“Open it,” Jason told Victoria. One-handed, she inserted the key into the lock and unhooked the industrial-sized padlock from the door. She handed the key back to the boy and debated making a run for it. One swift kick to the balls, and she and Trinity could take off. Jason handled the gun like he couldn’t bear to touch it. She doubted he would shoot them.
Leo she had no doubts about. She’d seen the killer in his eyes.
Her wrist and arm screamed every time she took a rough step. Running would make her pass out from the pain. Besides, where would they run? Back to the cabin to the two men with shotguns? And she couldn’t leave without Seth.
Jason gestured for Trinity to slide open the shed door. A faint light spilled out. Victoria looked inside and caught her breath. Trinity made a small sound in the back of her throat. On a filthy mattress at the back of the small shed lay a woman. Her hair was long and black. With streaks of gray.
Isabel.
Victoria glanced at Jason. He looked as confused as Trinity. The boy didn’t know why the woman was there. “Do you know her?” she asked him. Jason gave a brief shake of his head.
The woman moaned and shifted on the mattress. Victoria stepped up into the shed and darted to the woman, kneeling on the floor next to her. She brushed the long hair out of the woman’s face, and Isabel’s eyes opened. A split second of fear shone from her eyes until she focused on Victoria. She relaxed and her lids fell shut. Victoria’s hand stroked through a wet mass in her hair. Blood. She could feel the wound starting to crust on the woman’s scalp.
Someone had hit her in the head. Leo?
“Is she all right?” Trinity asked. She hovered over Victoria’s shoulder.
“I don’t know. She’s been hit in the head. She woke and saw me but fell back asleep.”
She shook the woman’s shoulder. “Isabel? Isabel? Wake up.”
“You know her?” Trinity whispered.
Victoria nodded. She looked back at Jason, watching from the shed door. “She needs a hospital. She has a serious head injury.” Maybe. “I can’t get her to wake up. Do you know how she got here?”
Jason shook his head again. The teen looked horrified.
“Jason, do you know why she’s here?”
Jason looked pleadingly at her, turmoil rolling in his gaze.
She tried again. “Jason, what is going on with your father?”
The teen’s shoulders slumped. “I think he killed those girls. The ones last week.”
Trinity sucked in her breath. “Your father? Why? Why do you think he did it?”
“Because I found some pictures on his camera. I was going to use it and I scanned through some of the pictures saved in the memory and saw pictures of those dead girls. Brooke was one of them.” His voice wavered on her name. “I wasn’t supposed to be using his equipment.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Trinity asked. She looked heartbroken, her crush on the boy disintegrating. “How could you cover it up?”
“They were just pictures, you know? They didn’t mean that he’d done it. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. And then I found the skulls… I didn’t know what to think. How could my father be a murderer?” His voice cracked on the word.
“Skulls?” Victoria asked. “Three of them?”
Jason nodded. “I stuck the skulls and the camera in my bag. I wanted to go to the police but I didn’t know what I’d say. And what if he didn’t do it?”
“Is that why you were avoiding him?” Trinity asked.
“Yes, he’d discovered his stuff was missing and he was on the warpath. Grandpa thinks he’s a big wimp, but when he gets mad he can be kinda violent.” Jason wouldn’t look at either one of them. Victoria wondered what pain Leo had inflicted on the boy.
“You need to help us get out of here,” she said in a hushed tone. “He’s killed before. He’ll do it again. I don’t know why he got me to come out here, but I don’t think it’s to give me a present.” She looked at Isabel. “I think he plans to kill all of us.”
Tears streamed down Trinity’s cheeks. “No,” she whispered. “This isn’t happening.” She looked at Jason. “Come with us. You don’t want to stay here with them.”
Jason looked from Trinity to Victoria and back. “I can’t. I can’t do that. He’ll—”
“He’ll what? Hit you? Do you think he arranged for me and Isabel to be here so he can throw us a party? Your father is a cold-blooded killer, Jason!” Victoria clenched her arm tight to her chest, her wrist throbbing. “We have to get out of here now.”
A shadow loomed behind Jason. “Hello, Victoria. Did you get to chat with your mother again?”
Victoria wanted to cry.
“You ladies need to change your clothing,” Leo ordered. “There’re some lovely white dresses in that box.” He gestured to a cardboard box in the corner of the shed. “You.” He pointed at Trinity, who shuddered. “There’s black hair dye in there, too. I want your hair black. Now.”
