by Jane Blythe
“Isabella made soup,” she murmured tiredly. “It’s in the fridge.”
“All right, I’ll get you some; you just stay here and try to rest.” Leaving her there, he went to the kitchen and dished up two bowls of soup, heated them in the microwave, then took them both back to the lounge room and set them on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Here you go,” he passed Sofia a bowl.
She clutched it with one hand, the other lifting a spoon to her mouth, but her hands shook so much that she sloshed the soup.
“Here, I got it,” setting aside his own bowl, he gently took the spoon from her, filled it again, then brought it to her lips.
“I'm sorry,” she mumbled after she swallowed the mouthful. Her eyes dipped, embarrassed.
“For what?” hooking a finger under her chin, tipping her face up so she was looking at him again. “You don’t need to be sorry for needing help, you haven’t eaten in a day, no wonder you're feeling weak.” Ryan fed her several more mouthfuls; she’d finished about half the bowl before her eyes got so heavy she could hardly hold them open. “You ready for bed?”
“Let’s just stay here,” she reached for his hands and tugged him toward her.
Stretching out on the couch beside her, she snuggled against him, a moment later her breathing evened out as she drifted off to sleep. Exhaustion had his own eyes closing, he hadn’t eaten any of the soup but he wasn't really hungry anyway, just tired, he was almost asleep when Sofia jerked up.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked, instantly wide awake.
“I'm going to be sick,” Sofia tried to stand, but her knees buckled.
Catching her as she fell, he murmured, “I got you.” He quickly picked her up and carried her to the downstairs bathroom, setting her down in front of the toilet and holding back her hair as she threw up. Sofia was sick again and again, until at last she slumped down to the floor, barely conscious.
“Baby, what's wrong with you?” Ryan said to himself as he wet a cloth and wiped at Sofia’s sweat-streaked face. He had told her that he believed that the doctors would find out what was wrong with her, and he had believed it at the time. But now he wasn’t so sure.
Now he was worried that even if they caught Logan before he tried to kill Sofia again, he was going to lose her anyway.
And that he could not accept.
He already had one woman he loved die; he wasn’t going to let it happen again.
* * * * *
9:47 A.M.
Ryan hoped he’d find something helpful here.
He wanted to run a DNA test to prove that Isabella was Logan’s daughter. They needed to start building a case against Logan that wasn’t just circumstantial, and he was hoping this could help.
When he had left for the Everette estate, he’d left Sofia with Paige. This time he’d done things the right way. Woken Sofia up, told her what he was planning on doing, and that Paige was going to pick her up and take her to the station. That was the safest place he could think of for her. Logan was almost done. There were only Sofia and Isabella left alive. But in the police station, surrounded by cops, with his partner keeping a watchful eye on her, she would be safe. Ryan hadn't told Sofia yet but he intended to keep her there until Logan was found.
Parking in front of the mansion, things looked quiet. Crime scene had finished with the house, and since Isabella was with Sofia at the station, it should be empty.
It shouldn’t take him long to retrieve something from Isabella’s room. He would have asked the girl for her hairbrush or toothbrush, but he hadn't wanted to tell her what they were thinking until they had proof. Isabella was already going through enough, and it wasn’t worth turning her world upside down if they were wrong.
He headed straight for the fifth floor, Isabella’s floor. There were so many twisting hallways up here, so many bedrooms and bathrooms, that even with Sofia’s directions it took him several minutes to locate Isabella’s room.
The room was virtually empty, but for a bed, a wardrobe, and a dresser. The only other things in the room were bookshelves. They lined two full walls and were stuffed to the brim with hundreds of books. Ryan perused the titles; there was fiction and non-fiction, a range of genres, and every topic one could think of.
Isabella was a strange girl. So quiet and serious. Ryan hadn't seen her smile once, given the current circumstances that was understandable but he got the feeling it wasn’t unusual. He guessed a lot more went on inside Isabella’s head than anyone realized. When this was over, he was going to suggest to Sofia that they get Isabella to talk to a psychiatrist. With everything that had happened she was bound to be traumatized, especially if it turned out that Logan was her father and that he had killed her family and her biological mother.
