“Or he killed her and his father,” Caleb said.
Novak nodded. “Maybe.”
“Maybe his father and aunt are his first victims.” Caleb tried to recall details of the statues. There’d been an older man but no woman around the same age.
“We’re closing in on the mountain. I’m seeing tracks.” Rhett leaned forward and pointed through the filtering snow falling in the headlights.
“He has an ATV, too,” Caleb concluded.
“Probably.” Rhett kept his full attention straight ahead.
“Good news is the weather has cleared enough for the choppers to get airborne,” Novak told them. “They’re ten minutes out.”
Relief flooded Caleb’s exhausted body.Please stay alive for me. I can’t lose you...
They’d come so close to sharing their feelings. He didn’t need to hear the words to know she loved him still just as he did her.
And he wasn’t about to let Wax take away both their chances at happiness because of some sick game.
???
“I don’t want to hear your lies,” Ava hissed. But she did. She had to know why so many had died. Why he’d targeted her.
“Yes, you do. Because you’ve always known this moment would come despite the lies they’ve told you.”
She couldn’t answer. Ava sat transfixed while he held back the information, wanting her to beg.
When she didn’t, his expression turned dark and he paced the room, his attention occasionally landing on Rachel and then the vat of wax he’d prepared.
“Your mother. She was such a liar. She told me she loved me and that we’d be together forever. We had a ceremony. I married us.”
The gold wedding bands. If she were going to die here, Ava had to know the meaning of his clues. “How did you meet her?”
Wax’s smile softened. “While hiking. We both loved the woods.”
Was that why he left his victims in the woods?
“We were hiking up near Hunter’s Lodge when we met. We had so much in common. I invited her to Hidden Lake for a picnic. Even though it was cold, she agreed to join me.”
Two more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “What was her name?” If she could keep Wax talking, she believed her people would locate them.
Please, God.
“Hannah,” he said with another whimsical smile. “I brought her here. We were happy together.”
Ava’s stomach turned. Wax had kidnapped her mother.
“We played chess. Oh, she was an excellent chess player. I gave her the music box and the chest with a key that fit it—the locket. I even put in a photo of her inside. She told me she was happy.”
Hannah would have told him anything to stay alive. But something had happened. She had to know what. “When was I born?”
His smile slipped. “Nine months after we became one. And after I showed her my passion. She told me she wanted to join me...” He frowned. “But of course, she lied.”
Ava couldn’t let him get off topic. “What about the swath of flannel, the gold in the vial? The backpack strap. Were they hers?”
His eerie smile returned. “Hannah’s? Of course, they weren’t hers. They belonged to the first three victims I brought here.” He pointed to three of the human statues. “She told me she wanted to be part of it, but I could see the way she looked at me. She was disgusted.” He shook his head. “I knew then, she wasn’t the person I thought she was.”
But something happened. How else would Ava have been placed for adoption? “Did she take me and leave?”
