“And you almost remembered something that wasn’t safe at all,” Eve said gently. “I hate having to remind you of that time. But you think that there’s a reason that you’re with Walsh now. You said you have to stop him. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Bonnie, it’s that she doesn’t believe anything is random after you cross over. There’s a kind of order.”
“I don’t know about that.” She was silent a moment. “But he does have to be stopped. Why would letting him see me help to keep him from burning the reconstruction?”
“Most people are frightened of ghosts. I think Walsh would be afraid of you, particularly if you’re his victim. Maybe you could intimidate him into not destroying that reconstruction.”
“He’d be afraid of me?” she asked doubtfully. “I don’t believe he was afraid of me before. I’m just a kid.”
“Not just. And you’ve grown more mature during those years. Reach down inside yourself for strength. You probably have a few powers that you didn’t have in life. Use them.”
“I don’t even know what they are.”
“Stretch. Think. Feel your way.”
“I’ll … try.”
“That’s all I ask. I don’t know how much time we have.”
“Time,” she repeated. “Yes, it’s all about time. He wanted to kill you, but there wasn’t time. He kept thinking how you’d interfered with him. He’s intending to go back to you … afterward.”
“After … what?”
“The little girl…”
Eve felt a chill. “What little girl?”
“I don’t know her name. He just thinks about her as the little girl. But she’s special to him. He keeps thinking of her as ‘the one.’ He’s been searching for her for a long time, and now he thinks he may have found her. Special. Not like the others who are all the same to him. Not important. With them, it’s what they make him feel that’s important.”
And eerily similar to the psychological philosophy of every serial killer she’d ever heard about. “Jenny, is this little girl still alive?”
“Yes.”
“And what does Walsh intend to do to her.”
“What he always does,” she whispered. “It’s always bad things. He had it all planned before they found me. He was thinking that she might be the one, and he was excited that the hunt was almost over. He was in Carmel, then he had to drop everything and rush back to the forest to make sure that he was still safe. He was in a panic because no one should ever have been able to find me. It was important I never be found. He’d be in trouble if they knew about it. He was scared and angry.”
“So angry he abandoned a potential victim?”
“He didn’t totally abandon her. He couldn’t. He has to go back to Carmel because she’s on the list. He’s marked her.”
“Marked?”
“I don’t know what he meant. But she’s one of the reasons why I have to stop him. She may be the most important reason.”
“I don’t understand about this … hunt and why Walsh was disappointed.”
“Neither do I. All I can tell you is what he was feeling. That’s all I know about her, Eve.”
And Eve knew far more than she wanted to know.
Except that little girl’s name.
Except a way to save her.
“Do you know how many … little girls … there have been, Jenny?”
“I don’t know any numbers. Lots and lots. And not only children. He likes them best, but it’s the kill itself he likes. Do you have to know?”
“No, of course I don’t.”
“But one of them was me?” A pause. “Then why can’t I remember it? You’d think I’d remember.”
“Perhaps … mercy?”
“I guess so.” A silence. “There are so many things that I don’t know. I suppose you’re impatient with me, but things are becoming clearer. The longer I’m with Walsh, the more memories are coming back to me. I’m changing, Eve. I can feel it inside. It’s as if I was asleep, and now I’m beginning to wake. You woke me, Eve.”
“The reconstruction?”