Deadly Hallows (The Dead Ringer Series Book 1)

by Taylor Henderson

The inside was small from what I could see. There were two doors at the back that I assumed led to a bathroom and a bedroom, and the main area was empty except for fishing poles and a chair with restraints on it. I knew instantly it was for me, and had probably held Sophie as well.

  I shook my head, making eye contact with him as I said, “I don’t know. Please, don’t hurt me.”

  A sickening feeling was in my gut as he scoffed at my words. “Don’t play dumb, Casey. I know that you’re on to me. I knew what I had to do as soon as I noticed you went digging for my wife’s photo. I know that you figured it out.”

  A tear dripped from my eye and down my cheek. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I denied. I remembered that day I had gone into Sophie’s room with Mason. I had wondered if she knew that she would never return to her room or her family again. I wondered what had been going through her head during her final moments when she knew she was about to die. Now I knew. I wondered if Sophie had ever learned about her connection to me, or about her real mother, but I doubted it. I was sure that Mr. Miller had targeted us for our looks, because we looked like his wife. I just wasn’t sure why.

  Mr. Miller came closer, leaning down and staring me in the eyes, his expression hard. “You do,” he said. “As soon as I saw that you went into my desk for the picture again, I knew I had to kill you before you told anyone what you knew.”

  I shook my head hard. “You don’t have to hurt me. You can walk away from this. I honestly won’t tell anyone. You don’t have to kill anyone else.”

  Mr. Miller smirked, and then chuckled to himself like I had told a joke. “Oh, Casey, I was going to kill you anyway. I just had to speed up my plan after I knew you were on to me.” He shook his head. “What a shame too. I was planning on going after your brother next so the police didn’t find a connection between the murders. Now everything will be all messed up. They might think that your and Sophie’s deaths are connected because you’re both blonde,” he spat, looking annoyed that the cover up of Sophie’s murder as a suicide might be dropped, and her case would probably be reopened.

  I scrunched my face up. Why would he go after John if he was targeting people who looked like his wife? Now I was thoroughly confused. “Why would you go after John?” I asked.

  Mr. Miller’s eyes searched my face for a moment before he grinned. “Wow, you were actually telling the truth about not knowing, weren’t you?” I didn’t answer, knowing it had been a rhetorical question. “There will be plenty of time for that later, but for now, I have a surprise for you.”

  He leaned down fast, and before I could react he grabbed me from the ground. I kicked and flailed my arms, hitting him repeatedly but to no avail. He dropped my body into the restraint chair and put his knee into my groin to restrain me as he tied my arms and legs down. Pain shot down my legs and through my abdomen.

  “Time for the fun part.” He grinned wickedly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. He unfolded the blade and held it up for me to see. I stared in horror as I realized there was dried blood on the tip of the knife. “Same knife I used on Sophie.”

  I squirmed in my chair. “You won’t get away with this,” I spat. “Mason will know I’m missing, and he probably has already come looking for me!”

  He scoffed. “What makes you so sure?”

  I didn’t see the point in not telling him. “I was supposed to text him when I got home, and I never did because you grabbed me! He’ll know something’s wrong. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t know already,” I said smugly.

  “You’ve outsmarted me,” Mr. Miller said, but his expression didn’t match his sarcastic tone. He reached his other hand into his pocket and pulled out my phone. The screen had a long crack going through it. “You mean this phone that you dropped? I didn’t want to leave any evidence behind so I picked it up, and pressed send on the message that was on the screen. Now it’s turned off so it can’t be traced, if that’s your next attempt to prevent me from doing to you what I did to Sophie.”

  Without waiting for another excuse, Mr. Miller grabbed my hand and instantly dug the knife into my skin. The pain took over as the blade pierced my skin. If my legs weren’t restrained I would’ve been kicking and flailing in agony, but for now all I could do was scream.

