‘I have no argument with you, Carla,’ said Max, his hand over her mouth.
Carla’s legs buckled as he dragged her into the darkness. She couldn’t put up the same fight as earlier and she felt the energy seep away from her. She was tired and hurting, and now on the back foot. She could smell his skin as he pulled her across a row of graves, fear and excitement mingling with an expensive, soapy scent. In her terror, she still needed to correct him.
‘You… you attacked me earlier.’
‘I just needed enough time to get to Viv and incapacitating you would have helped that. You’ve been asking the right questions, but it doesn’t matter because it’s nearly all over. I don’t want to hurt you, Carla, but don’t fight me.’
She didn’t believe him. The misogynism was ingrained deep inside his psyche. It must explain the way he’d treated the women he’d killed, starting with Stella King, taken to the mall that he’d had a hand in designing. He’d played down his role in its design to Carla and had also told her he had little interest in ritual protection. Completely untrue. Carla, despite herself, tried to fight him. Those who said that people near death received images of old memories were wrong. It was the dead who came to greet Carla, urging her to hold on, but it was too much for her. A fresh start on a new continent would end in this graveyard and the irony was too much to bear. She struggled, but he held her fast.
‘You don’t have anything to fear. I’m just putting you somewhere safe while I finish things here.’
‘Where is Viv?’
‘Close by, alive. I’m not done talking with her yet.’
‘I don’t understand any of this.’
His grip tightened on her. ‘I just want her to tell me, in her own words, what happened that night ten years ago.’
‘Is that when your wife Linda died?’
‘Exactly. It’s nearly ten years to the day that Linda was killed by the squad car. If you’d left things alone, I think I’d have waited until the anniversary of her death to complete the hexafoil, but I don’t suppose it really matters.’
‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Why witch bottles? Why daisy wheels?’
‘Viv Kantz has an unassailable reputation which I’ve watched flourish over the long years since my wife died. It’s been a bitter pill to swallow.’
‘But why?’ gasped Carla as she felt his fingers dig into her arm. ‘Albert told me Viv wasn’t even driving.’
‘Did he? That’s the official account, certainly, but I now know different. When she hit the car, there were no witnesses, so her dumb partner, so near retirement, switched seats to take the heat off the cop who everyone said was Jericho’s future.’
‘Viv swapped places?’ Carla felt a rope being put round her. ‘What… what are you doing?’
‘You’ll be fine. I just don’t want to be disturbed while I finish my plans.’
He strapped her to a grave, a stone cross covered in moss and decades of grime. Thank God she was used to being among the dead, but the ties that bound her cut into her skin, scouring her flesh.
‘How do you know she swapped places?’ asked Carla, desperate to keep him talking.
‘Old Jerry Tate confessed before he died. It was eating up at him, so his daughter arranged for me to see him. I found not only had Viv been driving but she was hungover after a party the night before. She’d never have passed a breathalyser test. That’s why Jerry swapped.’
‘When was this? When did you find out the truth?’
‘Just under three years ago.’
Around the time Stella King was killed, the first of the murders. ‘Couldn’t you have spoken to Viv? You could have had her investigated through traditional channels.’
‘That precinct is as corrupt as the college. You really don’t understand how things work around here, Carla.’
‘Do you think Albert knows?’ Carla remembered his silence when she told him Max might be involved. Of course, Albert knows, she thought.
‘Those poor girls. If you were so determined to have your revenge, why not just target Viv?’
Max tested her bonds for a final time. ‘Life can get a bit boring in Jericho and those from the right families rule this town. You’ll realise it if you stay long enough, and I had a glimpse of it when I helped Franklin with the design of his mall. It got me thinking about spiritual middens and I decided to have a bit of fun with it. It’s bad enough the men having power over this town, worse to watch a woman such as Viv lord it over Jericho too.’
‘You’re a monster.’ Carla couldn’t help herself, but he took her words calmly.
‘My advice to you, Carla, is to go home.’
‘I’m asking you to let me call an ambulance,’ she shouted after him as he walked away. ‘There’s a way out of this that doesn’t involve another death.’
The frozen ground glittered as Max disappeared out of sight. Viv must be somewhere close – Max had told her she was nearby. She wasn’t making any noise, which was a bad sign.
‘Viv,’ she shouted. ‘Help is coming.’ Where the hell were reinforcements? ‘Perez,’ she hollered. ‘I’m tied up. I need you to free me.’
‘I’m here.’ Perez came over the hill, her gun unholstered. ‘Where’s the lieutenant?’
‘Close. I can’t see them but she’s not responding.’
‘Shit.’ She felt Perez pull at the rope, trying to prise the knot free. ‘I need a knife. Wait here.’
‘Don’t leave me like this.’ She thought of Iris’s last moments as a noose was placed around her head and of Madison’s terror as she fought for her life.
Perez’s radio was a cacophony of sound. Help was coming, but it would be too late.
‘Get away from the lieutenant,’ she heard Perez scream. The beam from the detective’s torch illuminated Max, who was bending over Viv. For the first time that evening, Carla had a good view of him. It was odd to see him out of his work clothes. Max had more of a chameleon personality than she’d given him credit for. With his dark woollen hat and short gabardine jacket, he resembled a construction worker en route to work. He also matched the description of the man who had walked into the woods with Iris Chan.
