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“No.” Renae took a deep breath. “I’m not supposed to talk about any of this since the detectives talked to Sarah only a few minutes ago, but there is something I need you to know—from mother to mother.”
Kerri’s heart stumbled.
“Sarah swears she doesn’t remember pushing Brendal. She also said Tori never suggested she do so. We didn’t press her about why she’d said so in the note. When she’s stronger, we’ll get to the bottom of this. I’m sorry ... I don’t understand what’s happened or why.”
The tears streaming down Kerri’s face were filled with relief. She should be elated, but what she was beneath the brief flash of relief was terrified.
“Thank you for telling me,” she managed. “I’ll check in on Sarah later.”
Kerri ended the connection and called Falco. He answered on the first ring. Kerri blurted the words burgeoning in her throat, “Tori is missing.”
Every bit of restraint Kerri possessed was required to hold back a howl of misery. “She left a note saying Sarah had run away and she’d gone to help her. But I just spoke to Sarah’s mother, and she’s still in the hospital. They haven’t heard from Tori.”
“Call it in,” Falco said. “I’m on my way to you.”
40
7:50 a.m.
Sadie’s Loft
Sixth Avenue, Twenty-Seventh Street
Birmingham
Her head ached.
Sadie touched the back of her skull. Groaned at the new sore spot. She told her eyes to open, but the dreams weren’t quite ready to let her go.
She was back there ... in Mexico. In the place where they’d kept her locked away. Eddie was there, holding her, telling her everything would be all right. The baby was crying in the background.
No. That wasn’t right. Eddie couldn’t have been with her then. He was dead.
She had killed him.
He had asked her why. Why she’d betrayed him. Sadie had told him the truth. She was a cop. Working undercover. Her real name was Sadie Cross, and she was carrying his child. She loved him, but she had a job to do, and his father was evil. What he was doing was evil.
Eddie had moved his head slowly from side to side and told her the truth. “I cannot save you.”
The weapon had been lying on his desk. It hadn’t been a pen as she’d thought; it was a gun. The two of them were in his office alone. She had a chance—slim, but still a chance.
Sadie grabbed the gun and fired without hesitating, without thinking.
He stumbled backward. Fell to the floor. Blood spreading across his chest.
She ran.
But the guards caught her before she could escape.
The girl was there ... the one wearing the mask. She seemed bigger, older. Sadie must be mixing up the Isabella from nearly five years ago with the Alice now.
“Shh-shhh. You must be quiet.”
It was dark. Where had the day gone? Where was Eddie’s body? Sadie was confused.
“Take my hand.”
Sadie stared at the hand. Not the hand of a child. The wrinkled, gnarled hand of someone old.
