Crazy.
Everything was okay. She just needed some air. She’d keep the car windows open as she drove to the hotel. The tension of the day must have been more enervating than she had dreamed.
She was feeling less sick but still shaky as she pulled out of the hospital parking lot. Stop it. She was fine. Everything was fine.
*
“No, it’s not. It’s all wrong, Eve.”
She stiffened, her gaze flying to the passenger seat.
Jenny.
Pain.
Eve could feel her pain and despair.
“It’s been a long time, Jenny. I thought we were working on this together.”
“I told you that I’d never be sure when I could come to you,” she said. “It’s so hard. He’s so hard. He fights me. He won’t believe me, and sometimes he makes me think that he’s right. That I’m … nothing.”
“No, he’s not right. Don’t think that.”
“It’s only sometimes. Most of the time, I know I’m getting stronger, and I’ll soon be able to stop him.”
“Stop him?”
“The way he stopped me,” she said. “The way he stopped her.”
“Her?”
“Elena. He shouldn’t have done that. It was all wrong.”
“Jenny, what are you saying?”
“He followed her. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t make him listen. He wouldn’t hear me.”
“Jenny, what did he do?”
“I don’t know. The car … I don’t know. He wanted to hurt her. I think he did it.”
“He hurt Elena?”
“Yes. He shouldn’t have done it. So kind to me. So good to Cara.”
“Cara. You know about Cara? You know that she’s the little girl Walsh was targeting?”
“Of course I do. Who else? It had to be Cara.”
“You didn’t know before.”
“I told you, I’m getting stronger. Things are coming back to me. Soon I’ll know everything.”
“And you know that Cara is your sister?”
“Of course she is. She was Marnie. Now she’s Cara. Elena had to change it.”
“And Elena isn’t really her aunt?”
“No, she was our nurse. She took care of both of us before Walsh took us from our home. He thought having her with us would make it easier for him on the trip, and he made her come along.”
“But it didn’t make it easier, did it? She helped you to escape from him?”
“Yes, but it didn’t work. He was too smart. He came after us. He was too close. He was going to catch Cara. I couldn’t let him do it. All I had to do was run away and make a lot of noise, so he’d follow me. But I had to leave her alone. I told her that I’d keep her safe if she’d just do what I said.” She moistened her lips. “And I did it. I can’t let it all be for nothing. I can’t let her die now. I saved her the last time. I have to do it again.”
“Is it Cara who Walsh is hurting now?”
“No, not yet. I told you … the car. Cara wasn’t in the car.”
“She wasn’t in Elena’s car? But she picked her up at school.”
“No, she fooled him. She had to fool him. She couldn’t let him get Cara.”
“Then where is Cara?”
“I don’t know. I can feel her. She’s scared, so scared. Like she was that night. There were tall trees around her then, but now there’s only rock. And she’s all alone.”
“Does Walsh know where she is?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe. He hurt Elena.”
“Do you know where Elena is?”
“The car.” Her green eyes were glittering with tears. “It’s the car. We have to help them, Eve. I’ve been searching. I have to find them before Walsh does.”