Garrett enfolded the small, shaking woman in his arms while Henry looked up at him, whining pitifully. Garrett was furious with Savannah for sneaking out, but so scared he felt as if he had a chunk of ice in his stomach. He patted Mrs Persinger comfortingly while Dwight petted the worried Henry.
‘What are we gonna do, Sheriff?’ Mrs Persinger sniffled. ‘I’ll go out and walk the streets and yell for her until I don’t have a voice. Ohhh, this is all my fault!’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Garrett said, still holding her. ‘Savannah knew better than to leave. She’s usually fairly obedient, but today isn’t one of those times.’ And today of all days she’d decided to be a brat, he thought, wondering what her punishment should be after he’d found her and nearly hugged her half to death in relief. ‘I’m glad you called Brynn. That was smart because she’s got a deputy with her.’
Dwight Carder stood up. ‘But you called and she didn’t answer her phone?’
‘No, she didn’t. Like I said, my message went to voicemail. Oh, I hate voicemail!’
‘At least you got to leave a message for her. She was probably out of the car and left her cell phone behind,’ Garrett said, knowing that if everything was all right, Brynn would never have left her phone in the car. Mrs Persinger was so upset, though, he had to calm her down. ‘I’m sure she’ll be getting back to you soon, and then you can call me. The battery in my cell phone is running low and keeps cutting out, so only call me again if she calls you or it’s urgent. I know how devoted you are to Savannah. You weren’t negligent and you’re helping me tremendously by staying here, waiting for Savannah or Brynn to call.’
Garrett tried to sound strong and reassuring, but he wasn’t at all certain Savannah or Brynn would be able to call Mrs Persinger. He knew something was very wrong. They were in trouble.
TWENTY-ONE
‘Mark? Mark is that really you?’ Brynn asked desperately.
‘Yeah. What’s left of me. Don’t think you’d recognize me.’ He started coughing.
‘What did you do to him?’ she demanded of the person who spoke through a voice distorter – the same voice that had spoken to her menacingly on the phone.
‘Nothing too bad.’
‘Put that damn distorter down, you coward! What have you done to my brother?’
‘He’s alive, isn’t he?’ Still, the distorter. ‘You’re lucky I didn’t kill him, so you should be a lot nicer to me. A lot nicer.’
‘What does that mean? That you’re going to rape me? Well, bring it on, you wimp!’
‘Brynn!’ Mark rasped. ‘Don’t!’
‘No, let her rave, lying there on the floor, terror wiping away the loveliness of her face, that beautiful cinnamon-brown hair all tangled up. No one thinks you’re a winner now!’
Brynn went silent, her mind working furiously. ‘You’re lovely like your mother, cinnamon-brown hair, Brynn’s always been a winner. She’d heard those phrases a few days ago. In Holly Park. Leaning over the wishing well.
Tessa!
‘Where’s the patrolman that was posted at the front of my house?’ Brynn asked.
‘Probably still just sitting there like an idiot. You were taken out the back.’
‘Another patrolman was posted there. What happened to him?’
‘I went up to him looking meek, almost apologetic. His car window was down – such a help! All I had to do was say, “Can you help me …” as I got to within inches of him, and I whipped out a hypodermic and gave him an injection to make him go to sleep. Fast. He’ll live. However, he didn’t see you being taken out the back door.’
‘And you got in the house while I was gone this afternoon.’
‘While you were at Doctor Ellis’s. Poor Mark – visiting Doctor Ellis didn’t do much for him, either. Just a few hours after he left the doctor’s house, your brother ended up here.’
‘I suppose you know what Doctor Ellis told me, Tessa,’ Brynn said.
Silence vibrated between them for a couple of minutes. Then Tessa spoke to Brynn without the voice distorter.
‘Well, aren’t you the clever girl, knowing to whom you were speaking.’
‘I didn’t have to be very clever to figure that out, Tessa. What I want to know is why you got so nervous about Mark being back in town. After all, you’d gotten away with murder for eighteen years.’
Although Brynn was still blindfolded, she could sense rather than hear someone walking around on the concrete floor. ‘Do you think that after eighteen years he suddenly decided to come home?’ Tessa asked. ‘He was lured here.’
‘Lured? By you?’