He was going to make sure Sofia got some counseling, too. Ryan didn’t like her blaming herself for her brother’s actions.
Right now, though, they had to end this.
In the bathroom, he collected Isabella's toothbrush and was about to drop it into an evidence bag when it slipped and clattered to the floor. As he stooped to pick it up, he noticed something tucked away on the bottom shelf of the cabinet. Curious, he bent to get a closer look.
Shocked when he saw what it was, Ryan pulled it out. Confirming that he’d been right. They were DNA test kits.
What would Isabella need with DNA test kits?
And whose DNA was she testing?
Her own?
Maybe Sofia was wrong; maybe Isabella did know that Brooke was her mother. Perhaps even that Logan was her father.
A tiny spark of suspicion ignited inside him.
Why would Isabella even think to do a DNA test on herself? And why wouldn’t she tell someone what she had found? Confront the judge and Gloria for lying to her?
He wondered what else Isabella was hiding in her room.
Starting his search, nothing else turned up in the bathroom, so he moved on to the bedroom. There weren’t many places to look. He checked under the bed and mattress, nothing. Then the dresser, again nothing. The wardrobe, too, was empty. He eyed the bookshelves. There were a lot of them and even more books. To go through them all would take hours. For now, he’d just do a brief check, maybe see if there was anything hidden behind the books.
Quickly, be began to rifle through the shelves, tearing books off the shelves, until he came to an abrupt stop halfway through the second wall. There was a small door.
Eagerly, he slipped on gloves, then yanked it open. Inside there were several discs and a book. Taking them out, his blood ran cold.
The book was about mushrooms.
Poisonous mushrooms.
Sofia’s mysterious illness.
Isabella had been poisoning Sofia.
A wave of anger so strong his vision turned red rushed through him, and he nearly slammed his fist through the wall.
He fought through the rage, breathing deeply until his eyesight cleared. He needed to remain calm. If Isabella, and not Logan, was behind all of this, then she would pay. He would make sure of it. No one would mess with Sofia and get away with it.
Grabbing the discs, he went looking for the nearest DVD player. Ryan had a sinking feeling that whatever was on these tapes was going to be proof of Isabella’s guilt. And as much as he wanted to find this killer and end this, he knew it would break Sofia’s heart to find out that the only member of her family that she trusted was a murderer. She had come to terms with Logan being the killer, but not Isabella.
Recalling that there had been a large TV screen and DVD player in the library, he made his way back downstairs. Popping in a disc, his heart stopped when an image of Sofia, asleep in her bed, filled the screen. He breathed through another wave of fury. Isabella had been secretly filming Sofia as she slept. Invading her privacy in a place where she should have been safe.
On the screen, Sofia tossed and turned in her bed, then her voice suddenly filled the room. As Ryan listened to Sofia talk in her sleep, he realized that Isabella knew everything. When her
mind was relaxed in sleep, Sofia had revealed everything she had buried deep in her subconscious.
Switching to another disc, this one also revealed a sleeping Sofia. Going to the third, a shot of the basement filled the screen this time.
The secret room.
Just as it had been when Sofia showed it to them. The grave markers on the floor. The bed over in the corner. Only this time the bed wasn’t empty.
This time the bed was occupied by a girl.
A naked girl.
She couldn’t have been more than sixteen.
She had long red hair and pale white skin.
As he watched, Logan entered the room. Ryan couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it looked as though he was taunting the girl. Logan took off his pants and climbed on top of her and Ryan had to avert his eyes; he couldn’t watch Logan rape the girl.
When he looked back, the girl was off the bed and standing before Logan. He had a knife in his hand and was stabbing her over and over again. Her arms were waving wildly, attempting, albeit pointlessly, to fight him off. Eventually, her body folded and she dropped to the floor. Logan didn’t stop. Stabbing her at least a dozen more times before he finally stood over the now dead girl, both of them drenched in blood.
