Nine

53

Malibu, California

Thursday, May 22, 9:09 P.M.

“Hold it,” Ciara said.

Meghan stood still. She had heard it, too. A faint sound near the baseball dugout. Ciara had decided not to walk out into the open space between the baseball diamond and the woods until she searched among the buildings for any sign of Kit. They watched Everett take Alex into the bell tower, but otherwise hadn’t seen or heard anything. Until now.

Kit, don’t come any closer, Meghan thought.

Ciara waited and listened. She pushed Meghan ahead a little, then shouted, “Kit Logan!”

They heard another sound-this one just to their left. Ciara turned toward it, pointing the gun. Meghan launched herself at the other woman, knocking her over. The gun went off. Meghan landed sprawled over the upper half of Ciara’s body-Ciara was pi

Meghan, her hands still cuffed behind her, struggled to remain on top of Ciara, who began trying to roll over. If she did, Meghan knew, she’d be able to shoot the gun, and there wouldn’t be much of anything she could do about it.

She heard a loud thud, the sound of someone jumping down from somewhere, and then there was another combatant adding his weight to hers and grabbing Ciara’s gun hand. Meghan couldn’t make out much in the darkness, but she knew it was a man. She saw him take hold of Ciara’s wrist and try to peel her fingers away from the weapon with the other hand. Not like that! Meghan wanted to shout.

Ciara pushed hard, and Meghan felt herself rolling off. Ciara struggled to aim the gun at her despite being kicked by both Meghan and the man. Suddenly, Ciara was free of Meghan. Ciara launched herself toward her male attacker as Meghan kicked out again, her foot co

The gun went off again.

She heard Ciara moan, then fall still.

“Meghan?”

Gabe. Meghan tried to make the loudest sound she could with the gag on.

“Sorry. Forgot you were gagged.”

He pushed Ciara over, leaving the gun behind, and hurried to free Meghan from the gag.

“Gabe! Oh, Gabe-is she dead?”

He nodded.

“You’re sure?”

He went back to the still form and felt for a pulse.

“Yes, she’s dead. I guess I’m really in trouble now.”

“No, no-get the handcuff key from her pants pocket. Hurry! We’ve got to help Kit and those kids.”

“I thought they said Kit was dead.”

“You heard that?”

He was searching for the key. He paused. “Meggie, is it true?”

“I don’t know. I think Detective Brandon wanted Everett to think that, but I don’t know if it’s true.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t want it to be.”

“Me neither.”

“We have to try to find Spooky and Alex’s nephew. Do you know where they’re being held?”

“No. But Everett was doing something in the bell tower earlier, and after he took Cameron in there, they had a big argument.”

“What were you doing in the office?”

He began searching the ground nearby. “Maybe the keys fell out of her pocket-oh, the office? I saw Everett and this one leave the building-sorry, Meggie-the door was closed, and I didn’t know you were in there. I wanted to get into the infirmary. I was looking for a blanket and some bandages. There’s a man Cameron shot-I took him to the stables after I tried to help Kit.”

“What man? And what do you mean, tried to help Kit?”

“Got them!” He found a key ring and held it up in triumph. “Wait-there’s another set, too.”

“She has Alex’s keys. We were supposed to wait in his car, but she drove me in here. Tell me about this man Cameron shot.”

“Cameron was hunting Kit with a rifle,” he said, moving behind her and releasing the lock. “He turned the lights on, and I came back here and turned them off-Kit can see better in the dark than a cat, Meggie. And he knows the woods. We used to hang out there to avoid Everett and Cameron and that group.”

She rubbed at her wrists. “Are you okay?”

“Me? You’re the one I’m worried about.”

“I’m all right.”

“The man who was shot-he’s unconscious, but someone bandaged his wound-maybe Kit or Alex. I didn’t want Everett to find him, because he’s an FBI agent. And it’s so weird-I think he used to go to school here.”

She had started to search the ground for the gun, but at this she looked up. “What?”

“Yeah. His name is Hamilton. I think he was a senior when I was a freshman. Anyway, I don’t like leaving him out there.”

“We’ve got to look for Spooky and Alex’s nephew,” she repeated, finding and picking up the gun. “And we’ve got to try to help Alex.” She paused and reached for a small, black object. Alex’s cell phone.

“We should call nine-one-one,” Gabe said.

She looked at him. “Oh, Gabe-”

“How can you even hesitate? It’s not just about me, now, Meghan. If I get caught, I get caught. But I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to the others. And Agent Hamilton needs medical help.”

She looked between him and the phone.

He made a sound of exasperation. “At least call Kit’s guards.”

She agreed to do this. She opened the phone up and saw that the display was cracked. Still, she tried to turn the phone on.

“Gabe-it’s broken. Listen, let’s look for them, and if we can’t find them soon, we’ll go back into the office and use the phone there to call for help.”

She stood and looked down at Ciara.

“What she was saying about Kit-is that true?” Gabe asked.

“Some of it. Before killing those women, his stepfather sometimes forced him to…to pose holding them. And other things. He hated it.”

She began hurrying toward the tower. He followed, but she heard him saying something softly to himself.

“What was that?”

“Just a part of a poem. I think I understand it better now.”

“Jesus, Gabe, poetry? And by the way-have you forgotten everything we learned in self-defense?”

“I’m not the one who was handcuffed and gagged, was I?”

Suddenly they heard sounds coming from the tower-Everett’s raised voice. They ducked between the classroom buildings.

54

Malibu, California

Thursday, May 22, 9:18 P.M.

At the same time Alex heard the shot, the door to one of the tower sheds opened, and Kit Logan stepped out onto a lower platform. He aimed the rifle at Everett’s head.

“Drop the gun, Everett. Then get to work on disarming your contraption.”

“Disarm it? I’m afraid that’s not possible. As for the gun-”

He raised it toward Kit and fired as he hit the light switch, plunging them into darkness. Kit turned on a flashlight and ran down the stairs, but Everett had already slammed the door shut. Just as Kit reached it, they heard the bar fall into place, then the lock snap.

Kit pounded the door in frustration.

“So long, Kit!” Everett called through the door. “Sorry I couldn’t stick around for the brief but sweet reunion.”

Kit flattened his hand against the door. “Meghan…” Alex heard him say.

Kit moved back, and used the flashlight to find the light switch.

“Kit?” Alex said. “Were you hit?”

“He missed,” he said in an unsteady voice.

“Thank God you didn’t fire.”

“And have a ricochet send us all to kingdom come? When he fired at me, I was sure we were going to end up in bits and pieces.” He looked up. “Spooky? Are you and Chase okay?”

“We’re okay. I did good, didn’t I, Kit?”

He took a deep breath and seemed to refocus his attention. “You were wonderful. He never guessed.”

Kit ran to the winch and used it to slowly lower Alex closer to the ground.

“Well,” Spooky admitted, “I called your name. I’m sorry. I was scared.”