“Because he didn’t mind throwing her overboard but didn’t want to lose the diamond?”
“It could be more symbolic than that,” Conor said.
“By taking the ring, he was breaking up with her?” Tom asked.
Conor nodded, picturing the romantic stage set created in the mansion. “Maybe she let him down, disappointed him, didn’t return his ‘love’? Stopped participating in whatever fantasy he has going on?”
“Or maybe he’s just a psycho who likes to torture women,” Joe said.
“I think we all know that part’s true,” Conor said. “But there’s more. He’s prettied it up, at least in his mind.”
“Psycho onPsyche,” Garrett said. “So he took back the ring but left a valuable pearl earring—if it’s real?”
“It’s real,” Conor said. “Our killer likes luxury. He’d want only the best for his victim.”
“Why only one earring?” Garrett asked.
“The other could have come off in a struggle or slipped away in the ocean,” Joe said.
“We should go talk to Jennifer, the young groundskeeper at Maynard-King. Kate said she keeps a collection of single earrings in a compartment of her ATV. I thought at the time that they could be trophies,” Conor said. “And maybe the other pearl earring is too.”
“A young woman keeping trophies?” Joe said. “That seems unusual. You think Jennifer is the killer? It would be very rare.”
“Unlikely, but she could be involved,” Conor said.
Conor’s phone buzzed. An unfamiliar number came up, and he stepped away to answer the call.
“Reid,” he said.
“Conor?” a very faint woman’s voice asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Who’s this?”
“It’s Miranda,” she whispered. “Kate’s going to be next.”
“What do you mean—next?” Conor asked, his heart crashing.
“You have to keep her safe, or she’ll be taken just like the rest. I can’t talk more. He’ll hear me.”
“Who’s ‘he’? Where are you?” Conor asked.
But the connection was broken, and Miranda wasn’t on the line anymore.
33
Girl #3
Tuesday, July 6; 10:30 a.m.
It was her turn to teach.
She had been well trained by the woman, and now she was expected to pass her knowledge along to the next girl and the one after that. She was shaking, to know what they had done to the one before her. That girl was gone; her blood had flowed from where they had cut her throat, and her life had drained into the ocean.
This setting was unfamiliar and brand new. Girl #3 had become used to the boat and the mansion on the island. But after they killed Belinda three days ago, and the new girl yesterday, it was too dangerous for the group to stay in those places.
They told her the police would tearPsycheapart, and they would search the mansion for any clues that would lead them to the woman and the men. The girl felt a combination of panic and hope when she thought of the message the other girl had left onPsyche’s window. The woman and men hadn’t noticed it, or she wouldn’t be here now.
She hoped the police saw it and that it would lead them to saving her.
