So Then There Were None

by Annie Adams

  “Chad and Johnny, you mean?”

  She nodded. “The roof was a great meeting place. Good vantage point too. She had the original copy of the poem and she brought it with her. I couldn’t let everyone see that. It would have ruined the game. Everyone would have left early. Including you and Alex. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “So, you pushed her off the roof and then placed the new poem and the charm near her body.”

  “Yes.”

  “But you thought she was dead.”

  “I wasn’t sure. But it was a murder mystery, so it needed a murder, didn’t it?”

  “So why is Kourtnee helping you now?”

  “She owes me big time, so she’ll do whatever I tell her to.”

  I stopped rowing. “Kourtnee said that a man pushed her off the roof. Why would she say that?”

  “The power of suggestion. I have a degree in psychology, you know. You don’t have a degree in anything. Do you?”

  I ignored her attempt at a dig. “Why does Kourtnee owe you?”

  “I have certain sets of skills, Qu—no. Pam.” I was in deep water and now even deeper trouble. She had decided she was me and I was her. The transformation was complete, I supposed. I had no idea what the outcome would be, but I didn’t think it ended so well for me in her mind.

  “She needed those skills, and now she has to pay me back.”

  “What did she do that got her in such trouble?” I asked.

  “She likes to set fires.”

  “I heard about the large forest fire. I thought Audra bailed her out.”

  Pam let out a disgusted cough of a breath. “Of course Audra took credit. She might have given a lawyer’s phone number to Kourtnee. But I made sure her electronic time card said the right thing and put her in the right place at the right time. Audra doesn’t know how to do that.”

  “How do you know how to do that?” I asked. “Is it something you do at your job? Where do you work? I don’t think Al—I don’t think I asked you before.”

  She winced ever so slightly and looked out over the lake.

  “Special set of skills, Pam. That’s why Alex chooses me,” she said.

  I’d definitely found a sore spot. And I noticed her straighten herself up and put a renewed effort into pointing the gun at me. “Quincy,” I said to her, “I can’t imagine how you’ve been able to stay on top of everything you've had to do. Not only were you in charge of all the things for the wedding, being a bridesmaid—I mean, the maid of honor—but you were also running the mystery. How in the world did you juggle it all?"

  She got that same proud expression. “With planning, Pam. You don't just throw an event like this together at the last minute. As a florist, I’ve had experience putting events together, unlike you."

  "I'm sure you're right. But how did you manage to set up all the surveillance that you needed to stay on top of things?"

  "Do you think I just showed up here a week ago? No. I had to get an idea of my surroundings, I had to get things shipped to me. Wedding favors, gifts, and things like that had to be taken care of. How do you think we got all those outfits for all of you to wear? I'm sure Eva took all the credit for that. I made it all work. Christie is my best friend and she wanted her dream wedding. So I gave it to her. I did it the right way. Just like the murder mystery. Those idiots didn’t know what they were doing, so I had to do it right."

  The sound of a motor buzzed up in the distance, behind me. Pam looked in the same direction and nodded satisfactorily.

  “Pam, where are we going?” I said. “Really, where’s Alex?” This had to stop, but I was in a freaking rowboat, in a lake, with no one else around. And there were no life jackets, and I couldn’t swim. Oh, and the sun was dipping in the west. It would disappear behind the mountains soon.

  "It's Q. Call me Q from now on."

  "Okay, Q. Did you have cameras in my room? And how did you get everywhere to take your victims? Are there secret passages in all the rooms?" I was going for broke.

  She laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Pam.” She let out a dismissive sigh. “I guess I can tell you, since he's going to choose me anyway. Of course I had a camera in your room. And no, there aren’t secret passageways to every room, but a lot of them have them. And the alarm system doesn't work on the back kitchen door as you figured out. Alex and I just needed to be alone. That's what we came here for, all the way from another state.” I wondered what she meant by that. Had she moved here following him? Had she been watching us for months?

