Mendelson didn’t turn on any lights, but enough of the curtains were open that she could see easily as he set his radio on a shelf and turned to face them. “Your son is extraneous,” he said flatly. “You’re the one with the information.”
Panic crawled up her spine like a scurrying animal, and Lily shook her head hard, sending sparks through her damaged brain. “That’s not true! You know I’ll cooperate if he’s here. I’ll help you find her. I’ll do anything.”
He tipped his head, studying her with that little smirk. “That’s also true. So let’s keep him for now.”
Stomach turning, she strained her ears for any distant promise of sirens approaching, but the silence around their dim nest felt like a wall. The police had no idea they were here. Why would they?
“We have all the time in the world,” he said, stretching his back a little. “No one is looking for you or me. So let’s get way down deep to the real truth. Where is my wife?”
Lily would throw anyone to this wolf if it would save her son. “Zoey set it up. Just like you said. Maybe she knows! She said someone needed help—Amber—and she couldn’t come to the shelter.”
“And if some whining bitch calls to lie about a woman’s husband, you just accept everything she says? No investigation, no trial, no defense?”
“She . . . she’s an adult. She doesn’t need my permission to leave.”
“She needs my permission,” he roared, suddenly lunging toward Lily to loom over her. “She needs my permission to take my child, doesn’t she?”
“I don’t know,” she whimpered, sliding her shoulder in front of Everett’s to shield him.
“No, you don’t know anything, but you sure as hell thought you should insert yourself into my life, didn’t you? What happened next?”
“She dropped Amber off outside the gate. It was late. After nine. I met her there, and I took her to the RV. The one I showed you.”
“Then what?”
“She stayed for a night, and then the next night I drove her to the bus stop.”
He clucked his tongue and paced away. “That’s very interesting, Lily, because I’ve been wondering something. Why did she spend the night?”
“Wh-what?” she ventured.
“You hid my wife while I was desperately trying to find her.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I hadn’t even met you.”
“True, but you knew she belonged to someone.”
Belonged. Belonged, like she was a child or an object.
“So . . . why in the world did Amber need to stay with you? Why didn’t that woman take her right to the QT to catch the bus? Would’ve been quicker, wouldn’t it?”
Everything inside her clenched with fear, her organs drawing in to protect themselves from attack. “There’s something else. If you just let Everett go . . .”
His laugh was so loud and brief it rang out like a gunshot. “You’re not a strong, independent woman in the power position here, you dumbass bitch. If you want to make a deal, here’s the deal. Here’s my deal. You tell me everything—and I mean every single thing—or in four or five days, maybe a week, the cops will find this house reeking of the five rotting bodies inside.”
She blinked rapidly, trying to count. Five bodies. Five?
He winked, recognizing her confusion. “You and your son, of course. And your new boyfriend there.” He tipped his head jauntily toward the kitchen, confirming who that arm belonged to. Who the blood belonged to. Alex. She heard the tiny sound that leaked from Everett’s throat.
“And upstairs they’ll find the body of his cousin, the murderer, a man long ago suspected of being a disturbed psychopath preying on the women in this town. And his last victim, of course.”
Air leaked from her lungs, escaping in a strange whine.
“He came back, you know. Just recently. I checked it all out. Brian Bennick. So sad. This fucking loser psychopath gets dumped by his wife, he moves back in to his dad’s house, and suddenly, there’s another missing girl in Herriman, Kansas! Isn’t that funny?”
Lily frowned, she couldn’t think, and it felt very important to think. “Amber?”
“Jesus, you’re dumb as a rock. No, not Amber. It’s that druggie slut.”
Her eyes darted over the room, trying to think. What missing girl? “Rebecca Ross?”
“That one’s on you, Lily,” he said, almost cheerfully. “That one is totally on you. You took my sweet Amber. You took my girl, and she kept me clean. Do you get that? She kept me pure and righteous.” He’d paced away from her, then back again. “You took my beautiful angel and my son, and someone had to pay for that. How the fuck was I supposed to know some junkie whore was a doctor’s daughter? Huh? How was I supposed to know that?” He threw his hands high.
“Now the town will need answers, so here they are.” He gestured so widely that Lily flinched back from the motion, afraid to be hit again. She had to stay conscious. Had to figure out some way to save her son.
Mendelson reached into his jacket for an envelope. He opened it and drew out a necklace. “After a long search, they’ll find some of the souvenirs Brian Bennick collected from the girls he killed. And that will be the end of this tragedy. Everything tied up with a neat little bow for those backwater idiots down at the station. His journalist cousin was getting too close to the truth, and you two were just collateral damage. So sad. I’ll be front and center at the memorial, don’t worry. And I’ll be front and center for the work of the investigation, making sure all the pieces fit. And then I will find my wife, Lily.”
The universe seemed to slow around her. The dim parts went dimmer and the light parts brighter, and her head was a hollow bell ringing with her heartbeat and whooshing breath and the faint vibration of Everett’s trembling bones.
Everett. Everett. She had to save him.
The delicate necklace dangled from Mendelson’s gloved hand, and her gaze caught on its faint sway like a deer caught in headlights.
He could promise whatever bargain he liked, but she and Everett weren’t leaving this house alive. Not if Mendelson had any say in it. The town would need answers, and he had them, and he could not let any witnesses live.
Mendelson shoved the coffee table away with his foot, then crouched in front of her, tipping his head again in that eerie way of his. She’d thought him handsome before, but now he looked like a ghoul. Like tan skin stretched over a skull. “So, Lily? Are you ready to make a deal?”
“Yes,” she said, because it was the only choice. A deal for a few more seconds of life and a tiny chance for her son. She tried to swallow, and her dry throat ticked. “The reason Amber stayed the night,” she said, “is because she was waiting for a new ID, and a cash card, and a disposable phone.”
“What was the name on the ID?”
“I don’t know. It was sealed. I just gave her the envelope.” His eyes flashed with fury, so she lied. “But I saw her open it. I think . . . I think it said Jennifer.”
“Jennifer. And the new phone number?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wow. We don’t have a lot to work with here, Lily.”
“Someone left the envelope in my mailbox,” she blurted. “I don’t know who. But we could find out. They would know. They’d know her new name, at least. Someone made it for her.”
“But your friend Zoey arranged that, right? Not you?”
He was going to hurt Zoey. But first he’d hurt Everett. She opened her mouth to speak, but a deep groan of pain emerged. “Please, I . . . I . . .”
Everett had called 911. He asked for help. And he’d left the phone behind. The police didn’t know about this place, but they knew about the storage facility. Her brain fired, spinning and sparking. What did that mean? What could she do?
“My phone!” she yelled.
Mendelson pulled his chin in, frowning. “What about it?”
“Her new number is in my phone!” She settled into the lie, warming to it, letting it drown her with hope. “She called me from the trailer once. Amber. Her back hurt. She was afraid it would get worse on the bus. She needed Tylenol. So her number is there, even though I never called her!”
“You told me ten times you didn’t have it.”