Count to Three

by T. R. Ragan

  Why was the door locked? About to head off and check the rest of the house, she heard a noise and then a loud banging on the other side of the door.

  “Is that you, Ali?”

  “Help me!”

  She was in there!

  Quinn ran into the kitchen and started opening drawers, trying to find something she could use to try to unlock the door.

  The front door banged shut. Quinn froze, her body flattened against the wall behind the refrigerator and prayed he wouldn’t see her.

  Dani called 9-1-1 the moment Quinn disappeared inside the house. She told the dispatcher what was happening and gave them Carlin Reed’s address. A flush of adrenaline washed over her as she ran to her car, grabbed her Taser from the glove compartment and the tire iron from her trunk. She ran as fast as she could back to the same spot where she’d seen Quinn scale the fence.

  She slid the tire iron through one of the holes in the fence, letting it drop to the grass before starting her climb. When she was only three-quarters of the way up, she realized she might not make it. Her biceps ached.

  Quinn had made it look easy.

  It pissed her off that she was this out of shape. Refusing to give up, she gritted her teeth and pulled herself upward, planted her foot, and inched her way up the fence until she was finally able to throw her leg over the top. She inhaled sharply before jumping to the grass and then dropping and rolling.

  After lying there for a second, making sure nothing was broken, she got to her feet and scooped up the tire iron on her way to the door, ready to hit Carlin Reed over the head if he dared to move. But he was gone and the door was closed.

  She cursed under her breath as she reached for the handle and found it locked. Scraping a hand over her face, she sucked in a breath and then shoved the thin edge of the tire iron between the door and the wood frame. A long, thin piece of wood splintered and fell to the ground.

  Thoughts of Quinn and Ali and Gretchen Myles clouded her vision, making her shake as she raised the iron bar and began hammering away at the lock, over and over again. The wood was old and it cracked and splintered. After another thirty seconds of pounding, she was able to push the metal bar into the hole she’d made and pry open the door without much effort.

  Pulling the Taser from her pocket, she thumbed the switch to on, then pushed her way inside, listening before following the sound of voices coming from below. The door leading to the basement was open. Adrenaline racing, she crept down the stairs, taking it slow, confused by what she saw when she looked inside the room at the bottom of the stairs. There was a girl on the floor, her face bloody and swollen. It was Ali. Her hand was clasped around a human bone, the end of it crudely sanded down. A skull with hair was on the floor, along with broken bones half-hidden beneath a moldy dress.

  This was madness. The moldy smell of death made it hard to breathe.

  Carlin’s back was to Dani, but she caught the glimmer of a blade and could see he was threatening Quinn with a hunting knife.

  Dani’s heart skipped a beat as she made eye contact with Quinn.

  Quinn started talking. She asked him to please spare her life, then rambled on about her grandmother and how she needed her.

  Dani knew what Quinn was up to; she wanted to make sure Carlin Reed didn’t hear Dani enter the room. Dani had to make her move and make it fast. With her Taser in her grasp, she held her arm ramrod straight and fired, the electrodes hitting him square in the back.

  His body twitched, but nothing else happened.

  The silence in the room was deafening as they all seemed to wait for something to happen. Seconds felt like hours before the knife dropped from his hand and clattered across the floor.

  Quinn sprang forward and scooped it up, holding the knife in one hand and the stun gun in the other as Carlin toppled backward. His head smacked against the wall behind him on his way to the ground. His arms and legs were stiff as boards, his eyes wide open, staring at something that wasn’t there.

  Dani’s gaze made a quick sweep around the room. She couldn’t make sense out of what she was seeing. The broken skeleton, the skull with wiry hair and what looked like wrinkled grapes for eyes, and Ali’s emaciated body and swollen face. What kind of horrors had she been through? And where the hell was Ethan?

  A whoosh of emotion flooded her mind and body. Dani wanted to shout for Ethan, comfort Quinn and Ali, make sure they were both okay, but first she needed to take care of Carlin, find a way to make sure he couldn’t do any more harm before the police arrived. “We need to tie him up,” Dani said, looking around for rope or a sheet that she might be able to tear into strips of cloth.