  “Everyone was always getting in the way, keeping us apart. You know all about that.” She didn’t mean that in a ‘know-what-I’m-talking-about-sister?’ kind of way. She meant it in an ‘I kept-getting-between-her-and-Alex kind of way.’ “We’re getting married, we've got plans to take care of."

  At this point I knew there was nothing I could do as a rational person to deal with her. She was irrational. “How long have you been here?” I asked her.

  “A couple of months on and off."

  “When we get to wherever we’re going," I said "what happens next?"

  She leaned over to her side to look past me. “You’re about to find out.” She centered herself in the boat and looked down at the gun. “I had to do things this way. I changed that poem so that everyone would know how awful they all are. They all got away with their bad behavior. Except you. You’re the last one left.”

  That sounded like an end of the line statement to me. Maybe I could swim. I could float on my back for a minute at a time—I just didn’t know what I would do in between the minutes.

  “Row hard for just a little while longer, we’re almost there.”

  Instead of asking another fruitless question about where “there” was, I twisted to look behind me. I saw a floating dock of sorts. One like I’d seen on a lemonade commercial where kids would be diving off and then climbing back on, only to do it over and over again. Of course, being who I was, with my water experience, I couldn’t imagine why that was considered fun or entertaining.

  On this dock was a person, sitting, facing away from me. He had his shirt off, and I recognized that gorgeous back immediately.

  I wasn’t sure what would happen if I yelled out, so I didn’t. But my heart leapt at the sight of him. I turned back toward Pam only to see an angry flicker in her eyes and the gun being tautly pointed at me again.

  “I didn’t tell you that you could look!”

  “I’m sorry, Pam I just—”

  “I’m Quincy!”

  “Quincy!” Alex called out from the dock. His voice seemed so far away, but still, he’d seen us. He would fix this. The joy and relief washed over me.

  “Keep rowing,” Pam sneered.

  I did what she said with renewed energy. At that moment, if I could walk on water, I could have carried that boat to the dock with Pam sitting in it.

  “Now stop,” she said.

  We weren’t close to the dock. Maybe within shouting distance was all.

  “You weren’t supposed to take your blindfold off, sweetie,” Pam called out.

  I had to turn around. Alex stood now, facing our direction. I could see the bandana hanging around his neck. His hands were gathered together—he was wearing handcuffs.

  “Quincy, are you okay?” The fear in his voice nearly crushed me.

  “We’re okay,” Pam answered.

  “The game is finished, Pam,” Alex yelled. “You win.”

  “It’s not over yet. I’m in charge of this thing and it isn’t finished until I say it is. I’m in charge for once.”

  “What do you want, Pam?” Alex asked.

  “All I’ve ever wanted was you, darling. But you’ve got to use my name.”

  “What are you talking about?” he said.

  “It’s time to choose,” she yelled, even louder this time. It’s me or her. Stand up!” she shouted at me.

  I stood and the boat moved. I struggled to get my balance and nearly lost the use of my bowels, thinking I would go over into
that water.

  “Pam, what are you doing?” Alex yelled.

  “Call me by my name!” she shrieked.

  I turned as far as I could without losing my balance. Slowly, I lifted one foot and placed it so I could face Alex. I imagined I looked like a new born giraffe trying to stand upright for the first time. Once I was set, I yelled to Alex, who now seemed so much farther away than I’d originally thought. “I’m Pam, that’s Quincy.” I gave him a serious stare, hoping he could see my expression from where he stood.

  “Make your choice, Alex. Say the name out loud.”

  “What will you do once he chooses?” I asked her so that only she could hear.

  “I’ll shoot the one he doesn’t choose.”

  I could have panicked then, but something—came over me. I was calm, almost thinking in slow motion, but a step ahead. The calmness flowed through my body like the blood in my vessels.

  “Choose Quincy,” I called out to Alex.

  I looked at Pam. “If you shoot me with Alex’s gun, they will find my body eventually and see that he did it. And he’ll go to prison. You’ll never see him again. It doesn’t matter what story you tell them. It’s his gun.”

