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But this was important and who else was there for her to talk to?
Biting into her bottom lip, she decided to knock. But she froze as she caught a glimpse of who was in the front room with him. Austin’s back was to her and Seacrest was facing him. They appeared to be having some sort of argument.
These two knew each other? Oh God—were they. . . sleeping together?
Were her eyes playing tricks on her?
She slowly backed away from the house trying to process what she’d seen. Then she heard the roar of an engine. A moment later, headlights appeared. Someone was bouncing up the drive in an SUV.
She shielded her eyes and peered at the truck, her eyes stinging and her clothes soaked. Before it came to a complete standstill, the headlights blinked off. Someone jumped out of the passenger side and ran toward her.
Erica?
“What are you doing out here?” Erica gasped, her arms and legs covered in blood.
Haley was really disoriented now. Tears and rain streamed down her cheeks. She pinched her arm as hard as she could, instantly drawing blood. It had to all be a dream.
Please. . . let it all just be a dream.
Chapter 72
THE HALOPERIDOL WAS making him nauseous. His head was suddenly too heavy for his neck, and the image of his sister’s tear-stained face faded in and out of focus.
“Please,” she pleaded, her voice soft. “Please don’t do this. I’ll change. I will. Really. Just wait. You’ll be so surprised at how nice I can be. How normal.” Suddenly she looked as though she were eight years old again, powerless and i
A cockroach dropped from the wall behind her and he shivered. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “You’ll never be normal.”
“I will. I cross my heart. I. . . I love you.”
His grip on the stone tightened. “Don’t say that to me!” he exploded.
“I do, Austin. I really do. You’re all. . . you’re all I’ve got,” she cried. “You’re all I ever had. Mama was sick. I knew that. I hated her for what she did to you.”
Thunder crashed inside his skull.
She’ll trick you and kill you in your sleep. She’s my daughter. She’s me.
“I guess. . . I guess I just didn’t know any other way to act.”
“Fuck you!” he screamed, not certain if he was speaking to his mother or to Allie. Or both.
Allie was bright, more intelligent than most. He’d recognized that when she was very young. But over the years he’d seen her use her intelligence to manipulate. Which was exactly what she was doing now.
He remembered, too, the animals. The ones his mother questioned him about. The ones that had been tortured and killed. . . then left staged in the backyard. Posed in odd, grotesque positions. He’d suffered horrible punishments for those animals even though he swore he knew nothing about them.
Strangely, it had taken him awhile to realize it had been Allie. . . in a quest for power of her own. But then she’d grown a woman’s body and the dead animals were a thing of the past. She’d learned to be cruel in other ways.
Allie studied him now, terrified. The power had finally shifted.
Ice crept into his blood as he made his decision, and he whispered to himself. “God, please forgive me.”
Horror flooded Allie’s face as the stone tumbled to the carpet.
He walked toward her.
Chapter 73
“ERICA, PLEASE GET back in the car,” Rachel shouted from the driver’s seat, but her voice was competing with the downpour.
She was parked on a long, dirt driveway. Up ahead was a small white house. The porch light was off, but an interior light shone from inside and she could see shadows in the front room.
Lightning struck revealing an old car on concrete blocks and, behind it, a shed. The night became dark again, and she began to feel even more ill at ease. She shouldn’t have let Erica talk her into stopping. She should have driven directly to the station.
Erica had jumped out of the car as soon as Rachel had slowed down and now she was talking to someone in the yard. But through the dense shower, Rachel couldn’t make out who it was.
She looked up in the sky to see if there was a full moon. . . because nothing was making sense. And only to think that just that morning she was having a nice, quiet breakfast in Phoenix with her mother.
She thought of the broken window. Tom somewhere without his keys, car or wallet. The man she and Kelsey had seen in their yard. Tiffany Perron and now Sarah Greene. The mysterious body that both Guitreaux and Erica had eluded to. Could Tom really be a murderer? She had no idea. After all, she was a horrible judge of character.
She studied the shadows inside and wondered if one belonged to someone aside from Tom who could be responsible.
She dialed, trying the sheriff again. And again, the detective. “Pick up your damn phones!” she shrieked.
Erica and the person she was talking to stopped talking and turned her way.
Guitreaux had told her to stay put. Stay put her ass! She needed to go to the police station and figure out if something had happened to Tom. But then she’d intercepted Erica and she, too, had talked about a body. This mysterious body. Oh no. Could it possibly be—?
Her cell phone rang. Her hands trembling, she fumbled for the power button. “Hello?”
It was Guitreaux. In the span of 30 seconds, she filled him in on what Erica had told her and where they were.
“Get her back in the vehicle and drive away. I don’t care where you go, but get the hell off that property,” he barked. “We’ll be there in five minutes.”
She tossed the phone on the passenger seat. “Erica!” she shouted. She opened the driver’s door and hurried out into the rain.
Not until she was upon the girls, did she realize who the other one was. Haley Landry. Mac’s ex-girlfriend.
Haley stared at her.
“Girls, get in the truck. Detective’s orders,” Rachel said, shielding her eyes from the driving rain.
“Guitreaux?” Erica exclaimed. “Did you—”
Rachel interrupted, “I’ll explain in the car. Let’s go.”
As the three ran towards the SUV, a deafening crack of sound split the night air.
***
THE THREE TURNED toward the house.
Rachel gasped. “Oh my God.”
“Was that a. . . gunshot?” Haley cried.
Screams erupted from inside the house. Haley and Erica raced to the porch and stopped short at the steps. There was more screaming. Feral cries that forced Haley to cover her ears.
She slowly climbed the porch steps, then peered in the window. Seacrest was hunched over on the floor, her head bowed. A cheap-looking painting had been blown off of a wall. Blood was everywhere. The wall, the carpet. It matted Seacrest’s hair and glistened against the side of her face.
“Austin, no!” Seacrest wailed. “Oh God! I don’t have anyone else! Don’t you understand? Don’t leave me. Pleeeeease! I was telling you the truth!”
Haley looked down and could see Seacrest’s bare, bloodied legs. Then she saw what was left of Austin’s head in her lap and vomited.
Chapter 74
ALL NIGHT AND into the morning hours, Weston was alive with local, state, and federal law enforcement, reporters and their crews.