“What?” Trinity gasped.
“Hair. Black. Now.” Leo stared at her. “Get moving.”
He was re-creating the tableau. Panic immobilized Victoria at Isabel’s side. The white dresses. Three of them with long black hair.
That was how he planned to kill them.
“Where is Seth?” she asked.
Annoyance crossed Leo’s face. “He’s busy. Change your clothes. Now.” He didn’t move.
She glanced at Jason. The teen looked miserable.
“Don’t look at him. It’s about time he learned to grow a spine. I was younger than him when I figured it out.” He slapped the teen on the back. “Time for you to grow up and face your roots, son.” He pointed at Victoria. “This is what we call shameless. She’s the type of woman who lives only for herself. She doesn’t care about anyone around her. She can’t please a man in marriage. She tries to pretend to be a man.”
“What utter bullshit,” Victoria spat.
Rage crossed Leo’s face. “You can’t speak to me like that.”
“I believe I just did.” This prick had pushed all her buttons. “What are you going to do about it? Make me drink some poison and pose in the woods to make yourself feel powerful?”
Leo stepped inside the shed, his shotgun still at his side. Victoria stood up to meet him. She’d rather go down with a fight than cower in a white dress.
“Dad.” Jason put a hand on his arm. Leo slapped it off and continued toward Victoria, his face irate. Jason stepped back hesitantly, and then abruptly turned and silently leaped out of the shed and ran. Leo took two more steps toward Victoria.
“Put on the dress. Dye her hair. You’ve got ten minutes.” He held her gaze. His pupils dilated in the dark cabin, and his stare drifted down to her mouth. A slow smile stretched his lips.
He’s aroused. She wanted to puke.
He glanced at the unconscious woman on the mattress. “She’s not much to look at, is she? You had no idea you came from such garbage, did you?”
Leo sent the note about my mother?
“She’s not garbage,” Victoria said quietly.
“You needed to be taken down a notch, going around with your snooty airs. You’re nothing special.”
Victoria blinked. “I’m what I make of myself, not who I’m born of. What makes you think she’s actually my mother?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “You really do know nothing. Of course she’s your mother, little sister. Dad would never let me forget it.”
Sister? Dad? Victoria felt like she was falling, everything spinning in slow motion around her, but her feet were firmly on the floor as she stared Leo in the face. Her inner sense of self cracked and shifted. Who was Leo?
Leo grinned at her. “Yes, we share a father. But not that whore for a mother.” He prodded at Isabel’s head with his shotgun. “He got her pregnant then gave you away. There were lots of adoptions going on back then. It was easy to slip you in. Dad always knew where you were, what you were doing, and got off on shoving your success down my throat.”
Leo was her half brother.
She had a killer’s blood in her veins.
Not if she had anything to say about it. She shook her head at him.
“Oh, yes. It’s true. Dad said your adoptive parents were thrilled to get a baby girl. I don’t remember any of it. I was only six or so. But I recall all the young women who came and went. Some stayed at the church for months, having nowhere to sleep. Some stayed only a few days. Dad never let me talk to them. He said they were all whores.”
He used the word “whore” to a child?
“‘Whore’ is used in the Bible, you know. Perfectly acceptable.” Leo smirked.
“So is ‘thou shall not kill,’” Victoria stated.
Seth blinked, trying to clear his vision.
No. This isn’t happening.
He’d barely swallowed any of the liquid Leo had forced into his mouth. He blinked again and the porch boards came into focus. There was no way he’d taken enough to be having any symptoms.
You don’t know how concentrated he’d made it.
He couldn’t have swallowed more than half a teaspoon. He shook his head, fighting the mild fuzziness that’d tried to nest in his brain. More likely he was noticing symptoms from his blood circulation being cut off at his wrists and waist. He wiggled in the chair, trying to make room for the blood to move back where it should be.
What was Leo going to do to Tori? Drag her up here with the shotgun and threaten to blow a hole in her stomach if he didn’t drink? What would he do? Would Leo really kill her? And if he didn’t drink, what was keeping Leo from putting a shotgun blast in his head? He was screwed either way.
The fog tried to overtake his head again. Part of him wanted to give in, to simply close his eyes and fall to sleep. But he had to fight. Before Leo came back he had to figure out what to do.