Isabella had known what Logan was doing, and she hadn't said anything to anyone. Apparently, she had decided instead to take matters into her own hands. Decided that she had to kill their entire family and frame Logan.
But that wasn’t what was making Ryan shake with terror.
It was the fact that the girl he had just watched Logan kill looked exactly like Sofia.
Sofia had said that Logan had never touched her.
However, she had buried her memories of what she had seen him doing, so it was completely plausible that she had buried this too.
Sofia was very likely one of Logan’s victims.
* * * * *
11:56 A.M.
“Cause of death on Judge Everette?” Belinda asked Frankie.
“The shot to the head,” Frankie replied. “He was shot two other times, once in the shoulder and once in the leg, before the fatal wound to the head.”
Paige was watching Ryan as the ME elaborated in more detail about the wounds Logan Everette II had received just prior to death. Her partner had been subdued, almost withdrawn, since he had returned from the Everette estate. Paige didn’t think that he could be worried about Sofia’s safety. From the second she’d collected Sofia this morning, she’d kept a close eye on her. She’d chattered away with her in the car to try and keep her a little distracted from what she was going through. Once she’d gotten Sofia safely to the station, she had set her up at Ryan’s desk so she could keep watch over her while she worked.
She hadn't just kept such a close eye on Sofia for Ryan’s sake, because she knew it would kill him if anything happened to her, but she was genuinely concerned about Sofia’s safety. Logan was almost done. There were only Sofia and Isabella left now. And he had to know that the police were closing in on him. That would probably make him desperate. And desperate people did desperate things. The more desperate a killer was, the more dangerous they were.
Something was going on with Ryan, and as soon as they finished this meeting, Paige intended to grill him on it.
She tuned back in to the conversation.
“Looks like the killer chased him through the woods,” Frankie was saying. “Shoulder wound first, then the leg wound. Dirt under his fingernails and on his clothes, looks like he dragged himself through the woods heading for the house, cut up his hands and face in the process. Then the killer caught up to him and killed him.”
“Suffering and death again,” Paige muttered.
“Yep,” Frankie nodded. “Just like the others.”
“All right,” Belinda said wearily, “any leads on where Logan may be hiding out?”
“We checked out all the properties and businesses that the Everettes own; so far, nothing,” Paige answered. “But the guy is beyond rich, so I'm sure he has plenty of money to hole himself up somewhere until this all blows over.”
“Only he isn’t holed up somewhere,” Belinda snapped. “He’s still out there killing. He’s killed his father and tried to kill Isabella.”
Something flashed across Ryan’s face at the mention of Isabella. Paige was about to question him on it when Belinda continued.
“Where’s Stephanie?”
“Here she is,” Stephanie bustled through the door backwards, a large stack of folders and papers in her arms.
“Where have you been?” Belinda demanded as she stood to take Stephanie’s armload of files.
“Talking with Sofia,” she replied before taking a seat. “You know she’s out there going through missing persons files to see if she can identify any of the women she saw in her basement.”
“We know,” Paige told her. When they’d gotten to the station, Sofia had been desperate to do something to keep her mind occupied, specifically something to help with their investigation, so Paige had asked her to see if she recognized any of her brother’s victims. “She’s already identified two.”
“She’s amazing,” Stephanie smiled. “Under the same circumstances, I don’t think I'd have the strength to do it.”
“Ryan, you’ve been unusually quiet,” Belinda observed.
“Yeah, what’s up with you?” Paige demanded, shooting him a concerned frown, she’d expected him to spring back to life at the mention of Sofia’s name. “You’ve been in a weird mood since you got back from the estate. What did you find there?”
Instead of answering, Ryan looked to Stephanie, “Did you find them?”
Apologetic, Stephanie responded, “Yeah, sorry.”
“Find what?” Paige looked from one to the other.