‘Don’t come any nearer.’
The knife in his hand glittered in the light. Perez had her gun trained on him. ‘Put down your weapon,’ she screamed.
Max bent over Viv. Whether to place the knife on the ground or to finish the job he’d started, Carla couldn’t tell.
‘Put down—’
A shot rang out and Max fell to the floor. Confused, Carla strained against the rope. ‘Where did the shot come from?’ Perez swung the torch, illuminating Baros on one knee, his face streaked with blood.
The dispatcher on Perez’s radio was shouting into the night. ‘I heard a shot. What’s going on there?’
Perez spoke into the handset to reassure their colleague. ‘Suspect down, officer injured. We need ambulances here as soon as possible.’
A wall of lights was coming up the hill. ‘Where’s Viv?’ shouted Carla, but Perez and Baros had gone. ‘Will someone untie me?’ she shouted. ‘Please.’
She continued yelling out until she heard movement. She didn’t know who had a knife to cut through her binds. All she saw was a bright light and a pair of hands supporting her as they removed the rope. They deposited her on the ground and left her there, pushing on to help a fallen colleague.
Carla vomited onto the grass, immediately feeling a little better, although her head began to pound. In the distance, she could hear Albert shouting. ‘Where’s my wife?’
She lay there until she felt a presence at her side. At first, she thought it was Dan come back from the dead among these graves to give her comfort, but it was a living being who crouched over her, pulling her gently up. Jack.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I got a panicked call from Albert looking for Viv. He thought Anna might know, but I rang her and she hasn’t spoken to Viv for days. When I called Albert back, he was on the way here and he let me hitch a ride.’
She took in Jack’s appearance. He was wearing a dinner suit and no overcoat. He must be freezing in this frosty night. A paramedic handed her a foil blanket and she passed it over to him. ‘Have it. My jacket will keep me warm.’
He shook his head. ‘You take it. I’ll be fine. I’m used to the cold.’
She nodded, pulling the blanket around her. ‘Is Viv OK?’
‘It seems they’re trying to stabilise her condition so they can move her. I don’t think she’s well at all. How did you know she’d be here?’
In the darkness, Carla couldn’t see the Miller plot, but she pointed towards it anyway. ‘There are a family of graves with the last name Miller. There’s a hexafoil on the top of each of them. The Millers go back to the early settlers and they’d been using a daisy wheel to ward off evil for generations.’
‘And what’s the connection to Max?’
‘The object of Max’s hatred was Viv, who he held responsible for his wife’s death. You were right about the centre of the hexafoil holding all the energy. The graves are common knowledge among those who know the cemetery well. When Max decided Viv had to die, he constructed this elaborate plan based on those daisy wheels. They’re both from old Jericho families. Max of course knew Viv was a descendant of the Miller family.’
‘But your first suspect was Franklin. What was his connection?’
‘Once Max had the centre of his daisy wheel, he needed to decide on the six points on the surrounding circle. He could make that circle as big or as small as he wanted, but he needed to make six equidistant points. Starting at the mall with its daisy wheel design was important as everything had to fit the pattern he’d started. He’d had a hand in its design and it was perfect for a place to start. It explains why he targeted the harder to reach sorority house and why it was important Tiffany was killed at Silent Brook rather than the Lake House. The flower beds at Suncook must have just been a nice touch – it’s possibly why the pattern wobbled a little when I was drawing it.’
‘All to get a message to Viv.’
Carla shivered, hugging herself to keep off the chill. ‘It’s not just that. He has a deep-rooted hatred of women. I wonder what his marriage was actually like, but his wife’s death clearly devastated him. Viv wouldn’t have picked up the reference immediately, but once I mentioned hexafoils, it was at that point she clammed up. She knew it was a possibility she was being targeted.’
‘You think she knew it was Max?’
‘Unless she’s got other skeletons in her closet.’
‘And the witch bottles?’ asked Jack.
‘Max having a bit of cerebral fun, I’m afraid.’
‘You know, if you’d asked me the right question, we might have got here a lot quicker than this. I remember Max telling me he’d advised local architects on the New England vernacular for one of Franklin’s developments. I thought he was talking about the exteriors – narrow sidings, large chimneys – but I might have made the connection. Maybe next time don’t play your cards so close to your chest.’
Carla stayed silent as they watched Viv lifted onto a stretcher and carried off into the waiting ambulance. Albert was by her side, holding her hand.
‘Where is Max?’ she asked.
‘He was the first to go in the ambulance. He’s not doing so good.’
‘God, I hope he survives. So many affected by this case deserve their day in court. Madison Knowles’ mother, and Dallas, who does so much to advocate for those girls.’
‘You know, you gave me a fright.’ He pulled her towards him, but she froze.
‘What about Anna?’ Carla struggled to her feet.
‘I don’t know.’
At least he was honest. He could have told her that he and his wife were getting that divorce, and she might have believed him.
‘That’s fine,’ she said finally. ‘I don’t know either.’