“That’s really loud, Erica,” Kyle hissed in my ear.
“I know,” I said, keeping my focus on making a deeper groove.
“Well, saw faster! Somebody’s going to hear us.”
I tried to pick up the pace, but that just made the teeth of the saw jump, and now would be a particularly bad time to lose a thumb.
A few moments later, I stopped dead.
“What?” he asked. “What’s happening? Why aren’t you sawing?”
“Do you hear that?” I asked, rocking back onto my heels.
“Hear what?”
I whacked him gently on the arm. “Listen.”
We both fell silent.
A moment later, Kyle and I jumped up, clutching each other.
Oh, there was no mistaking it now.
It sounded like … scratching?
“What is that?” Kyle whispered.
“I don’t know,” I whispered back. “But I think … I think it’s coming from over there.” We hustled over to the back corner of the room. I crouched down and put my ear close to the wall—then sprang back like it had burned me.
“What?”
“Something’s there!” Thoughts raced through my mind as I brought a hand to my mouth.
“What?”
“Get out of the way,” I said pushing past him.
“What about the gun?” Kyle half-yelled, stamping a foot.
“We’ll come back for it,” I said already at the threshold. My heart banged in my chest while my mind started up the mantra, Please. Please. Please. “Come on.”
I stopped and peeked out the hall, head swiveling side to side.
Nothing.
I hurried the few steps over and whipped myself into the next room.
My mother’s room.
A small cry escaped my mouth.
Kyle fell in beside me. “What is … are you kidding me right now?”
I couldn’t answer him. I was just so—
“We stopped trying to get the gun for that?” Kyle hissed throwing a hand forward. “The world’s fattest cat?”
I eyed Caesar planted on the floor, one leg up in the air, licking his crotch. He rolled his extremely disinterested eyes up to mine.
“It’s a cat, Erica,” Kyle repeated. “We have bigger problems.”
I hesitated one moment longer to look at Kyle and say, “It’s not just a cat,” before launching myself at the closet.
“Then what? Why are you—?”
“It’s my mother.”
Chapter Forty-two
“Erica, seriously, have you lost it again? We don’t have time for this!”
I grabbed the handle of the closet and gave it a good yank. It didn’t budge. What the…?
My eyes trailed down to see a walking stick wedged between the bottom of the door and the floor.
“Wait!” Kyle clutched my arm. “What if it’s a trap?”
I dropped to my knees and grasped the thin piece of wood. “How could someone trap themselves in there with a stick?”
“I don’t know,” he moaned. “But what about your friend, Rhonda? What if she found the bad guy and put him in there?”
“What if it is Rhonda?” I shot back. It’s not though. I yanked again at the stick, wedged in tight. The stick that was making me insanely mad because it was keeping me from my—
“Erica, stop!” he said, pulling my arm. “Let’s just think this through.”
“I’m sorry, Kyle,” I said, popping to my feet and giving the stick a good kick. “I have to.”
I rammed the thin piece of wood with my toe, and it finally popped out.
I whipped the door open.
“Mom!” I threw myself over her even though she was buried in a big pile of junk. “Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
She wasn’t moving.
“Mom?” I shook her shoulder gently as my eyes darted over her limp form. Her scarves! Someone had taken her silk scarves as used them to bind her hands and feet. Another covered her mouth. I quickly moved to get them off of her then gave her another shake. “Mom! Please. Wake up!”
She moaned. “Erica?” she said, blinking her eyes. “What’s … what’s going on? How did I get in here?”
I leaned back, threw a coat off of her, and grabbed her arm to help her up to a seated position. “You don’t know?”
She clutched her head as Caesar walked nonchalantly into the closet, climbing up into her lap, rubbing his face up against her chin. She smiled before spitting out some cat hair. “Has no one given you your supper, baby? You must be starving. What time is it?”
“Mom, focus. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was … I had just put a gun in the safe.” She squinted then blinked a few times. “A guest had brought it, and then I went to my bedroom to … I can’t remember why, but I thought I saw someone, outside, through the window, on the porch.” Her voice sounded unsure. “I thought maybe it was one of the guests. I opened the window and … I don’t remember much after that.” She reached a hand up to touch the back of her head.
I put my fingers around to feel the spot too. Definitely a lump.
“Maybe I came to the closet to get something … and something else fell on me?” she said looking around at the mess. “And maybe the door swung shut?”
“And you tied yourself up? I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “Was it a big man that you saw?” Maybe she had seen the assassin in the process of sabotaging the generator.
“No, I just caught a glimpse,” she said eyes faraway. “It might have even been a woman.” Suddenly her eyes snapped to mine. “I remember turning around because it sounded like other guests had arrived, and … I don’t know.”
My guess was that whoever was on that back porch came through the window and knocked her on the back of the head. “It’s okay, Mom. I’m just glad we found you.”
“Erica, who is this young man?” my mother asked, sounding more alert. “And why are all the lights off?”
“Mom, you have to keep your voice down.”
She shot me a quizzical look.
“A lot has happened. This is Kyle. He’s part of the family who rented the retreat for the night.”