Her partner ignored her, “Fingerprints?”
“Yes,” Stephanie nodded.
“Hers?” Ryan asked.
“Yes.”
“You didn’t tell Sofia, did you? When you were talking to her just now?” Ryan’s blue eyes were piercing as they stared at Stephanie.
“Relax,” she soothed. “No, I didn’t tell her. I assumed you wanted to be the one to break it to her.”
“Do you two want to let us in on your conversation?” Belinda frowned, frustrated.
“It’s your theory,” Stephanie said to Ryan.
Sighing and dragging his hands down his face. “I don’t think the killer is Logan; I think it’s Isabella.”
Paige felt her mouth drop open in shock. Belinda and Frankie were staring at Ryan too. “You think what now?” Paige asked, wondering how he had jumped from Logan, who they already knew for a fact was a killer, to Isabella, the quiet and serious teenager.
“Because of what I found at the estate.”
“Which was?” Belinda tapped her watch impatiently.
“DNA test kits, a book on poisonous mushrooms, and some DVDs,” Ryan summarized.
“Sofia’s been poisoned with mushrooms, that’s why she’s been so sick,” Paige shook her head in disbelief. “The soup?” Ryan had called her an hour ago to tell her not to let Sofia eat any soup. Paige had assumed it was just because Sofia had been unwell overnight, but it seemed she was wrong.
Ryan nodded, “I'm assuming so. Sofia said that Isabella makes her soup, and last night after I gave her some, she started throwing up. I found the DNA kits in Isabella’s bathroom, and the book and DVDs hidden in a secret compartment behind her books.”
“What was on the DVDs?” Frankie asked.
“Footage of Sofia sleeping,” Ryan replied tightly.
Her partner was furious, but trying to contain it, Paige realized. That was why he had been so odd ever since he had returned from the Everettes. That Isabella had been deliberately making Sofia ill and filming her while she slept was killing him. “Sofia was talking in her sleep? About what she’d seen her brother doing in the basement?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied, voice still tight. If Ryan held himself any tighter
together, he was going to explode.
“Maybe Logan was just hiding stuff in her room, since she would be our least likely suspect,” Paige suggested.
“No,” Ryan shook his head adamantly. “She put the cameras in Sofia’s room.”
“Isabella’s fingerprints are on them,” Stephanie confirmed. “She set them up, she watched the DVDs, she knows what Logan did.”
“That doesn’t make her the killer,” Paige wasn’t yet convinced that Isabella had done all of this.
“Then why poison Sofia?” Ryan demanded angrily. “If she's capable of that, then she’s capable of the rest of it.”
Paige was unable to argue with that. It showed premeditation. She had to research how to poison Sofia, choose something that would give the desired results, then source it. If she could do that, then it wasn’t a stretch for her to have planned and executed everything else. “Let’s interview her,” Paige proposed. “She's right outside with Sofia.”
“Uh, no she’s not,” Stephanie shook her head. “When I came in, it was just Sofia out there.”
Ryan looked panicked. “Isabella's gone? Sofia is all that’s left. Isabella will be coming after her next. She does not leave this building.”
“Try to calm down,” Paige said soothingly. “Sofia is safe, and she’s going to remain that way. No one’s letting her walk out of this building on her own. All right, so Isabella knows what Logan does, and she’s been poisoning Sofia. What about the attack on her? Any chance she could have faked that, Stephanie?”
“Yes,” Stephanie considered. “If she timed it properly. The knot on the rope around her neck was in front, so she could easily have tied it herself. And the rope around her wrists could have been tied by her too, it would have been difficult, but not impossible. And after reviewing the attack on Logan, I don’t think he could have done it to himself. He had both arms crossed over his chest, he couldn’t have taped himself up that way.”
“But Logan did kill the women in the basement?” Belinda confirmed.
“Sofia remembers seeing him down there, and he’s on Isabella’s DVDs raping and killing a girl,” Ryan replied.