Bryce was certain his mother had died at Widow’s Peak, that her body was there on the property some where.
If only everything made more sense.
Like why would Hailey put herself in danger? he wondered again.
Maybe she couldn’t help herself. Maybe she was simply in the throes of the McKenna curse and had no will to fight it.
If so—and if anything happened to her—he would never forgive himself.
The pressure inside him, the one that seared his soul, increased triple-fold, telling him that she was most certainly in danger now.
Suddenly realizing that, even though he couldn’t really see it yet, he was getting close to the shoreline, Bryce slowed, then when he saw a vague outline too close for comfort, he cut the engine and let the boat drift in on its own. A minute later, a thunk and a jerk told him that he’d hit land somewhere near Widow’s Peak. He didn’t have time to mess around trying to find the dock, so he anchored the boat, grabbed the all-weather flashlight, got out in calf-deep water and sloshed to shore.
Certain the estate was somewhere to the right of where he’d landed, he set off in that direction. His flashlight wasn’t doing a damn thing for him—the beam went nowhere in the fog, so he turned it off and was clipping it to his belt loop when he heard a voice.
What the hell is she doing here?
Bryce froze. She? Did the mystery man mean Hailey? Bryce hadn’t recognized the voice.
Damn it all, she’s probably doing her mumbo jumbo…however it is she communicates with the spirits!
So he was talking about Hailey, whoever he was. Croft? Mike? Iceman? Danny? Bryce still couldn’t figure out who was speaking. Was the man talking to himself or was someone with him?
The bitch is going to ruin everything! Not if I can help it. She needs to be taken care of. Tonight. Third time’s the charm.
Bryce realized he was hearing thoughts, the reason he didn’t recognize the voice of the man who’d already tried to kill Hailey twice. His pulse picked up and his gut went tight. He had to stay calm and get to his wife as fast and as silently as he could.
Grateful that the fog was just starting to lift, he moved swiftly toward the bluff. He got impressions of tree silhouettes and a bulky outline of a nearby structure in the lake that must be the dock. What he couldn’t see was the man. Or where he was walking, Bryce thought when his foot caught on a downed tree limb and he nearly went flying. Thankfully he caught himself without making more than a whisper of sound.
He congratulated himself halfway up the hill. Only then did he hear a twig crunch behind him. He whipped around to face the villain, only to have something hard whip into his head.
Making him see stars and a black maw coming for him…
Chapter Fifteen
Violet and Alice sisters?
Hailey read the dedication again. How could this be? She’d asked Bryce if his mother and Violet had been good friends and he hadn’t thought so. He certainly had no idea that they were related.
She turned back to the page in the middle where the journal had opened so naturally, as if someone— Violet?—had read and reread the pages dozens of times.
Even shining the flashlight on the missive, she strained to read the handwriting.
I’ve kept my secret to myself for decades, but as I get closer to the end, the truth wears on me. I want to tell them all, but I worry I would destroy lives by doing so.
I was only fourteen when Violet was born. In those days abortions weren’t legal and girls had no means of keeping a baby on her own. Either the grandmother claimed the child as her own, or it was given up for adoption. My own mother was already dead, so I gave mine up. I wanted my daughter to have a good home, with two loving parents. I thought she would be adopted elsewhere, that I would never see her again.
But the Andersons were childless. They adopted her and named her Violet. Eight years later, Mrs. Anderson got pregnant and had a boy, so Violet had a little brother. Now, though Violet never had children herself, she has family in her nephews Ray and Mike.
And she has another family of which she knows nothing. My family. Ryans and McKennas. She has a much younger half sister, Alice, plus blood nephews and a niece…
Hailey’s breath caught as she realized the implication. Violet Anderson Scott had been Bryce’s aunt. Her mind raced. Is that what had been so important that Alice had come here without him—to meet her sister? Had she just learned the truth because she’d finally read her mother’s journal?
If so…
Then why had Alice been killed?
Only one thought occurred to her: The murderer hadn’t wanted Violet to have another family.
That had to be it.
As to why she herself had been a target for the last week…everyone knew she could commune with dead people.
The murderer must have feared her involvement in selling the house. And perhaps the murderer had known there had been proof and had been searching for this journal—the real treasure—and feared that she might do so before him.
The rain came down in earnest now. Quickly slipping the journal back into the plastic bag, Hailey replaced it in the secret drawer and secured it. It would be safe there until Bryce could come out here with Chief Schmidt and resume the investigation of his mother’s murder.
Surely Schmidt would figure out the identity of the murderer. Had Mike killed Alice McKenna so the estate wouldn’t be split, with half going to Bryce’s family? Or had Croft been caught breaking into Widow’s Peak and had killed Alice to keep her quiet?
Something about all that felt wrong, though. Croft had been with Mike. Why would they—or one of them—kill the woman who’d caught them breaking into the mansion and then simply go on to the next house to rob rather than getting out of Dodge?
But what other explanation was there?
If only they had Alice McKenna’s body, perhaps there was some way of figuring out who’d actually killed her. If only she could tell them where the body had been buried.
Filled with dread, Hailey returned to the first-floor parlor.