  Tears streamed down my face as he made deliberate cuts, creating perfectly straight and agonizingly slow incisions. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as blood pooled from the slashes. I could feel the blade digging into my skin as he raked it across my arm, careful not to cut the major vein in my wrist. I let out a choking cry as he removed the blade from my skin, but he wasn’t done yet. All he had done was create the base of the arrow, he still needed the point and the line for the tail. I had no choice but to sit and writhe under the knife while he finished the details of the copy of his wife’s tattoo.

  When he finished, the only sound around us was the echo of my scream that had ripped through my throat when he put a fine point onto the tip of the arrowhead, and deliberately dug the blade in deeper. He pulled the blade out and then put gauze over the wound, saying that he didn’t want me to die from bleeding out. How kind.

  Once he bandaged me, he got up to clean the knife, which gave me a few moments to see if I could get out of my restraints. I thrashed, hurting my right wrist with each movement, but eventually gave up when the holds didn’t budge. A sigh escaped my lips as I fell back into the chair and felt something hard press against my back. I stopped, trying to figure out what it was. I hit the back of the chair again, causing a ring to echo in the room.

  I still had the walkie-talkie in my pocket. He must not have noticed it when he grabbed me. There was still a way to contact Mason.

  “What was that?” Mr. Miller asked, coming back into the room with the knife tight in his hand.

  I didn’t miss a beat as I responded. “It was my phone. It’s a timer I have set to remind me to take my medication when I wake up.”

  “Well, you’ll be taking a very different kind of medication today,” Mr. Miller replied with a wicked smile. “As you know I gave Sophie a combination of drugs, mostly from my wife’s prescriptions, but combined they have nasty results, especially if you’ve been drinking. At least you won’t have to worry about taking anything tomorrow—you’ll be dead.”

  I felt the grave expression sweep across my face at his words, and he just laughed.

  “Don’t worry, Casey. You won’t feel a thing. Sophie didn’t. I don’t want either of you to suffer really. I’m actually quite upset that you and your siblings have to go through this.”

  “What do you mean? I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I cried. “If you don’t want us to suffer then why did you kill Sophie, and why am I here?”

  A heavy frown slipped onto his face, distorting his features. “Because my wife is dead, and your mother is to blame,” he stated, the anger clear in his voice as he moved toward me. “You see, I don’t want you to suffer because I have no qualms with you. I have an issue with your mother, which is also why I don’t need Mason or I would have taken you both when you left on your walk. Thankfully, I don’t need to, because four murders would be a little difficult to hide.”

  “What did my mom ever do to you? I never even heard of your wife before Brad dug her photo out of your desk. My mom couldn’t have known her.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, pointing at me as if to say I had stumbled upon my answer. “Your mom knew her. We came for a high school reunion and she killed my pregnant wife in a hit and run.” A gasp escaped my lips, but Mr. Miller carried on as if I hadn’t reacted. “After the reunion Shannon and I stopped at the pharmacy to get prenatal vitamins. I let her go in while I waited in the car, and when she came out I was forced to watch my wife die in front of me. I was unable to help her, forced to watch her slowly lose her life, while your mother drove away. She not only killed my wife, but my unborn child. I never got to see my daughter, so why should she get that privilege?”

&n
bsp; I sat in silence as he spoke, but the whole time I couldn’t help but wonder how he had discovered who Sophie was. Then as if he could read my mind, Mr. Miller told me the answer to the question that plagued me.

  “After my wife’s death, I kept a close watch on your mother. That was when I returned to town, over fifteen years ago. I’ve been planning this for a long time. You can imagine my excitement when Sophie moved to town. All of my targets were in one area, and it gave me the perfect time to strike.”

  Once again I stayed silent, but suddenly wished more than anything I could take back my mom’s choices and fix everything. Then maybe I wouldn’t be here now.

