into the seat of the cart as the wheel took me higher. “Get Rex to stop the ride when Mrs. Masterson makes the next pass. It’s off … the whole thing is off. It’s too risky.”
“No. No. No. Not yet. Don’t you see, Erica? This is even better. I’m looking at them right now,” Freddie said. “Sully’s about to burst. He’s going to confess. I can see it on his face. We just need to hang on.”
“Really?”
“Swear to God.”
“No, it’s too dangerous, and you should have seen Mrs. Masterson’s face when he came up to her. I don’t think she was in on it.”
“Erica, he’s not going to hurt her. In his mind he must believe that everything he does is for her.”
“Said every stalker ever.”
“Well … point taken. But don’t you see? It’s like an act of God.”
I shook my head. Yeah, God, I thought, darting a glance over to the evil jack-o’-lantern overlooking our town. I let out a shaky breath. This could be our only chance to exonerate the twins … but it was never the plan to put someone else in danger. “I don’t kn—”
“Wait! Hush, they’re talking!”
My eyes flashed up to the bottom of the cart. “What are they saying?”
“Okay. Okay. It’s nice to see you, Martin. How have you been?” Freddie relayed quickly. “Oh my—Olivia, darling, you don’t have to pretend. We’re alone.”
I pinched my lips together, waiting for more. When it didn’t come, I said, “Freddie! Keep going—”
“They’re not saying anything! He’s just looking at her like—Wait!” Another moment passed, then Freddie said in his Mrs. Masterson voice, “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Everything we’ve always wanted, Olivia. Everything we have waited for. It’s here. You’re free of that man. That lying, cheating—” Freddie gasped.
“What! What!”
“She slapped him! Oh my God—You will not speak of my husband that way,” Freddie finished back in the dignified feminine voice—which suddenly sounded a little southern.
“Oh Freddie,” I moaned. We were coming to the ground again. “Tell Rex to stop the ride.”
“He’s almost there Erica! He’s going to confess!”
“Freddie—”
“Listen! After all I’ve done for you. Mick. Your father…” Freddie said, then switched to Olivia’s voice. “You … you killed them!” He switched again. “For you! It was all for you!”
“That’s it, Freddie! That’s enough! We’ve got to—”
“Okay, you’re right,” Freddie said quickly. “Rex, stop—Rex?”
“Freddie?”
“Rex is gone. He’s gone!”
“What do you mean, gone?” I slid to the side of my cart just as it was swooping past the platform. Freddie was alone in the little booth. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know! Rex?”
“Erica!” Grady called out. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing good,” I shouted back. “Freddie, what’s happening with Mrs. Masterson?”
“He’s not happy, Erica. Not happy at all. You lied to me. You led me to believe … She’s saying she has no idea what he’s talking about.” He switched to his female voice. “I never meant for you to think that we were anything more than friends.” Freddie stopped talking a moment, then I heard, “Hey … what are you doing in here?”
“Freddie?” I shouted. “Who are you talking to?”
Then just as we were swooping back up to the top of the arch … the Ferris wheel jerked to a stop with a trailing Peeeeuuuwww sound, lights clicking off.
“Freddie?” I asked, clutching the sides of the cart.
“Hey! What are—get back here!”
I put my knees up on the hard seat of the cart and twisted over the backrest to see what was happening.
“Freddie? Talk to me.”
“Erica! It’s the pumpkin people.” Freddie’s voice was all jumpy … and the sound was cracking up, like … like he was running! “One of them took the key to the Ferris wheel!”
“What! Well, get it back!”
“I’m trying. I—”
Suddenly my earbud crackled into static.
My eyes darted over the ground below. Nothing … nothing … nothing. There! I spotted Freddie running after someone. A pumpkin person!
My eyes snapped back up to the cart above me. Dammit! I couldn’t see anything!
“Grady!” I yelled, leaning over. “Call Rhonda. The fire department! Everybody! We got a situation up there!”
“What?”
“I think Mr. Sullivan—”
Just then Mrs. Masterson’s scream pierced the air.
“Help! He’s going to kill me!”