“I’m sorry,” she said shooting me a pained face. “I tried to cancel, honey. The money they were offering was … well, it was tempting at first, but I knew how important this night was for you and that”—she rolled her eyes—“—sheriff of yours. But they were the types who just would not take no for an answer.”
“Wait,” I said, cocking my head. “You tried to cancel? For me?”
“Of course, darling. Your hopes and dreams are my hopes and dreams, regardless of how terribly misguided they may be.”
I blinked. “Really?”
She blinked back. “Of course.”
“Aw, Mom,” I said reaching forward to hug her again. “That’s just so—”
“What are you two freaks doing!” Kyle shout-whispered. “We’re about to die!”
My mother pulled back. “What is he talking about?”
I took a breath. “Well…”
“Where are the rest of the guests?” she asked, looking to the door. “Are they in the living room?”
“One is. Actually, two.” I had forgotten about Rayner there for a moment, but I guess he still counted. “In a manner of speaking.”
“What does that mean?” she asked. “Erica, what is going on?”
“Well…”
“Why aren’t you dead?” Kyle asked suddenly.
My mother’s eyes blinked a few more times, then widened. “I beg your pardon?”
“Kyle!” I snapped.
“What?” he asked turning to me. “Everybody gets it but her?”
“We don’t know that anybody but Rayner has … gotten it,” I said, struggling to keep my voice hushed. “And what does it matter? Maybe he was in a hurry. Maybe—”
“Nothing’s quicker than a Bam!” he said, mimicking a gun with his hand. “Two to
the back of the head. I can’t trust her. I don’t even know if I can trust you!”
“Okay, calm down,” I said. “I haven’t killed you so far, right?”
He didn’t look reassured.
“Let’s just focus now. We need to get the gun and—”
“Gun? You mean the one I put in the safe?” my mother asked, heaving Caesar off her lap. “Erica, you know how I feel about guns.”
“I know, but—”
“I told that jittery young man that it was more likely he’d shoot himself with that thing before anybody else.” She reached down to her hips. “I had the key…”
I grabbed her hand. “Look Mom, again, a lot has happened. Nothing fell on you. Somebody hit you over the head and stashed you in this closet. And that somebody is probably still around. We need to get moving.”
“So, you’re telling me,” she said, popping to her feet with a surprising ease given she had been locked in the closet with a head injury for hours. “That someone locked me in this closet all because they were afraid I would force them to face their inner truth in front of their family?”
“What? No!” I practically shouted. “I didn’t say that at all!
She leaped past me. “You didn’t have to.”
“Mom, listen to me.” But she was already in the hallway. Damn her yoga limberness.
“Erica, honey,” she said, throwing her voice back to me. “I appreciate your protectiveness for your mother but, really, a gun is too far.”
“Mom! You don’t understand what’s going on here. You—”
Kyle grabbed my arm, cutting me off. “I think maybe she needs to see this, don’t you?”
It didn’t matter if I agreed or not. My mother had reached the mouth of the common room and had stopped dead. Her back straightened as one hand moved to her mouth.
I raced to her side. Oh boy, someone had thrown the afghan off of Rayner.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to warn y—”
“We need a gun.”
Chapter Forty-three
“I have the key here somewhere,” my mom said again as we hurried toward her office. “Maybe it fell out in the clos—”
Suddenly a thump sounded on the front porch.
Footstep thumps!
“Someone’s coming!” Kyle hissed.
I grabbed my mother’s arm and pushed Kyle back into the office in front of us. I didn’t get far though. My mom had stopped moving.
“Where’s Caesar?” she asked, craning her head to look back toward her bedroom.
“Forget Caesar!” Somewhere, far off in my mind, a part of my consciousness was laughing, hysterically, because those really were the two most useless words I had ever said. Even more useless than calm down. It wasn’t a child, or a loveable three-legged golden lab that was going to be the death of me, but a psychopathic cat who had been playing the long game all these years to get me killed. The rest of my mind was just screaming.
Thankfully Caesar had been following us, probably expecting to get fed, so my mother spotted him quickly and scooped him up.
“Erica!” Kyle said. “Come on!”
But suddenly I had stopped too. It turned out that other corners of my mind had been doing more than just screaming. When I had pulled my mother away from the mouth of the common room, I had seen something. A purse. Ronnie’s purse on the floor with a phone sticking out the top!
“Go!” I hissed. “Go out onto the back porch!”
“What about the gun?”
“Just go!”
I darted down the hallway, casting a terrified peek into the room. Empty. I swung around the threshold and lunged down to scoop up the bag lying on the floor just underneath the table, the entire time thinking, Don’t look at Rayner. Don’t look at Rayner.
Gah! I had looked at Rayner.
My eyes then shot over to Kenny, still helpless on the couch.
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled, getting back up to my feet, pivoting hard to face the hallway. I sprinted on my tiptoes—which was as useless as it sounds—taking one look back at the doorway.
It was opening!
I gripped the doorframe of the office to slingshot myself back into the room, and gently closed the door behind me. But whoever that was out there could have totally heard that and—
“What are you two still doing here?” I hissed. “Get out that window!”
