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“I don’t know.” He was relieved that the detective was taking him seriously.
“I’ll run up there and see what’s happening. Was thinking of going there, anyway. We got a homeless man that can’t seem to stay away from one of your houses, Mr. St. Cloud.”
Maybe the detective wasn’t taking him as seriously as he’d thought. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Hale said, if the slowpoke in front of him would get his bucket of bolts off the road.
“Give me your cell number. I’ll call you,” Clausen said. Hale gave it to him, but Clausen hung up before Hale could ask him for his in return.
Savannah tested the bonds on her left arm; they seemed a tad looser than those on her right, and this was on the side away from Charlie. She had to free herself. Had to find a way to warn Hale. “You look into their souls before they die,” she said, seeking to get him talking again. He’d gone silent, lost in some world of his own.
“Shhh . . .” He said then, “Bitch. I won’t play her game, but she won’t give up.”
It took Savvy a moment to realize he wasn’t talking about her. She was so cold, it was hard to think.
But now his attention returned to her. “It’s like the best sex ever, and then it’s so much more.”
“That’s why you killed them? To look into their souls?” She had several fingers almost free.
“I killed my mother first,” he admitted. “Mary. On the island. I put the knife right here.” He pressed on his own chest, just beneath the breastbone. “And then I slid it up, underneath the ribs.” His voice was almost reverent.
Two fingers were free. “You killed the Donatellas with a gun.”
“It was what we had.” And then he dug into her messenger bag and pulled out her gun. He’d obviously stashed it there while she was unconscious. He held it loosely in his hand. “Did you know your sister had a gun, too?” Savvy wouldn’t respond as she thought of the one Victoria had found. “Kristina had to hide it,” he explained, “or she would have been aiding and abetting. She was standing right there.” He pointed toward the front window, and a light flashed through the crack in the drapes. “He’s here . . . ,” he said gleefully.
As he turned around, Savvy tried to shake the rope from her left wrist. She needed her hand free. She needed to warn Hale. She needed out. She was screaming inside but finally she wrenched her left hand free of the bindings.
Quickly, she reached around to her right wrist, tugging on the stubborn rope. Please, please!
Charlie threw open the door, and Savannah screamed with everything she had.
Bang!
The sound of the point-blank shot stunned Savannah. She ripped at the rope on her right hand. Yanking and pulling. Cold tears on her face.
Charlie stumbled backward as a body hit him hard. They rolled on the floor as Savannah twisted upward, pulling at the ropes that were wrapped around her ankles and in one long loop around the granite top. She half jumped, half fell off the island, and her muscles locked up. She was too cold. Too frozen.
In horror she watched as Charlie disentangled himself from the pile of arms and legs, covered in blood.
Fred Clausen lay on the floor, gazing blankly toward the ceiling, and Charlie hunkered over him, staring hard into the man’s eyes, as if the secrets of the universe lay there.
Savannah broke and ran stiffly for the back door.
Hale made the turn into the housing development, aware how dark and forlorn all the empty houses seemed. There was no light in the area apart from the brilliant moonlight that had broken through a few drifting clouds.
Clausen hadn’t phoned him back, and since Hale couldn’t call him, he didn’t know if the detective had shown up yet.
But as soon as he got around the first curve, he saw the black-and-yellow TCSD vehicle.
And right beside it, Savannah’s rental.
“Okay . . . ,” he said aloud, assessing the situation.
A dark figure ran across the road in front of him, disappearing into bushes on the far side of the Donatella house. Immediately, Hale was on alert. He looked around the vehicle. His tools were in the back.
Pulling to a stop in front of the Pembertons’, he got out, feeling a brisk, cold wind numb his face. He went to the back of the TrailBlazer, opened the hatch. The light came on, and he felt completely exposed. Quickly, he snapped open the toolbox and grabbed a wrench. Then he shut the hatch and remote-locked the car.
Where was Savannah?
She ran along the headland, the rim of which was a jagged edge of crumbling dirt. Her bare feet ran over sharp sticks and gravel buried in the dirt, and she was certain they were bleeding.