‘Don’t act stupid,’ Tessa said sharply. ‘By Joy Ellis. At the end of her life, she got so worried about her soul she wanted to atone for her father’s sin. The sin of silence. Edmund Ellis was Stone Jonah’s best friend, but he lied about the knife. You’ll never convince me your dad didn’t tell him about “losing” the knife Mark gave him. But Ellis claimed he didn’t know anything about a lost knife.’
‘Don’t call my father “Stone Jonah,”’ Brynn said grimly.
‘Oh, that’s right. You’re sentimental about your father.’
‘And you aren’t about yours?’ Brynn asked, picking up something in Tessa’s voice.
‘We’re not talking about Earl Cavanaugh right now. We’re talking about your father and Edmund Ellis, and their good friendship that accounts for Ellis lying about your dad’s knife.’
‘What happened to the knife Mark gave Dad?’
‘It ended up in Dad.’ Tessa giggled snidely. ‘Don’t you remember? I’m sure you do. You saw him after the knife went in time after time after time—’
‘Shut up!’ Mark yelled in his gravelly voice. ‘Shut up!’
‘Mark, are you blindfolded?’ Brynn asked.
‘No.’
‘Is Savannah here?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is she all right?’
‘Tied up but I don’t think she’s hurt.’
‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m … OK.’
Tessa laughed. ‘Satisfied, Brynn? The girl who idolizes you is alive. For now.’
‘For now?’
‘Savannah’s life will depend on how things go in the next few hours.’
‘It was a good idea to bring Henry, Sheriff,’ Dwight Carder said. ‘He can follow Savannah’s scent better than any of the police dogs who’ve just taken a whiff of her T-shirt or something.’
‘That’s what I thought. Nothing against our dogs,’ Garrett half-smiled. ‘But when it comes to Savannah, no one knows her better than Henry. She’s had him since he was a puppy. They’re quite the couple.’
Dwight slanted a look at Garrett, then smiled. Dwight had worked for two years under Garrett’s father. If Garrett had been anything like William Dane, Dwight would have transferred. William Dane had been condescending, swaggering, insulting and had absolutely no sense of humor, even if he did know his job.
When they reached the amphitheater parking lot and parked near the stage, Garrett led Henry by a long leash toward the back of the stage. A fussy little man rushed toward them. ‘Sorry. The play doesn’t begin for another hour.’
‘I’m Sheriff Dane and this is Deputy Carder,’ Garrett said in a stern voice. ‘My daughter, Savannah Dane, is playing second lead in the play. I’m looking for her.’
The jittery man seemed to notice their uniforms for the first time. ‘Oh, oh, Sheriff Dane, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.’ He walked forward, right hand extended. Garrett shook his hand. ‘Your daughter is quite a good actress.’
‘Thank you. Is she here?’
‘Here? She isn’t with you?’
‘No. Actually, I’d told her she couldn’t be in the play because of … unavoidable circumstances. I said her understudy could take over for her. She was really unhappy, though, and now she’s not home. We don’t know where she is. I thought maybe she’d decided to perform in the play in spite of my decision.’ Garrett was aware he sound
ed stiff and formal, but the man didn’t seem to have much of an attention span. He wanted to make him understand this was a serious matter. ‘Have you seen Savannah Dane?’
‘N-no!’ The man put his hands to his cheeks. ‘Oh, my! She might turn up any minute, though.’ He looked sharply at Henry. ‘We don’t allow dogs back here.’
‘He’s a police dog,’ Dwight put in sternly. ‘He’s part of the unit.’
‘Oh, all right,’ the man said with a trace of contrition. And maybe fear. ‘I didn’t realize he was official.’
Thank God Henry didn’t raise a paw to shake hands, Garrett thought. Perceptive Henry had recognized that this nervous little man wasn’t a potential friend. ‘Are you sure you haven’t seen Savannah?’ Garrett looked over the man’s shoulder. ‘You have quite a few people running around backstage here.’
‘I haven’t seen her. That doesn’t mean she won’t turn up, although she’s always on time.’ The man rubbed his neck. ‘Oh, I thought this would go so smoothly, but with Savannah gone and Miss Cavanaugh, too—’
‘Miss Cavanaugh was supposed to be here this early?’
