“Bad behavior. You think it’s OK to take shortcuts, walk over people, make a mess, and expect others to clean up after you.”
Was that it? The crime she, Holli, Laurie Hernandez, and the others were guilty of—bad behavior? Did he have any idea how crazy that sounded?
“Bad behavior? I still don’t know what Holli did to you. I don’t even know you.”
“That’s your problem. Your kind never know what you do wrong, but I will teach you. You will know what you’ve done and the price you have to pay.”
The veiled threat forced her to shudder, which knocked her off balance. She stumbled, then fell to the ground. He helped her up and waited for her to get moving again. She remained where she was.
“Why bring them here?”
“Because,” he said, then trailed off, leaving the answer unfinished.
Another nerve touched, she thought. This place means something to him. Does he think of it as sacred ground?
He clamped his hand on the back of her neck and shoved. “Keep moving. We’re nearly there.”
When they reached the far side of the paddock, he lifted her over the fence, then pointed to a small stand of trees.
“There.”
They walked to a spot under the trees. The grass was shorter here, ankle deep, stunted by the shade depriving it of enough light to grow. Nothing indicated to her that this was a grave. There was no sign of previously disturbed ground. This could be anything.
She shuffled around the spot, careful not to step directly on it, just in case it was the real thing. “Where?”
Then she saw the grave marker. It was understated, but fitting for a killer. The Tally Man couldn’t build monuments to what he did, or it might draw attention. The stone was large and smooth, a river rock polished by centuries of fast-moving current. A Roman numeral III painted onto its surface identified it as Holli’s grave.
Her heart broke at the sight of it. Until this moment, she’d held a microscopic belief that Holli was still alive, hiding somewhere under an assumed name to protect herself from him. There was no more proof required. Holli was dead.
The revelation broke Zo?. She’d lived with the knowledge for over a year that she’d abandoned her friend. Worse, she believed that she’d let Holli die. But the ambiguity of never knowing for sure whether Holli was dead or not had given Zo? hope. There was always an element of possibility, a slim chance that Holli had escaped, just like her. It was a dumb thought, a salve to keep the pain at bay, a delusion to keep her from this moment—true confirmation and the guilt that came along with it. Truth—Holli was dead and it was her fault. She couldn’t keep herself upright any longer, and she collapsed on top of Holli’s grave.
“I’m so, so sorry, Holli. I never should have left you. I should have tried harder to save you. I let you down.”
She pressed her cheek into the ground, feeling the dew-sodden earth on her face. She sobbed long and hard. Her chest felt as though it would implode with each gasping breath.
The Tally Man came up behind her and lifted her to her knees. “That’s enough. You got what you wanted.”
A sudden realization struck her. If Holli’s stone was here, then the others’ would be also. As if a veil had been lifted, all the stones revealed themselves to her. Similar river rocks formed a curve around the tree to her right and left. There were five of them. Each one was marked with its numerals. Her gaze stopped at IV—her stone.
“Oh God,” she murmured.
“Your place has been waiting for you for a long time,” the Tally Man said. He walked up behind her and pressed the chloroformed rag to her mouth. “I’ve held up my end of the bargain. Now it’s your turn.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It was 6:00 a.m., and the Investigation Unit’s office was quiet. Only Greening and Ogawa were at their desks. Neither of them had left since returning from the raid in Walnut Creek. Everyone else who’d been working through the night had gone home for a shower and a change of clothes. The team had pursued every lead, but it had been hard going with so little to act upon. They didn’t have a print or an ID to direct them. Everything boiled down to a screenshot of a man calling himself Brad Ellis.