  I couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of this problem. But she didn’t seem to be in a logical state of mind by this time. I may not have had a degree in psychology, but from what I’d seen on TV, she’d had a psychotic break. I mean, she thought she was me for crying out loud.

  “I’ll tell them you shot yourself,” she said quickly, obviously without much thought.

  “Alex will contradict that story, you know it.”

  “He’ll choose me.”

  “But you’ve confused him by changing names. What if he chooses the wrong name by accident?”

  “Stop trying to confuse me,” she hissed.

  “Quincy!” Alex yelled, his voice distraught.

  “I’m okay,” I called to him. He really was farther away than before. Our boat had been floating.

  “Pam, put that gun down,” he yelled.

  “Who do you choose?” she screamed through tears.

  “Choose Quincy,” I called out through my own tears. “I love you. It will be okay!”

  The boat jerked and at the same time, an animal-like scream sounded. I heard Alex call my name as Pam made contact and I flew backwards into the water.

  My first instinct was to suck in some air and so I did, but water came in instead. My arms were above my head. I couldn’t bring them down, they just jerked in a crazy, uncontrollable motion up there. I could feel my throat trying to choke the water out, but I couldn’t open my mouth or more water would come in. It was black everywhere, I wouldn’t open my eyes. I tried to kick my legs, but that didn’t seem to do anything. I just kept going down.

  And then two strong arms grabbed onto mine and my spirit shot upwards, toward the surface like a bullet, and my body followed. I knew he had rescued me.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Every once in a while, I get a glimpse of a memory—all the way in the very back of my mind—of what happened after I came out of that water. I remember a speeding boat. So bumpy, that ride.

  Now I’m in a hospital I’ve never been to before. They’re just checking me out, but I have to stay overnight since I did lose consciousness for a time. Alex has gone outside to call my family. For his sake, I hope he does the smart thing and calls my little sister first. She can best massage the story so that nobody panics. Otherwise, if my mother answers the phone—may God help us all.

  A few minutes ago, when Alex was in the room, I asked him how he’d managed to get to me so quickly from where he stood on the dock, in handcuffs, no less. And how he’d pulled me out of the water like that. He said that he didn’t. Before I could tell him it was way past the time for false modesty, K.C. came barging into my room in her signature way.

  “Boss—oh, Quincy! I just don’t know how I can ever forgive myself. It’s all my fault that you’re here. How are you feeling? Can I get you anything?”

  “No, I’m fine. But how could you think this was your fault?”

  “I told Pam where you’d gone when I went to my room to pack. She lied to me and told me that you’d won the game and she needed to find you in order to make it official.”

  “I think she lied to all of us,” I said. “This wasn’t your fault, it was Pam’s.”

  “K.C., I’m curious, exactly where did you see Pam?” Alex asked her.

  “She was in the bathroom of my—well, Kourtnee’s room originally—I heard someone in there and I knocked. I got quite a fright when someone actually opened the door. I asked her how she got in and she told me she’d gone through the connecting room, which was Jill’s originally. Then she showed me another of those secret passages in Jill’s room. I asked her to show me how it worked, and before I knew it, I was locked inside and couldn’t get out. I yelled loud enough for all creation to hear, but no one came.”

  I realized that was probably the “singing” I had heard as I passed her room. The awful realization that I could have possibly stopped all of this before it happened gnawed at me.

  “Now before that anxious look gets stuck on your face permanently, you can forget feeling bad about anything, Boss. I know you. If I’m right, and we know that I am, you’re somehow thinking this was your fault. Well it wasn’t. And, I got to do some exploring that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. I figured out how all of those girls practically just vanished, if they were inside the lodge. There’s a whole system of connected passageways in that place. Straight out of a horror movie or a fantasy, depending on how you look at it.”

  “Did you see any ghosts?” Alex asked.