‘It’s not early, Sheriff,’ the man cried. ‘We go on in an hour and a half. Miss Cavanaugh called two hours ago and said she’s sick. She sounded miserable – husky-voiced, nasal. I’m certain she’s ill. She’s so conscientious she would never make an excuse not to come. And this play means a lot to her.’
Garrett wrote his cell phone number on a card and handed it to the man. ‘If either of them shows up, call me immediately.’
Dear God, Garrett thought as they walked away. A woman and a girl missing. Not just a girl. Savannah.
‘We’ll find them, Sheriff,’ Carder said confidently.
‘I hope so.’
‘Don’t hope. Believe. I do.’
Brynn couldn’t see, the temperature had not changed, yet she felt evening coming. She was frightened and disoriented, she wanted to scream out of sheer frustration and terror, but some fragment of reason kept her under control. She had to save her strength. At least, she hoped she had to save her strength for a battle to save herself, Mark and Savannah. It might be pure delusion, but it was the only thing keeping her steady. Hang on, she thought. Hang on.
‘Tessa, you said at the time you didn’t understand why Edmund Ellis lied about my father losing the knife Mark gave him. Why did you think he lied?’
‘Oh, that puzzled me for almost a month. Then he sent his daughter away. I thought that was strange – he was crazy about her and she was sickly. Also, he never raised hell about his good friend being innocent. He just went along like nothing had happened. That wasn’t like him. When he saw me or Nathan on the street, he used to just nod or say, “Hi” to us. Afterward, he was much friendlier. Particularly to Nathan.’
‘And that seemed odd to you.’
‘Very odd. At first. Then I thought about it. I must admit, that day in the woods when I stabbed your father, I felt like we weren’t alone. I looked around before and after he staggered toward the beach, although afterward, my vision wasn’t too clear. When we both made it out to the beach and you were there, I almost convinced myself it was you I’d sensed. You, running around looking for your daddy.
‘Later, I remembered Mrs Ellis always taking Joy to her Saturday piano lessons, only I was told there hadn’t been any lessons that day – the day I finished off your father. But by that time, Joy had gone away to school. I asked myself, why was she sent away to school when she was so young? It didn’t make sense to me, unless her father had a reason for not wanting her to be in town. I thought it was possible she could have been there, in the woods, but either she didn’t see anything or, if she had, she wasn’t going to say anything. I could relax. After all, your father was out of the picture and if Edmund Ellis knew anything, he was going to keep his mouth shut. So, I ended up with a lucky stab your dad got in that almost pierced my kidney and a lot of sympathy. I felt triumphant.’
‘You bitch!’
‘My, that was eloquent, Brynn. With your command of the language, no wonder you’re a bestselling author. By the way, I hate your books. They’re pure tripe.’
She’s having fun with this, Brynn thought in amazement. Quiet, awkward, downcast Tessa Cavanaugh was having fun talking about a murder she’d committed. She was the center of attention for once.
‘Then, when Joy was about to die, she had to clear her conscience. She wrote me a letter.’
‘Joy wrote to you?’
‘Stupid of her, wasn’t it, to put her father in danger. She told me she’d written to Mark, too, saying that she’d seen me stab Jonah Wilder.’ Tessa shook her head. ‘People thought she was so pretty and sweet and talented, but she was stupid!’
‘Not stupid,’ Brynn said coldly. ‘Eaten up with guilt and not thinking clearly because of all the medication she was taking.’
Tessa shrugged. ‘You’re like everyone else. Making excuses for her. Just remember – neither your brother nor you would be here now if it weren’t for her clearing her simple-minded conscience.’
Brynn absorbed this for a minute. In one way Tessa was right, but Brynn couldn’t work up any anger to the girl who’d lived alone, silent with her awful secret for so many years until she couldn’t bear it anymore. ‘Why did you kill my father?’ she finally asked.
‘Ah, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Don’t you agree, Mark? He knows the reason. Are you going to tell her, Mark?’
A long silence frightened Brynn. Had he slipped into unconsciousness? She’d no idea what he’d been subjected to the past few days. To her relief, he finally mumbled, ‘N-no.’
‘Yes!’
‘T-too thirsty. Can’t t-talk.’