  She stopped looking when she noticed Ali crawl across broken bones to get to Carlin’s side. Hovering over him, Ali reached out a hand toward Quinn and said, “Give me your Taser.”

  Dani opened her mouth to protest as Quinn did as Ali asked.

  Ali leaned close to Carlin, her face nearly pressed against his as she looked into his eyes. “Can you see me, Carlin? I think you can. I’m going to give you to the count of three to say you’re sorry.”

  His eyes were wide open, his teeth clamped together.

  “One. Two. Three.” Ali held the prongs to Carlin’s chest and pulled the trigger more than once. More twitching followed. He didn’t blink or scream out as his body vibrated. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.

  The sounds of sirens in the distance flooded Dani with relief as she made her way to Ali’s side and pried her fingers from around the stun gun, taking it from her. Ali’s head dropped to her folded arms and she began to weep.

  Moments later, once police arrived, they found the key ring in Carlin’s pocket and were able to unlock every door inside the house. They found Ethan strapped to a crude medieval dental chair, his eyes wide with fear, his mouth held open with a dental block.

  As soon as he was free, he made a beeline for Quinn and Dani, wrapping his arms around both of them, sobbing, losing his cool for what was probably the first time in his life. Dani was glad he was getting it out. She knew how hard it was to hold back what felt like a lifetime of tears.

  Dani saw Mary Cross and her daughter Gracie head straight through the throng of reporters before the hospital doors slid open. Dani popped out of her chair and rushed their way, giving them the floor and room number where they could find Ali. “Nobody but family is allowed inside her room. She’s been through hell, but she’s going to be okay,” Dani told her.

  Mary pulled Dani into her arms and cried, thanking her. She did the same with Quinn, who was standing a few feet away, before she took hold of Gracie’s hand and rushed toward the elevators.

  Dani’s eyes watered at the thought of Mary being reunited with her daughter. Ali Cross was alive. She hadn’t bothered to tell Mary about Ethan or that Ali’s abductor was in critical condition after suffering multiple seizures. Mary would hear all about that later. Right now, Mary needed to see her daughter, let Ali know she wasn’t alone, and that everything would be okay.

  Quinn stood at Dani’s side and said, “I feel like I could conquer the world about now.”

  Dani smiled. “You did good. You followed a hunch and it worked out. This time. But—”

  “Too soon,” Quinn said. “Can’t you see I’m riding a high? No lectures until this is all over and we have a body count.”

  “You can’t just jump over fences and tase people without knowing what you’re dealing with. You could have been killed.” Dani shivered at the thought.

  “There was no time,” Quinn said. “How long do you think Ethan had until Carlin Reed took a scalpel to him?”

  Dani sighed, then bent down to scratch her ankle. A red, itchy rash had already appeared on both arms. “I think the poison ivy got me good. What about you?”

  “Nope. I’m fine. It takes more than a little poison ivy to take me down.”

  Dani was shaking her head at Quinn when Ethan stepped out of the elevator and headed their way, walking with the same confident swagger he’
d had when they first met him. Nobody else would ever know he’d spent the past few hours with a madman.

  “My jaw is sore,” he said as he gave it a rub, “but the doctor said I’m good to go.”

  There had been so much going on at Carlin Reed’s home they hadn’t had a chance to talk to Ethan before he was whisked away in an ambulance. “How did Carlin Reed get you into his car?” Dani asked.

  “He used the old puppy trick.”

  Quinn looked appalled. “He asked you if you wanted to see his puppy? What are you, five years old?”

  “No. It wasn’t like that,” Ethan said. “He told me the dog had heatstroke. The guy was panicked. I had a water bottle, so I went to see what he was talking about.”

  “Didn’t you recognize him?”

  “Not even a little bit.” Ethan glanced outside at all the reporters huddled near the entrance. “I’ll tell you the rest later. The nurses were gushing over me, telling me I was a hero. I better go talk to my fans.”