  “Funny you should ask,” K.C. said. She gathered herself, as if preparing to do the big reveal. She took a deep breath. “No, I didn’t see any ghosts. But I’ll tell you what I did see.” She stopped and looked off at one corner of the room.

  Alex glanced at me, then back at her. She still didn’t say anything.

  “What did you see?” he asked anxiously, like a little kid who couldn’t wait for the end of the story.

  “Hmm? Oh, what was I saying?” She was playing with him now. Payback for all the ribbing about the ghosts was my guess.

  A smile of recognition spread across his face. “Tell me, what did you see in your explorations of the underbelly of the Harmony Lodge?”

  “Oh, just a secret room with all kinds of electronic equipment and doohickeys like that. I found a microphone and a box with labels for different rooms in the lodge. After a little experimenting, I said the Pledge of Allegiance and heard my voice in the next room. It was that room in the basement with all the antiques. Remember, Quincy?”

  I nodded. “So it was Pam who was telling me to get out everywhere I went.”

  “What do you mean?” Alex asked me.

  “Almost since I arrived here, I’ve heard voices telling me to get out.” It didn’t explain the icy chills that accompanied, but those must have been my imagination.

  “Where did you hear them?” K.C. asked.

  “Everywhere. In that room in the basement, in the hallways, on the stairs, outside.”

  “There wasn’t a label for the hallways or stairs. Or anywhere outside.” She looked at me and her mouth turned downward. “You know, I feel just awful about you and Pam and the water. And you, Alex dear. I’d love to know what really happened out there.”

  I looked over at Alex. “The short version is that Pam had a gun and got me into a rowboat. It had a motor on it, but she had me row. I think that bought her some time while someone brought Alex to the dock. Pam had lost her mind. She was wearing my clothes and she’d cut her hair to the same length as mine. She was going to make Alex choose between us. I guess I said something that sent her over the edge and she ran at me and knocked me out of the boat. Alex dove off the dock and pulled me out of the water.”

  “Babe, that’s not what happened.”

  “Tell us what really happened,” K.C. s
aid. “Start from the beginning.”

  He gazed off into the distance while stroking the beard that had developed over the weekend. “Well, I got this job with the state police to investigate an internal affairs matter with the Hillside police department. While I was on the job, I met this girl named Quincy.” He looked at me and winked.

  “Alright, wise guy. Take it from after we went upstairs to pack.”

  He grinned at K.C. and then continued. “Shortly after Quincy left our room to go to the pool, I heard a knock on the door.” He looked back at me. “I thought you’d forgotten something and didn’t have your key. I opened the door and Pam was standing there. She looked weird—I wasn’t sure why—except that she was wearing a jacket. I thought that was strange. But she’s strange.”

  “Very true,” K.C. said.

  “She told me Kourtnee had hurt herself down where they park the golf carts and that I needed to come with her to help. So I jumped up and followed her down the hall and the back stairs. I didn’t even have any shoes on. We went outside that back kitchen door, and there’s a golf cart parked there. We jump in and she drives down, past the carts. I asked her why we didn’t stop and she says sorry, she meant the dock. We get to the dock and she says sorry, that she lied to me to get me down there. I was so annoyed and I go to get out of the cart, but she says stop or I’ll stun you. I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about, so I look back and she’s pointing a taser at me.

  “What?” K.C. exclaimed.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said to Alex.

  “No, I am. This whole trip was my idea and you almost drowned. If she hadn’t pushed you out of the boat, who knows? She could have shot you.”

  I put my hand on his arm. “But she didn’t. This isn’t your fault.”

  “What happened next?” K.C. asked.

  Alex sighed. “She tells me if I try anything, I’ll never see you again. I almost lost my mind. I did everything that she said, I couldn’t risk anything because I didn’t know to what extent she would go, like if she had you on a tripwire or locked in some hole in the ground. I didn’t know.” His eyes got glassy with tears and his voice cracked as he spoke. Dark circles surrounded his gorgeous brown eyes, which were rimmed with red.