Jared helped her stand up. “Mama says I look just like him.”
Sara couldn’t stop the tears streaming down her face. “When did you find out?”
“It’s kind of hard to hide.”
She laughed, the sound high-pitched and desperate in her ears. “What are you doing here?”
He glanced at Will. Sara hadn’t noticed him walk up. He stood a few feet away, obviously trying not to intrude. She told him, “This is …” She forced herself to say the name. “This is Jeffrey’s son, Jared Long. Jared, this is Will.”
Will’s hands were shoved deep in his pockets. He nodded at the boy. “Jared.”
“Why are you here?” Sara asked. “Is it because of Frank?”
Jared scratched his eyebrow with his thumb and forefinger. Sara had seen Jeffrey make the same gesture countless times. It meant he was upset, but didn’t quite know how to talk about it. Jared looked at Will again. There was something going on between them that Sara couldn’t follow.
She repeated her question. “Why are you here?”
Jared’s voice cracked. “Her car is here. I don’t know where she is.”
“Who?” Sara asked, but she already knew the answer. Lena’s Celica was still in the lot.
“She was supposed to be home six hours ago.” He directed his words to Will. “I’ve been to the hospital. I tried to get in touch with Frank. I can’t find anybody who knows where she is.”
“No,” Sara breathed.
“Aunt Sara—” Jared reached for her but she put her hand flat to his chest, holding him back.
“You can’t be seeing her.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t care. It’s wrong.”
He reached for her again. “Aunt Sara—”
She stepped back, stumbling into Will. “You can’t do this.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Not what I think?” she demanded, her voice rising in anger. “What am I thinking, Jared? That you’re sleeping with the woman who murdered your father?”
“It’s not like—”
Will grabbed Sara by her waist as she lunged at Jared. “She killed him!” Sara screamed, pushing Will away. “She killed your father!”
“He killed himself!”
She raised her hand to slap his face. Jared stood absolutely still, facing her, waiting for the blow. For her part, Sara felt frozen. She couldn’t strike him, but she couldn’t drop her hand, either. It divided the air between them like a knife waiting to fall.
“He was a cop,” Jared said. “He knew what the dangers were.”
She dropped her hand, because now she really wanted to hurt him. “Is that what she told you?”
“It’s what I know, Aunt Sara. My father loved being a cop. He was doing his job, and it got him killed.”
“You don’t know who she really is. You’re too young to understand what she’s capable of.”
“I’m not too young to know I love her.”
His words were like a punch to her chest. “She killed him,” Sara whispered. “You don’t know what she took from me. From you.”
“I know more than you think.”
“No, you don’t.”
Jared’s voice turned sharp. “He was doing his job, and he pissed off the wrong people, and nobody could’ve stopped him. Not you, not Lena, not me, not anybody. He made his own decisions. He was his own man. And he was stubborn as hell. Once he made up his mind, there was no talking him out of doing exactly what he wanted to do.”
Sara didn’t realize she was backing up until she felt Will behind her. She gripped his arm, forcing herself not to falter. “She’s twisted the story to fool you into feeling sorry for her.”
“That’s not how it is.”
“She’s a master at manipulating people. You can’t see that now, but it’s true.”
“Stop saying that.” Jared tried to take her hand. “I love her. And Jeffrey loved her, too.”
Sara couldn’t speak to him anymore. She couldn’t be here. She turned into Will, burying her head in his chest. “Get me out of here. Please, just take me home.”
Jared said, “You can’t leave. I need your help.”
Will kept his arm around Sara as he guided her across the street.
Jared jogged to keep up. “You’ve gotta help me find her. I don’t know where she is.”
Will’s voice was hard. “You need to move on, son.”
“Somebody sliced her tires. She’s not answering her cell phone.”
Will kept his arm around Sara, helping her up the hill. She looked down at the grass on the front lawn. The roots had been washed out. Clumps of mud slipped beneath her shoes.
Jared said, “She called me on her cell at six o’clock. She said she’d be home in an hour.” He tried to block their path, but Will swept him away with one hand. “She quit her job!” he screamed. “She told me she quit!”
They had reached the clinic parking lot. Will opened the car door and helped Sara inside.
Jared slammed his hand on the hood. “Come on! She’s missing! Something’s wrong!” He rushed around the car and got on his knees in front of the open door. His hands pressed together as if in prayer. “Please, Aunt Sara. Please. You’ve got to help me find her. Something’s wrong. I know something’s wrong.”
There was so much anguish in his face that Sara felt herself falter. She looked at Will, saw the concern in his expression.
His voice was low, steady, when he told her, “She hasn’t checked in with me.”