Footsteps sounded behind him. Too light for Abbadelli. He twisted his head. Jason! The boy fell to his knees and attacked the knots in the ropes.
“He’s going to kill them, just like he killed those other women. I knew he’d done it. I should have gone to the police right away as soon as I saw those pictures, but I didn’t know what to do.” The boy’s words spilled from his mouth in a rush.
“Ahhh.” Seth let out a sigh as the rope around his waist released. Blood rushed back to his head, clearing the cobwebs. Pressure from the rope had impaired his circulation. “Where’s your gun, Jason?”
“It’s right here.” He set the black pistol on Seth’s lap as he worked on the knots around his wrists. Seth looked at the useless gun; he couldn’t feel his fingers. So close but so far.
Jason suddenly snatched the gun away.
“Jason?” The older Abbadelli’s voice came from the doorway of the cabin. Seth looked over his shoulder, feeling his blood pressure skyrocket. Cesare Abbadelli stood with his shotgun pointed at the boy. Jason had his legs planted apart and the handgun pointed at his grandfather, his finger on the trigger.
Holy crap.
“Put the gun down, boy,” Abbadelli ordered.
Seth saw the quiver in Jason’s hands. Did the boy even know how to shoot? The old man seemed steadier on his feet than he’d been earlier. With a shotgun you didn’t really need to aim. At these close quarters, simply pointing it in the right direction would permanently take care of either him or Jason.
“No, Nonno. I won’t let you kill him.”
Seth saw the teen’s Adam’s apple bob nervously.
“I don’t plan to kill anyone.”
“But you killed those women all those years ago, didn’t you? The ones in the first circle?” Jason asked.
Abbadelli seemed to age twenty years with the question. “I had problems. Problems I couldn’t tell anyone about. I was ashamed, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
“It’s not too late,” Jason pleaded. “You can turn yourself in. You’re an old man, they wouldn’t treat you too bad.” His arms shook.
Abbadelli gave a harsh laugh. “They’d fry me, boy. At my age the best thing a man can do is pick the time he decides to leave this earth. I’ve had a long life, and I regret a lot of things. But what your father has done can never be undone. The police are too close. Leo is going to have to pay for what he’s done.”
“He’s going to do it again, Nonno. He’s going to dress them in white dresses and dye Trinity’s hair black. We’ve got to stop him!”
White dresses? Tori? Like the death circles?
Abbadelli looked at Seth. The old man’s brown eyes were tired. All the spit and fire Seth had seen earlier was long gone. Abbadelli was a shell of his earlier self. “Can you stop Leo?”
“Let me out of this chair, and I’ll do my damned best.” Seth wiggled in the chair, trying to loosen his hands. Abbadelli nodded at Jason and lowered his shotgun. He leaned heavily against the frame of the doorway.
Jason attacked the knots while Seth tried to hold still. After an eternity, the rope fell away and spikes jammed their way up Seth’s nerve pathways in his arms. He leaped out of the chair, rubbing at his hands. Jason offered him the gun. He shook his head; his fingers couldn’t aim the small gun. “I’ll shoot myself.”
Abbadelli held out the shotgun, his eyes downcast. That size weapon he might be able to handle. Point in the general direction and pull trigger. Seth clumsily tucked it under his arm, clasping it to his side, still working the circulation back into his hands. He stood for a second, studying the old man, who seemed to fold in on himself. “Victoria really made something of herself,” Abbadelli said quietly. “I don’t know what happened with Leo.”
His words spun in Seth’s head. Why would Abbadelli care about Victoria?
Jason tugged on his arm. “Let’s go. Hurry up. We’ve got to stop him.”
Seth jogged down the porch steps after the teen, and followed him into the dark. He glanced back at the porch and saw Abbadelli lift the flask from the porch railing to his lips.
Seth didn’t stop.
From far off, he heard a siren.
Victoria stood in front of Trinity, blocking Leo’s lecherous gaze as the teen changed into the dress. The dresses weren’t dresses. They were shapeless shifts sewn from white sheets. And there were at least a half dozen in the box. Victoria didn’t want to know how many there’d originally been. Trinity had turned her back and slipped the shift over her head, pulling her jeans and shirt off underneath. Victoria did the same and then followed Leo’s directions to help with Trinity’s hair.
