A maze.
I look around for the stranger I instinctively recognized, but he’s nowhere to be found. The back garden has a stone wall around it twelve feet high, at least. And the gate is locked, per instructions. So there is only one possible place he might be hiding.
I find the entrance and head into the maze.
Chapter Sixteen - Lincoln
“Dancing with her, Case? Really? What are you trying to do, undo fifteen fucking years of luck in the span of three minutes?”
“Hey, relax. I was just trying to feel her out. See how much she knows.”
I lean to the side a little and give her a quick check. “Fuck, she’s coming.”
“Just play it cool, man. And call me tonight and tell me how it goes.”
“Right,” I say, as Case chuckles. “Asshole.” We’re in a lot of trouble. I can feel it. All the shit I’ve been pushing away is about to knock me back on my ass.
I turn and rub my temple as I head out the back door, willing the headache that’s building to go away. There’s no way out from the garden. I know this place better than Thomas. I was the one who designed it back when we were still in school. I didn’t know what they were gonna use it for until it was too late.
I think that was the moment I turned. Walking back through the quad after finals. The maze was supposed to be used for animals. A test, that’s what they told me. For animals, they said. But they ran us through the maze. We were the animals. More than a dozen went in and only three came out.
Me, Thomas, and Case in that order.
Thomas brushed past my shoulder as we walked through the Prodigy School doors, damaged even more at the end than we were going in, trying our best to pretend that shit didn’t just happen.
“It was a good design,” he said. “And hey, you knew it better than the rest of us. So good job on being first. But brothers don’t let brothers die in the maze, Lincoln. A little heads-up next time, eh?”
It was the first time he ever called me Lincoln and it changed everything for me.
How he got his hands on those old plans, I have no idea. I don’t really care either, I’m just glad he did. Because the only way to stop a public scene now is to get Molly Masters inside the hedge maze where we can at least have some privacy. Not many people want to wander around a dark maze at night.
I duck in through the opening in the hedges, then check behind me, and yeah, sure enough, her feet are flying down the stone steps. She’s looking everywhere for me.
How much does she remember? I guess I’ll start there first. It’s possible she’s just getting little hints. And maybe my face triggered a memory, or maybe she just knows she recognizes me and can’t place it. Either way, I’ve got her attention.
That makes me smile a little more than I’d like to admit. Because… well, Sheila was right. I like her. I more than like her. I crave her.
Laughter pulls me out of my introspection and a few young couples go running by, probably thankful that they found the exit. There’s another exit on the far side, but once you make it to the middle most people don’t want to push their luck. They go out the same way they came in.
I walk up around a corner, then double back though a cut in the hedge to an alcove that has a window cut through, so I can watch the detective pass by.
The sound of soft footsteps on the large flat stones make me duck back into the darkness. A few seconds later, she walks past the window. Her eyes dart around. She looks right at me, but she’s unable to see past the shadows.
Can I turn her? It’s a good question. One Case and I discussed at length this week after I told him the whole story. He came by the cave earlier and watched the footage with Sheila and me, and then we pulled up the tracking map from the transponder I magnetically attached to the undercarriage of her work car.
She was at Blue Corp all week. Which, as Case pointed out, might be useful to us. If we can get her to cooperate. Everyone—I do mean everyone—knows why she was put on that Blue case and it wasn’t because they’re short-staffed.
It was because she’s new. She’s got no history. No context. No memory.
I wait until her footsteps fade and I walk to my left, deeper into the maze. It’s not the right path, and eventually it will dead-end on the far side of the garden after twisting and turning so much, a person unfamiliar with this puzzle might feel dizzy.