  “The police never found the person responsible for the hit and run so the case went cold, but I knew it was her.” He shook his head slowly. “When I found out that the only punishment she would receive was a fine of up to ten thousand dollars and four years in jail, I decided to take the law into my own hands rather than turn her in.” He scoffed after mentioning the punishment. To be honest, I had to agree it wasn’t much of a punishment. “I even confronted your mother, and tried to get her to admit it. She refused, even though I could tell that she was lying through her teeth. She knew what she did, and refused to take responsibility for it. So I decided revenge was the best option. I take her kids, as she took my child, and then she knows my pain. That’s where you and Sophie come in. She’ll be the only one to make the real connection, and once I have John I’ll be gone. Then she’ll know what it’s like when the person responsible refuses to step forward and take the punishment deserved.”

  Chapter 27

  Quick Thinking

  Mr. Miller had taken the time to explain how he discovered Sophie was my half-sister. He had stalked my mother while trying to get her to admit what she did, and how she killed his wife. He had seen her go to the hospital and then return two days later with a new child. He had even seen Charles and her exchange the child a few months later when he assumed the baby had been weaned off the mother’s milk. I gagged at the thought, but it had not affected him.

  “I gave her a final chance to come clean when she returned to Shady Hallows. She refused. Flat out told me no and that she was sorry,” he scoffed, clearly insulted at the memory.

  “How could an apology make up for the loss of two lives? I couldn’t believe her. She walked away, rejoining her unbroken family and pretended that nothing happened. She brushed Shannon’s death under the rug to protect herself. I laid low for a while, plotting my revenge. That’s when I picked up a job at the school. I was forced to watch you and John grow up, while my daughter didn’t even have a chance at life.

  He took a deep breath before he continued.

  “I thought about giving her another chance, but decided she didn’t deserve it since she didn’t do anything with the previous chances I’d given her. Instead, I watched and waited. I couldn’t go after you and John right away though. I knew that she had another daughter. Just eliminating the two children from her marriage wasn’t enough of a punishment. All of her children would need to be killed for her to suffer like I did. So I spent my time tracking down Charles and Sophie, and getting close to you and John. It took me a while, but I finally found them when Sophie made a social media page. It listed her hometown of Nantucket, and some of her family members. Why else would anyone move here? I was the one who convinced Charles to relocate. I was the reason his application arrived after the previous person in the position mysteriously disappeared.”

  Suddenly it didn’t seem so mysterious.

  He went on explaining everything to me, even how he’d watched Mason and I grow close. He had hoped that it was a romantic relationship as everyone else thought it was, but he quickly learned that neither Mason nor I thought Sophie’s death was an accident. He had hoped to divert us, and had heard Mason say he was ready to give up. He hoped that I would too, but he knew he’d still have to get rid of me.

  At least Mason would live. He’d know I didn’t kill myself, and he’d investigate. I just wasn’t sure what he would find if Mr. Miller had sent the text message I prepared and taken my phone. Mason may never know what happened and he’d lose someone else close to him—me.

  After Mr. Miller finished explaining why I had to die, he went into the other room to do something. Probably to get everything ready to inject me with the drugs. As soon as he left I struggled with the restraints again. I knew when he came back I’d be given the same concoction Sophie had and no matter what I went through the result would be the same. I’d end up dead just as she had. I needed to get out. I needed to tell someone—anyone who would listen. Everyone had to be warned, and I needed a way to make sure he admitted what he had done to someone else. I wasn’t going to let him get away with this, he was going to pay.

  With a hard yank on the left wrist restraint, I heard it snap. I paused momentarily, hoping Mr. Miller hadn’t heard it as well. I inspected the strap that had snapped. There were a few stray cuts, as if the knife had slipped, and he had cut most of the way through and allowed me to break free. Something fell in the other room that caused me to break out of my trance. I didn’t waste any more time as I fiddled with the buckle on the other strap to release my other hand. Once my injured wrist was released I took a moment to hold it to make sure the gauze stayed on, and prayed the bleeding had stopped.