“Alice, I know you’re here. I know you came to tell Violet she was your sister. And I know what happened to you. But knowing isn’t proof. Your children need to be able to bury you. Bryce needs closure. Please, help me one more time. Lead me to your grave.”
Instinct made her leave the parlor, but rather than going to the front door, she found herself being nudged down a hallway to the mud room. For a moment she stood there, wanting to go to the outside door but finding herself drawn to the basement instead. She opened the panel that hid the doorway and switched on the light. Her chest tightened as she stepped down into the dank, barely lit space.
The darkness did more than surround her. It entered her. Tied her insides in knots. She felt the same way she had on the steps and in the front parlor. No, worse.
Careful to avoid the spiderwebs, Hailey walked around the basement, searching every corner for something suspicious. Waiting for some kind of sign that this was it. This was Alice McKenna’s resting place. Nothing. She wanted to leave. Wanted to get out of the house. Wanted to go back to McKenna Ridge and tell Bryce what she’d found.
She went back to the staircase fully intending to do all that.
She couldn’t take the first step up.
Lightning off the lake lit her from the inside. Thunder rumbled around and through her. Feeling electrified, she circled the basement again, in the end stopping at the two doors she’d noted before. She wanted to use the one that would take her to the outside where she could breathe and feel fully alive.
Instead Hailey opened the other one—the door to the coal bin.
Reaching inside along the door frame, she found a switch. A single, low-watt bulb lit. She didn’t know what she’d expected to find, but it hadn’t been this—more than half the eight-by-twelve room was filled with coal that had been dumped from the window above. Coal that must have been there since well before she’d been born.
Almos
t relieved, Hailey tried to step back but felt as if she were fighting an invisible force keeping her there, nudging her in the opposite direction. For a moment, darkness threatened to overwhelm her. She felt sick inside. Nauseous. Shaky.
Fighting back her fear, Hailey found a shovel and stepped to the edge of the coal pile.
She knew what she had to do.
She started digging.
Blindly.
With everything she had left in her, she tossed shovelfuls of coal to the side. She ignored the ache in her arm kicked up by the effort. Black dust billowed around her, threatening to choke her, but she didn’t stop. She shoveled like her life depended on it. And still, when the defining moment came, when as much coal was piled to the side as was in front of her, and the first glimpse of white shone dully through the black shards, she experienced a moment of shock.
Hailey set the shovel against the inner wall containing the coal and began digging with her bare hands, raising more dust until she uncovered bone—fingers and then a hand, and then an arm. She threaded her fingers around what had once been a flesh-and-blood hand.
“Alice, I’m so sorry. But I found you now and Bryce and his family will finally know what happened to you. They can give you a proper burial, and I hope you can find some rest at last.”
A sound behind her told Hailey she wasn’t alone. She froze.
“I was afraid this was going to happen, so I decided to check on the house, figuring you wouldn’t be able to stay away from the ghosts.”
“Ray.”
Pulse racing, she got to her feet and faced the man who she now knew had murdered Bryce’s mother. The man who’d tried to kill her twice now. He was close enough to hit her over the head as he had Alice McKenna. And he undoubtedly meant to do just that.
“Why, Ray? Why did you kill Alice?”
“I overheard the McKenna woman making overtures to Aunt Violet about being family and all. Violet didn’t need anyone but us, and I had plans for this place. I didn’t need any more relatives claiming what was mine.”
“Yours? You mean yours and Mike’s. Does he know?”
“Are you kidding? Mike’s clueless. He thought finding old crap in the house was a big deal. He had his period as a petty thief—him and Croft. Croft saw me murder Alice, although he didn’t know it was me. He confided in me after he and Mike were arrested. I convinced Croft not to tell the police anything or they might think he and Mike were killers and not just thieves. Surprised the hell out of me when he came back and wanted to buy the place. Guilty conscience.” Ray laughed.
So Ray had acted alone. Wondering how she was going to get out of this situation alive, Hailey tried to keep him talking to stall him until she could figure out how to get past him, how to get away. “But if Violet had a will—”
“Wills can be changed!” he cut in, leaning closer. “And challenged by high-priced lawyers. Alice McKenna was blood to Aunt Violet, but we weren’t, because she was adopted into the Anderson family.”
“That wouldn’t have mattered to the courts,” Hailey choked out. Too bad that, this time, Bryce wasn’t around to hear her frantic thoughts. “And that’s assuming the McKennas even cared about some inheritance.”
“I couldn’t take a chance on the courts. And everyone cares about money.”
“Some more than others.”
Behind him, the black dust above the coal she’d tossed to the side reminded her of the dust motes in the parlor. Hailey gasped. The dust was moving, forming into a familiar shape. Giving her hope that there was still a way out of this mess.
“Behind you,” she whispered. “Alice…”
“Ah, don’t give me any bull.” But Ray’s expression looked more fearful than disbelieving. “You don’t think I’m going to fall for that?”
“Isn’t that why I was so dangerous to you?” She glared at him. “The reason you tried to get rid of me? Because you knew I could communicate with the dead?” She turned her gaze back to the coal pile beyond him.