Kyle obeyed, but my mother just looked at me and said, “You first.”
“I have to get the gun. I almost had it before.”
My mother nodded, then moved—the opposite way! Back toward the door!
“What are you doing?” I threw up my arms football-style to block her.
She veered to the right, still holding Caesar, positioning herself by a small bookshelf, pushing at it with her hip.
“Good idea!” I threw the strap of the purse around my neck and helped my mom slide the small, but heavy piece of furniture in front of the door.
“Now go!” I said, shooing her toward the window as I dropped to my knees in front of the safe.
“Are we sure it’s the killer?” my mother whispered.
“No,” I said quickly, positioning the saw back in place. I was almost there. The teeth now bit deeply into the groove I had made earlier. I was so close. “But we’re not taking any chances.”
I was praying that it was Rhonda’s footsteps I was hearing walking down the hall—right now!—but I knew it probably wasn’t. She’d announce herself or—
Suddenly the doorknob jiggled.
We all froze. I gave my mother another frantic wave to get out. She actually listened this time and moved toward the window—trying to take my arm with her. I snatched it back, dropping the saw. I could probably snap the lock now. I just needed to—
Thunk!
We all screamed as what sounded like a fist collided with the door. Luckily my full body jolt snapped the lock off in my hand.
I whipped open the safe just as the bookshelf holding the door shut made a horrible screech against the floor.
“I got it!” I shouted wrapping my hand around the gun. “Go!”
I didn’t need to tell my mother again. She was sidestepping out the window, enormous fur bundle still clutched in her arms.
The bookshelf slid a bit farther in, but then rocked to a stop, its foot catching on one of the uneven planks of the floor.
I pushed my mom’s hips out the window then swung a leg over, my free hand shakily pointing the gun back into the room.
The door shuddered with another hit. The bookshelf rocked on its feet a moment then toppled over with a bang.
“Shoot him!” Kyle cried.
I couldn’t though. I didn’t know for sure who was on the other side.
Suddenly the door banged again, and I saw big male fingers grip its edge just as—
I toppled backward out of the window.
Chapter Forty-four
“Oof!”
I landed hard on my shoulders, smacking the back of my head against the wood planks of the porch floor. But I didn’t have time to be stunned. My mother was already pulling me up by my jacket. She probably could have gotten me up faster if she had dropped Caesar, but, you know, whatever.
I struggled to my feet, trying to blink the stars out of my eyes. “Let’s go!” I shouted over my stomach somersaulting its contents way up into my throat.
“Where?” my mother yelled already moving to join Kyle who was hustling down the porch steps.
“Kit Kat and Tweety’s.”
I don’t know how long it took us to find our way to the opening in the forest through the wind and sleet. At times it felt like we’d never make it. That we’d just end up frozen to the ground like a weird band of ice topiaries. But we hung in there and eventually found the path.
About halfway down the trail—which was now more of a giant mudslide—my mother had fallen, meaning that I had to take Caesar from her despite the fact that I was still holding the gun. My fur brother apparently didn’t have
much faith in my ability to carry him safely, so he had dug his claws into my neck for added security.
After what felt like both seconds and years, we were standing at the front door of the only other neighbors on our island. I brought some tentative fingers to touch the side of my neck. I was mildly concerned that I might be bleeding to death.
“How do we get in?” Kyle shouted over the howling wind. “Do you want me to break a window?”
I shook my head and bent to retrieve the spare key under the giant clay jug by the front door. A moment later we were all inside.
Except we weren’t alone.
There was a small fire going in the wood stove.
And a bag of chips opened on the chair moved in front of it.
And a big lump standing behind the curtains … shuddering.
“Chuck?”
Chapter Forty-five
I knew it was him, and it wasn’t from the chips or the shuddering.
No, it was the briefcase on the coffee table that gave him away.
“Dude, we know it’s you,” Kyle called out. “Learn how to hide.”
Chuck’s face peeked around the curtain.
“How did you get here?” I asked.
“The footpath through the woods,” he said untangling his mud-caked shoes from the drapes.
My eyes narrowed, “But … how did you know about the path?”
“I researched your island before we came,” he said with a jerky shrug. “And I took a course. Orienteering.”
I arched one eyebrow—a move I could only accomplish when it came from a genuinely suspicious place. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Well, why didn’t you tell anyone about The Dark Web Assassin?” he asked, raising his own eyebrow to a level of accusation that matched mine. “I heard you talking with the boy in the kitchen.” He ended his volley with a dead to rights point at the both of us.
“I had to look out for Kyle,” I said, reaching for my charge to pull him into my side. But he had wandered off. Actually he was in the midst of a staring contest with a stuffed raccoon. I sighed. “Okay, I guess we’re all just trying to survive here.” I could be wrong, but my gut instinct told me Chuck was a bit of a coward and not much else.
“Is this your mother?” the lawyer asked, looking around me. “Summer Bloom? We spoke on the phone?” The tone of his voice almost sounded hopeful?
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