Tessa sighed. ‘I guess I have to do everything. I have been for years since Nathan went away. I’ve been Daddy’s pet. And I’ve played my part. He needed me. But Father’s gone now and I want you people who feel so wronged to know what my life has been like.’
Brynn felt someone coming near her. Fingers dug under the blindfold and yanked it off. Then two hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to a sitting position. Blinking furiously from the pressure of the tight cloth on her eyes, Brynn looked around. Tessa kneeled beside her, wearing tawny lip gloss, dangling earrings, hazel-colored contacts, false eyelashes and a wig with very long, cinnamon-brown hair. Brynn gazed at her in shock.
‘Don’t you love it?’ Tessa asked, flipping a lock of the hair. ‘Now I look just like you.’
TWENTY-TWO
Brynn raised slightly from the waist, searching the gloomy room for her brother. Only three light bulbs hung from the ceiling and her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dim light. She squinted into the direction from which Mark’s voice had come, but she didn’t see him and he made no other sound.
‘Where are we?’ Brynn asked.
‘Oh, you don’t expect us to tell you that, do you?’ Tessa asked.
Us? But Savannah began to cry – quietly and hopelessly. Brynn squinted hard and could see that the girl was tied to a wooden post that went from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. She hung her head, her long blonde hair falling around her face.
‘Don’t act like you’re blind, Savannah,’ Tessa snapped. ‘You love the way Brynn looks. Now I look just like her – not like freaky Miss Cavanaugh from the library.’
‘Leave her alone,’ Brynn snarled. ‘Don’t torture her.’
‘Oh, looking at me is torturing her? That wasn’t very polite, Brynn. Besides, I’m not the Cavanaugh who enjoys torturing a kid.’ Tessa looked toward a shadowy corner. ‘I leave that to Nathan.’
Brynn followed Tessa’s gaze. She saw the vague figure of a man sitting on a wooden chair, one leg crossed over the other at the ankle. He looked relaxed, Brynn thought. The longer she looked at him, though, the more she thought he merely looked resigned. ‘I don’t torture people,’ he said calmly. ‘I never have.’
‘But we’ve been tortured, haven’t we? Shall I tell everyone about our past, Nathan,
or do you want to do the honors?’ Tessa sounded completely different than her usual soft-spoken self. Her voice was strong, almost aggressive.
‘You’re having the time of your life,’ Nathan said in a bored tone. ‘Be my guest.’
‘Tessa!’ Brynn yelled. ‘Let me go! Let me go, dammit!’ By now she was nearly shrieking. ‘Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!’ Tessa stared at her with wide eyes. Brynn began to throw her head backwards and forwards and to writhe.
‘Is she having a seizure?’ Tessa asked no one in particular, but clearly stunned by Brynn’s violent movements.
‘I want to be moved! I want to sit beside Savannah,’ Brynn screamed. ‘Let me sit by Savannah and I’ll be quiet.’
‘You’ll sit where I tell you,’ Tessa snapped.
Brynn started screaming. On and on. Her voice wasn’t used to the strain and she knew it would give out soon, but she remembered that Tessa couldn’t stand loud noises. Besides, even though she didn’t know where she was, maybe there was the danger of being overheard. All she needed was another minute or two. That would get her what she wanted.
‘All right, all right, you damned lunatic!’ Tessa screamed back, her voice sounding exactly as it had on that sun-drenched beach eighteen years ago when she’d killed Brynn’s father. ‘Nathan, you’re stronger than I am. You move her over to that post.’
Nathan got up, his movements slow, and came up behind her. Brynn couldn’t get a good look at his face. He bent down and dragged her to a splintery wooden post, picked up what looked like a nylon stocking and tied her hands to the post right below Savannah’s.
‘Are you sure she’s secure?’ Tessa demanded.
‘Her hands are tied behind her back, and both hands are tied to the post. Would you like to come over and sign off on the quality of my work?’
Trouble in paradise, Brynn thought, then wondered why that phrase had popped into her head at such a serious time. Still, her body was beside Savannah’s, and she curled her right hand up until her fingers touched the girl’s flesh. Savannah sighed and seemed almost to lean against Brynn. Almost. She wasn’t quite close enough. Brynn wanted to move nearer, but she didn’t dare as long as anyone was looking at her.
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