Leo didn’t seem too upset by Jason’s absence. Victoria prayed he’d gone for help, but Leo blew it off, saying the boy had gone to hide under his bed.
Isabel had awoken two more times. Mumbling incoherently both times. Victoria worried for her. Her doubt about Isabel’s identity as her mother was nearly gone. She’d known in her gut the moment she’d seen her step into the street that she was looking at herself in thirty years. Minus the cigarettes.
She’d much rather claim the bond with Isabel than with Leo.
Or the bond to the Santa Claus with the shotgun who was her father.
It hadn’t sunk in. She remembered bits and pieces about Cesare Abbadelli from her childhood. He’d always had a pat on the head and a kind word for her. And then her family had left. Had her parents known she was Cesare’s daughter?
She doubted it. Her caring parents would never have removed her from his immediate circle if they’d known she was his daughter. She wondered if he’d fought their move to Portland.
One-handed, she tried to evenly move the black dye through Trinity’s hair. The chemical stench filled the cabin. There was no water to rinse it off with. Nothing to wash the dye from their hands. They weren’t imitating the ethereal girls from last week. This looked like they’d played in ink. Sloppy. The mess made Leo angry.
“Dad?”
Leo’s face brightened at the sound of Jason’s voice outside. “Damn you, Jason! I need a bucket of water,” he yelled back through the closed door.
“Okay,” the boy called back.
Seth heard the sirens more consistently as Jason filled a big bucket of water outside the shed. Hose in his hand, the teen glanced anxiously at him. “What’s going to happen?”
“I need a distraction. The sirens are getting closer and Leo’s going to hear them soon. It’s going to be a fire truck responding to Victoria’s call about Trinity’s car, but maybe there’ll be some police too. We need to hold Leo for them.”
“What about locking him in the cabin? Can you get the women out?” Jason asked.
Seth thought for a second then shook his head.
“Jason!” Leo yelled from inside the shed.
“Coming, Dad!” he hollered back. Jason turned off the hose and threw it aside.
Seth grabbed his arm. “Listen. I want you to throw the water at him and then hit the ground no matter what. If I have to, I’ll shoot him in the leg to slow him down.”
Wide eyes met Seth’s, but the teen nodded.
They had one chance.
What would he see when Jason opened the door?
Seth moved back into the darkness as Jason stepped up to the shed door and rapped with his knuckles. “It’s me, Dad.”
There was a pause and the door opened inward, spilling a weak light out into the wet night. Seth couldn’t see inside the shed. He took three steps to his right, crouching and straining to get a glimpse of Tori. Jason stepped up the single big step inside, the bucket sloshing in one hand, his pistol in the other. Shadows moved inside.
Where was Tori?
Seth crept closer, his hands tight on the shotgun. He could feel all his fingers now and had faith in his ability to pull the trigger. But could he do it if he was pointing the weapon at a human?
To save a life he could.
He could see Leo, his back against a side wall, his shotgun pointed at his own son as he moved forward with the water. Jason would have to get closer to surprise his father with the water. Tori and Trinity were at the back of the cabin, covered in white gowns and… black paint?
“Set it down,” Leo ordered. “And give me your gun.”
Seth saw Jason halt.
He wasn’t close enough.
Jason set the bucket down in front of his feet and held his gun out to his father, the handle first. Leo reached for the weapon. Jason moved a step closer and soccer-kicked the bucket, sending the bucket and water flying over Leo’s legs.
Leo yelled and Seth leaped into the doorway, weapon aimed at Leo’s center mass.
“Drop it!” Seth yelled at Leo.
Leo’s gun swung in Seth’s direction. “Never!” Two black holes stared at Seth from the muzzle of the shotgun. Leo’s crazy eyes challenged him from the far end of the weapon.
Seth fired.
Leo’s left shoulder and upper arm vanished in a red mist. His body slammed against the wall, and he slid down to the floor. Jason fell to his knees next to his father, his hands scrambling to stop the bleeding.
Seth heard screaming. Trinity had her black hands over her eyes as she screamed from a crouch on the floor. Victoria bent over her, her good arm wrapped around the girl, her wide gaze locked with Seth’s.
The sirens grew louder.
Weak-kneed, Seth sat down heavily on the shed’s step. He looked at Leo. His shot had caught part of Leo’s neck. Seth’s shotgun clattered to the floor of the shed.
He no longer needed it.