  Quinn snorted.

  Dani laughed.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Dani was awakened the next morning by a knock at her door. She buried her head under a pillow, hoping that whoever it was would go away.

  No such luck. She slipped her feet over the mattress, wobbling a bit as she made her way to where her robe was slung over a chair, scratching both arms as she went.

  If she’d had to guess who it might be, Matthew’s wife, Carole, would not have been on the list. But that’s who stood on the other side of the door when she opened it. The woman’s round stomach stuck straight out, like she’d swallowed an exercise ball. In her hands, resting on her belly, was a shoebox held shut with rubber bands.

  “Oh, my,” Carole said, her gaze fixated on Dani’s bruises and stitches. “I heard about the attack, but I had no idea how bad it was. I’m so sorry.”

  And here Dani had thought she was starting to look like her old self. “Thank you.” Dani gestured toward the living room. “Do you want to come inside?”

  “Please. I won’t take too much of your time.”

  Dani closed the door behind her and led the way. She had no idea why Carole was here, but she figured Matthew might have sent the big guns to ask her to keep Tinsley out of the news so that reporters would stop bothering them.

  Once they were seated, Dani offered her tea, but she declined. Dani clasped her hands together and said, “What can I do for you, Carole?”

  “It’s about Matthew.”

  Dani noticed how tightly she held on to the box, her hands trembling.

  “He’s been acting strange, and I have no one to talk to. I know I haven’t gone out of my way to get to know you. I’m sorry for that, but I had to talk to you. I’m desperate.”

  “It’s okay. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  “You’ve known Matthew longer than me, and I was wondering if he’s always had such an explosive side to him?”

  “Explosive?”

  Carole nodded. “I had Tinsley’s room converted to the new baby’s room. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “It’s your house now,” Dani said. She felt no animosity. The house and what they did or didn’t do to Tinsley’s room was of no concern to her. Her daughter’s memory lived in her heart. Nowhere else.

  The tension seemed to leave Carole’s body. “Matthew had seemed perfectly fine when I told him I was redecorating. He didn’t say a word when I replaced the carpet with wood floors and had the room painted. But last night, after the furniture had been delivered and everything was perfect, I asked him to have a look.” A tear slid down her face.

  “What did he do?” Dani asked, growing worried, wondering where she was going with all this.

  “He went ballistic. There is no other way to describe it. He looked around the room, frantically opening and closing dresser drawers. His face was crimson as he riffled through the closet, tossing baby gifts we had received into the middle of the floor. The anger made it difficult for him to speak.” Carole put a hand to her chest. “I was truly frightened.”

  Dani couldn’t remember ever seeing Matthew angry. He could be stubborn. He vented about work at times . . . but she’d never seen him lose his cool. Even so, as these thoughts entered her mind, she couldn’t help but think of Rebecca Carr. “I’m so sorry,” Dani said. “That doesn’t sound like Matthew at all.”

  “It doesn’t? He never went off the rails like that when you were married to him?”

  “No. Never.” That was the truth. No need to mention Rebecca.

  “Do you think it has to do with the new baby?”

  “No,” Dani said without hesitation. “Whenever I talk to him, he shows nothing but concern and love for you and the baby.”

  Carole glanced at the box still in her lap. “When Matthew was tossing things to the floor, he wanted to know where Tinsley’s things were. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I had donated her clothes, with his permission of course, months before. So when he was asking about Tinsley’s things, my mind drew a blank.”

  Dani reached for a box of tissues and handed it to her so she could wipe her eyes.

  “I slept in the guest room last night,” Carole said. “This morning he apologized more than once. He felt horrible, and before he left for work he assured me he would never lose his cool again.”

  Dani scratched her neck. “I’m glad he apologized.”

  Carole agreed. “It wasn’t until an hour ago I remembered that I had placed what little was left of Tinsley’s personal belongings in a box that I then stored in a bin in the garage to keep it safe from the elements.” She exhaled. “My first thought was that I would present the box to Matthew tonight when he got home. But something stopped me. There’s no way I could handle another breakdown like I saw last night. So I decided the best thing would be to give you this and let you sort through the contents and do with it what you like.”