  I listened to Mr. Miller’s movements in the other room as I undid the restraints on my legs. From the sounds he was making it seemed like he was looking for something or cleaning up whatever had fallen. He was moving in a small area, and seemed to be pacing back and forth. That gave me an opportunity. I could see the door, and I knew I could make it out before he came back; I just had to be quiet.

  Taking in a shaky breath to prepare myself and calm my nerves, I started the trek to the door. I tiptoed along the wooden floors, silently praying the boards wouldn’t make a sound and alert Mr. Miller that I had managed to escape. It was easy until I made it close to the room he was in. He had been in the other room for a while. I assumed it was a kitchen or a utility room, but I couldn’t be sure. Just like I couldn’t be sure where he was facing.

  If I ran by when he was looking then he’d catch me in no time, but there was nothing I could do about that. I didn’t have time to waste. If I stood around trying to determine if he was facing me or not, then he’d be all that much closer to coming out and running straight into me. I took a deep breath and shook out my arms in an attempt to get rid of the nerves. I had to go.

  I can do this.

  Without another thought I bolted toward the door. Despite how my hands were trembling, I was able to undo the latch in one swift motion and pull the door open just enough for me to slip through. After I was outside, I pulled the door shut just a crack so I wouldn’t make any noise and alert him of my escape. Then, with my arms pumping at my sides and my legs moving as quickly as they could, I raced toward the trees. My breathing came out in ragged breaths as I ran harder than I ever had before, which honestly wasn’t hard considering I rarely ran. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I sprinted through the woods that I had been playing in all of my life.

  It wasn’t long until I recognized where I was. My heart clenched at the thought, but I pushed myself further, knowing that it would be the easiest location for Mason to find me. As I neared the place where I had first met Sophie and Mason, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my walkie-talkie. I was so grateful to have it at this moment that I wanted to hug and kiss it. Instead, I turned the volume all the way up and pushed the ring button so that it would ring on Mason’s end.

  The ringing sound was making noise on my end as well and I silently prayed that Mr. Miller hadn’t noticed I was missing yet or he would probably be out here searching for me and the sounds from the walkie-talkie would help him track me down faster. I gripped the electronic device tightly in my hand, realizing that it was my only connection to safety; my only chance at living. As I waited for Mason to respond on his end, I continued toward the hole in the woo
ds.

  After a minute that felt like an hour, Mason’s voice came in over the radio. “Casey?” he said in a groggy voice. He must have gone to bed after he had gotten the text message Mr. Miller had sent him.

  At the sound of his voice, tears began to flow down my cheeks. “Mason,” I responded, my voice cracking. “Mason, you have to get help.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, responding quickly. “I thought you went home.”

  “I didn’t send you that message. I never got home. I’m in the woods near the hole where I first met you and I’m in danger. I was right about Mr. Miller.” I wiped tears from my eyes and sniffled. “Please hurry. Bring the police. He killed Sophie, and now he’s trying to kill me.”

  There was a crack of fuzz in the connection as he responded, but I heard him say, “Call you when I get there. Don’t worry, Casey. I won’t let him hurt you.” Then he was gone.

  As if my body wanted to prove Mason’s words wrong, my wrist began to throb. Ignoring the pain, I tucked the walkie-talkie back into my pocket, leaving it on as I jogged toward the location where I was going to meet Mason. I hoped that he hurried, and they would make it in time. Otherwise I was heading straight for my death.

  My body shook as I headed toward a large tree to hide behind so I wasn’t out in the open. I sat down, pressing my back to the tree and breathing deeply, trying to calm myself down and think rationally. The woods were big, but Mr. Miller most likely knew the forest just as well as I did. We’d both grown up in the area, I just hoped that my years of playing in the forest would give me an advantage over him. I knew every trail and route. He’d have to guess which one I took. The only thing holding me back from trying to find a way home was that it would take nearly an hour for me to get to town walking from where I was. Mr. Miller had driven us only about fifteen minutes away and then into the woods to the cabin. When John and his friends came out here with me, we all rode our bikes, which made travel a lot quicker.