Hailey’s eyes widened as an image took form. A woman with long, dark hair hiding one side of her face, blood covering the other—the same woman she’d seen the other night.
“Alice?” Desperate to get Ray off balance, she asked, “What are you going to do to him?”
Expression grim, Ray couldn’t help himself. He turned to look, then gasped and teetered on his feet.
Hailey grabbed the shovel, gripped the wooden handle like a baseball bat, aimed and swung it as hard as she could. She landed the metal square between Ray’s shoulder blades. With a yelled oath, he flew forward, his body shattering the fragile image of Alice. He landed in the pile of coal, dust choking him.
Hailey ran out of the bin to the other door, the one that would take her outside.
Coughing, Ray yelled, “You’ll pay for that, bitch!”
Her fingers fumbled on the locks. She could hear Ray struggling with the chunks of coal tripping him as he tried to get back to his feet. Hopefully seeing Alice threw him off his game. Finally the lock cooperated and Hailey tugged open the door and ran out into the rain.
“I’ll find you!” Ray promised. “There’s nowhere you can hide from me!”
He’d expect her to go back uphill to her car, so she went the opposite way, to the water. The boat! she thought, knowing there was always a boat anchored at the dock. I’ll grab the boat! And hopefully, she’d be able to find the keys.
She ran, stumbled, slid downhill feet first, then landed on her hip and continued to slide. By the time she got halfway down, she was covered in mud.
Lightning fingered the lake. Hailey cursed and threw a glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, Ray broke free of the house just then and spotted her straight off.
Back on her feet, Hailey was going downhill so fast that she feared she would trip again.
And then she would be done for.
GROANING, Bryce came to with a hell of a headache and imagining that he heard Hailey’s voice. And that he was drowning.
He whipped his head up out of a puddle and took a choked breath.
How long had he been out?
He was soaked to the skin and was starting to shiver. Thankfully the rain had let up, leaving fingers of fog rising from the ground.
He struggled to his feet, his head feeling like it had doubled in size. He slid a hand to the back of his neck and slid it up carefully until he found a lump that was tender to the touch. His head went light and woozy.
It suddenly came back to him that he’d been in pursuit of Hailey.
Where was she?
Light glowed from several windows of the Widow’s Peak mansion. He stumbled forward. He needed to get to his wife, to save her from the curse. The wet ground squished beneath his feet.
Was Hailey alone or had the bastard who’d clocked him already found her?
“Talk to me, Hailey,” he muttered, concentrating on her as he ran faster toward the house. “C’mon, I need to hear that you’re all right.”
Please, please, please, let me get to Bryce before he can catch up to me! Let me find the damn keys to the boat!
Startled at the instant response, Bryce nearly tripped over his own feet and barely caught his balance as he slid to a halt.
Boat…
The lake!
He changed directions and headed for the shoreline even as he heard an engine crank and speed up. Lightning flickered over the lake, and for a second, he saw Hailey a dozen yards out, heading her craft toward the north shore.
And at the dock, Ray Anderson was getting into a second boat and hauling anchor.
Wanting in the worst way to call out to warn Hailey, Bryce forced himself to remain silent and adjust his course yet again. His own speedboat was a hundred yards in the opposite direction. He moved fast. Not fast enough. He heard the second engine kick in and knew Ray was after Hailey.
Seconds later, he threw himself into his boat, started his engine and yanked up the anchor. Then he was off across the foggy lake, guided by instinct and th
e occasional flicker of lightning.
His speedboat and engine were lighter and therefore faster than most on Geneva Lake. Halfway across, he got within shouting distance of Ray and was gaining rapidly.
The bastard had a heavy comfort boat and couldn’t overtake Hailey, but he’d brought a gun, which he was now pointing at her back. Ray was undoubtedly waiting for a lightning strike to give him enough light to improve his aim.
His stomach clenching, Bryce knew there was only one thing he could do stop Ray and to stop the curse from taking the woman he loved.
He stomped on the accelerator, feeling the boat lift a hair above the water. He hydroplaned it in a big arc.
Shouting, “Ray!” to get the man’s attention off Hailey, Bryce took aim.
He got Ray’s immediate attention. The bastard swung his gun arm around and aimed it at Bryce. He shot over and over, missing his target, but nicking the windshield more than once.
“Bryce!” Hailey yelled.
Bryce said a fast prayer before plowing straight into the middle of Ray’s boat.
Hailey’s horrified scream was the last sound he heard…
Chapter Sixteen
“Bryce!”
Hailey frantically circled to where the other two boats collided and broke apart, raining metal everywhere. Flames shot up from the wreckage, and she steeled herself for the explosion that didn’t come.
“Bryce!” she yelled again as she cut her engine, quickly turned on all her boat lights and aimed her flashlight beam everywhere. No sign of either man.
If she were to try to save Ray, would he hold her under the water until she gasped her last breath?
Unable to pierce the fog to know if there was another boat on the lake, she laid on her horn. When there was no answering blast, she dived in blindly toward the wreck site. She estimated nearly two minutes had passed.
If Bryce had been underwater all that time…he only had somewhere between three and five minutes before he drowned.
Deal Breaker Page 15