  She handed Dani the box and Dani took it, unsure of what to think about all this. The random visit from Carole was strange enough, but then hearing about Matthew’s outburst made it even weirder. And now all she could think about was what would cause Matthew such concern. “Thank you,” Dani said. “I hope you know that I want nothing but happiness for you and Matthew and your new baby.”

  Carole looked down at her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry I haven’t reached out to you before now.”

  “It’s okay,” Dani said, feeling a need to extend an olive branch to the woman. Maybe because she was pregnant and hormones were raging and she’d been there, done that, or maybe because Matthew had once meant the world to her and Tinsley. “Just so you know, Matthew was a great father to Tinsley. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. But I might have made it hard for him to get close to Tinsley.”

  Carole looked up, brows furrowed. “How so?”

  “I’m sure Matthew has mentioned how difficult it was for us to conceive Tinsley.”

  She nodded.

  “It was a lot of work. Fertility injections, tests, and more tests. This went on for years, and Matthew made it clear he didn’t want to go through the whole process again. Knowing Tinsley would be my only child, I became a bit obsessive, and looking back, I think I may have made him feel like an outsider, looking in.” Dani sighed. “Maybe he’s panicking . . . afraid you might do the same after the baby is born.”

  “Thank you,” Carole said. “For that. For listening. For everything.”

  They both stood. Dani put the box on the side table and walked her to the door, taken by surprise when Carole put her arms around Dani, her extended belly making for an awkward hug. “I want you to know that I think about Tinsley often. I wish I could have met her.”

  After Carole drove off, Dani wondered if they had somehow bonded in that moment or if it was a one-off and she was making more out of it than it was—a need to vent. Before she could reflect further, she heard her phone buzzing in her bedroom. She was able to pick up the call. It was Quinn, calling to check on her.
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  Dani applied lotion to every part of her body covered with a red rash, then dressed in loose clothing and decided to continue with her plan for the day. The only way she would be able to prove that Frank Petri was the intruder would be to catch him in action, which meant they needed more digital cameras. Lots of them. She would stop at Lowe’s on her way to Cameron’s house and get everything she needed to do the job properly, something she should have done right from the start.

  It took less than an hour to find and purchase the cameras. When she was done, she texted Cameron to let her know she would be spending a few hours inside the house. Once she arrived, she used the keyless code to enter. Everything looked the same. The place was neat and tidy, as if nobody lived here.

  Dani made the rounds to make sure Frank Petri wasn’t enjoying a snack in the kitchen. After double-checking that the sliding glass door was secure, she peeked into the laundry room, just as she had done the last time she was here. This time, she noticed a doggy door. Why hadn’t she seen it before? She pulled out her phone and sent Cameron a text, asking her why there was a doggy door in the laundry room.

  A response came back immediately: It came with the house. I never thought to remove it since I tried to crawl through it and couldn’t.

  Dani made sure the cameras downstairs were angled properly before heading upstairs. She was in the middle of opening one of the boxes when she heard a noise and her head snapped up. What was that?

  She tiptoed over to the window that overlooked the backyard. Frank and his dog, Sadie, stood outside the laundry room door. Dani didn’t dare step any closer to the window. Afraid Frank might see her, she stayed where she was and didn’t move a muscle.

  His dog disappeared.

  Soon after, she heard the pitter-patter of paws on the tile floor. The dog was in the laundry room. What happened next defied reason. The door opened and Frank stepped inside.

  What the hell?

  As soon as she heard the duo make their way through the house, she knew she needed to act quickly. She grabbed her backpack and the plastic bag from Lowe’s and rushed from Cameron’s bedroom, down the hallway, and made her way into the guest room. Thankful that the floor was carpeted, muting her footfalls, she opened the closet just enough so she could squeeze inside and close the door quietly without being heard.