The perfect hiding place.
Lying in front of it was another copse. As Devin walked toward it, she felt as if something in the night had changed.
The wind whipped around her as if a storm had formed right there in the woods and only in the woods. Leaves rustled in the branches above her head.
Devin spun in circles, trying to figure out where the killer was.
The killer came up from behind his victims and sliced his knife across their throats.
And in the darkness and this strange wind, he could be anywhere.
She opened her mouth to cry out—to call for Jack.
But what if it was Jack—someone any woman would trust, someone who could get a woman to the woods, where he could slash her throat?
It could be Jack, she thought. He was a cop. If anyone could fake an alibi, it was a cop.
Because she knew for a fact that Theo wasn’t the killer. Because Theo was lying in a pool of blood under the trees where the woods began.
Devin kept turning in circles as she made her way through the clearing.
She realized that she’d been lured from her house. The scream had been intended to lure her out. Theo had wanted to warn her, but the attempt had failed. He was dead, and she had fallen for the ploy.
And now Gayle and Beth were out here, too, in danger. Perhaps already...
“Devin?”
Beth!
The hushed cry came from somewhere behind her. She whirled around. “Devin, help me...please.”
“Beth, where are you?” Devin called softly in return.
“Here...help me!”
Devin tried to follow the sound of Beth’s voice. As she moved carefully back through the trees, she felt a touch on her arm again.
Margaret Nottingham. The woman shook her head, urging her back.
“But Beth...”
The Puritan woman looked past Devin and opened her mouth in a silent scream.
Devin swung around to look and saw Beth.
Beth—with an athame in her hand.
Beth, ready to slit her throat.
*
Rocky skidded to a stop in front of Devin’s house and felt his stomach roll when he saw her front door standing open. He saw no one and started to open his mouth to shout out, then closed it, deciding stealth was his friend. He’d seen another car pulled off the road near the trees. He didn’t know who was in the woods at this point, as he headed into the trees as quietly as he could. He tried to concentrate on Devin—he tried to think like Devin.
That didn’t help. Devin was a fighter. If she thought a friend was threatened she’d rush into battle because she saw it as the right thing to do.
He had to find her.
Moving into the woods, he nearly tripped over something.
He hunkered down, his heart in his throat.
A body.
Not Devin! Thank God, not Devin.
But Theo. Theo...bleeding into the ground. He would be dead if help didn’t come soon. But help would come. Jack had called it in. He hoped....
He couldn’t stay by the fallen man; he had to find Devin.
Devin was the target.
As he stared into the darkness, desperately trying to figure out which way to go, he blinked. Someone seemed to be materializing in front of him.
He blinked again and gave himself a mental shake.
But the image remained.
Melissa. Melissa Wilson. Lovely and so young, with her long hair falling to her shoulders, wearing the white spring dress in which she had been buried.
She beckoned to him.
And he followed.
*
Pepper spray.
Rocky had showed her how to use it, and she’d held it tightly in her grasp since she’d left the house.
Beth had meant to get her from behind, but thanks to Margaret she’d swung around and ruined that plan. And now, while Beth was preparing to wield the knife again, Devin was ready.
And faster.
The pepper spray hit Beth right in the eyes. She screamed and instinctively tried to wipe her eyes.
Devin lunged forward, bringing Beth down to the ground and wrenching the athame from her hand.
“Bitch!” Devin cried in fury.
There was a rustling in the woods and Gayle burst through the trees. Devin staggered to her feet, staring down at Beth with disbelief. She turned to Gayle. “It was Beth all along. She used us. She played us—all of us. Theo is dead. But I used my pepper spray, and—”
Devin broke off, because Gayle’s face had changed. Her expression was dark, insane. Dangerous. Devin could hear the distant sounds of sirens now, but all her attention was on the woman standing in front of her.
“She’ll have to take the fall, won’t she?” Gayle said, looking contemptuously at Beth.