I asked the next obvious question. “So how is it really?”
“I stuck close to the kids to keep them safe and wait for that sadistic bitch to mess up in a documentable way. But I never had any such luck. I was stuck in a kitchen, and she was a wiz with the paperwork. I was totally outgunned. But at least she never hurt the kids again. As far as I know. She got promoted out of the nursery and into Rupe’s office—which is what she wanted.”
I tried not to let my jaw drop. “She stayed? The sadistic nanny stayed?”
“Yeah. She was too ambitious to be a nanny. I don’t think she’s content even being an admin anymore. But you know her. Joyce. Joyce Liston.”
I stared at her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I mean, Joyce Holbrook. I still think of her as Joyce Liston. I forget she went back to her maiden name when her husband died.”
I tried to listen to the rest of what Hannah said, but I shut down after I heard the word Liston.
“Wait. Her husband died?” I said. “Or was he murdered?”
Outside, the wind shook the windowpanes and the water rose higher. Stay . . . I heard. Good girl.
eighteen
HENRY
The storm was kicking up a freezing-cold spray from the Sound when I grabbed onto the guard shack. Agent Armstrong already had a team going through the CCTV footage. “When I checked yesterday afternoon, it was on a loop,” I told him. “I don’t know if it was that way everywhere we had cameras set up, but Pix and I noticed it.”
Agent Armstrong nodded indulgently. Smile at the rich brat. Then get him out of the way so we can do our job. “That’s one of the first things we noticed last night, son,” he said. “The footage from both the garage and the Breakers has been wiped. We’ve already sent what we have to a clean room to see if there’s anything that can be recovered. All we can do now is hope. Even the backups have been wiped. Someone was very thorough.”
“Wiped? Both the Breakers and the garage?”
Agent Armstrong nodded but didn’t bother to look at me. This is about my brother and my stepmother, I wanted to say. I have a stake in this. I don’t care what a hotshot you are.
“But I thought Lyudmila was killed in the Breakers.”
He nodded again.
“So why would a killer bother to wipe the footage in the garage?”
At last, agent Armstrong deigned to look at me.
“Listen, Henry, will you do me a favor?”
I hate it when people say this, because they’re acting like you have a choice in the matter, which you don’t. They’re really issuing a command.
“Will you please get inside? We’re doing our best to find out who killed your stepmom and to find out what happened to your brother. You’re just in the way. The storm is already messing with our forensics outside. The sooner you let us do our job, the sooner we can get to the bottom of this.”
I hated the man. I hated his reasonable requests. This was my family we were talking about. He could’ve given me some busywork to do, but instead he made me feel useless.
I shoved my hands deep into my pockets and let the sea kick spray in my face as I made my way for the main house. I didn’t even try to keep my hood around my head. The wind would’ve just blasted it off no matter how tightly I tied it.
I forced myself to take steps toward the house, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to go anywhere I wasn’t allowed. The garage, mostly. Or the Breakers. I was tired of being the good son.
I let myself in the side door and shrugged off my rain jacket. I was immediately accosted by Pixie, who ran up to me and whispered loudly, “You didn’t tell me that Joyce used to be married to Hal Liston.”
I took in the long drip of her, from the wet, messy blond braid and the salt water cascading off her nose to the stocking feet at the bottom of the strong trunks of her legs. I didn’t care who Joyce had been married to. I didn’t see why it was so important.
But she’d latched on to something no one else had, and I was ready to hear her out.
nineteen
PIXIE
Henry took me to his room, and we spoke behind closed doors. Outside, the weather continued its assault.
“I don’t understand what a murdered dog trainer has to do with all this. How long has he been gone?”
“About seven years.”
“And you’re telling me his ghost isn’t quiet. That doesn’t make any sense. We’ve already lost who we’re going to lose.”
Henry’s logical explanation didn’t quite describe the gnashing sound that was getting louder with each wave. The growling of Stay and Good girl that I heard in my ears was like a cacophonous symphony. The troll was coming. Tonight.
“You think I don’t know that? All I know is that Liston’s body was never found. And that I hear the troll only when something bad is going to happen. I heard it the night before your stepmother was killed. I want to know why. What do you remember about Joyce this weekend?”
“Joyce didn’t kill Lyudmila, if that’s what you’re asking. She’s been helping Dad with all the details.”