Jared was crying. “Please, just check the clinic for me. I know her hand was hurting her this morning. Maybe she went for help. Maybe she fell down or she’s sick or—”
Sara closed her eyes for a moment, trying to separate her emotions. She wanted so badly to leave, to never hear the name Lena Adams again as long as she lived.
Will said, “Sara.” Not a question, more like an admission of guilt.
“Go,” she told him. There was no use fighting it.
Will cupped his hand to her face so she would look at him. “I’ll be right back, okay? I’m just going to check the clinic for him.”
Sara didn’t respond. He closed the car door and she leaned back in the seat. The engine was off now, but the moon was so bright in the sky that she didn’t need the headlights to see the two men at the front door of the clinic. Lena didn’t even have to be present to control the men in her life. She was like a succubus, her siren song clouding their logic.
Will glanced at Sara as he turned the key in the lock. She studied Jared with some detachment. He was thinner than his father. His shoulders hadn’t filled out. His hair was longer than Jeffrey had kept it, more the length he’d worn in high school. An image flashed in her head: Lena’s hand gripping Jared’s hair. She had taken everything now. Her path of destruction had ripped through every part of Jeffrey’s legacy.
Sara turned her head as the two men went inside the clinic. She couldn’t look at Jared anymore. It hurt too much. It hurt too much to even be here. She slid over the console and got behind the steering wheel. She pressed the button to start the engine. Nothing happened. Will had taken the key with him.
Sara got out of the car, leaving the door open. She looked up at the full moon. The glow was remarkably bright, illuminating the ground in front of her. She remembered a Civil War letter Jeffrey had read to her a long time ago. It was written by a lonely wife to her soldier husband. She was wondering whether or not the same moon was shining down on her lover.
Sara walked to the back of the clinic. There was a sign with Hare’s name on it, but her anger about the drug study had long dissipated. She couldn’t dredge up any sympathy for Allison Spooner or Jason Howell or even poor Tommy Braham, who had somehow gotten caught in the middle of it. All of her emotions had dwindled to a dull ache. Even her hatred for Lena was gone. Trying to stop her was tilting at windmills. There was nothing Sara could do to stop her. If the world fell down, Lena would still be standing.
She would outlive them all.
The yard behind the clinic was a mud pit. Elliot hadn’t bothered to keep up anything. The picnic tables were gone, the swing set dismantled. The wildflowers Sara had planted with her mother were long dead. She stood on the bank of the stream. It was a river now, the shush of churning waters drowning out all sound. The big maple that had given so much shade over the years had fallen into the current. Its canopy barely touched the opposite side of the shore. As Sara watched, chunks of earth fell into the water and were quickly whisked away. Her father had taken her fishing on these shores. There was a field of large rocks a half mile down where catfish swam in and out of the eddies. Tessa had loved climbing on top of the granite to lie in the sun. Some of the boulders were as high as ten feet tall. Sara guessed they were underwater now. Everything in this town, no matter how strong, eventually got washed away.
Sara heard a branch snap behind her. She turned around. A woman in a pink nurse’s uniform stood a few feet away. She was out of breath. Her makeup was smeared, mascara ringing dark circles under her eyes. The plastic red nails on her fingers were chipped and broken.
“Darla,” Sara realized. She hadn’t seen Frank’s oldest daughter in years. “Are you all right?”
Darla seemed reticent. She glanced over her shoulder. “You heard about Daddy, I guess.”
“Is he still refusing to go to the hospital?”
She nodded, again looking behind her. “Maybe you could help me work on him, get him to let them run some tests.”
“I’m probably not the best person for that job right now.”
“He piss you off?”
“No, I just—” Sara felt logic start to intrude. It was almost three in the morning. There was no conceivable reason for Darla to be here. “What’s going on?”
“My car broke down.” Darla glanced over her shoulder for a third time. She wasn’t looking at the clinic. She was looking at the police station. “Can you give me a lift to Daddy’s?”
Sara felt her body reacting to a danger she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Her heart was pounding. Her mouth was spitless. This wasn’t right. None of this was right.
Darla indicated Sara should walk ahead of her to the parking lot. Her tone turned hard. “Let’s go.”
Sara put her hand to the back of her neck, thinking about Allison Spooner at the lake, the way her head had been held down while the knife sliced into her throat. “What have you done?”
“I just need to get out of here, all right?”
“Why?”
Darla’s tone turned even harsher. “Just give me the key to your car, Sara. I don’t have time for this.”
“What did you do to those kids?”
“The same thing I’m going to do to you if you don’t give me that fucking key.” There was a glint of light at Darla’s waist, then a knife was in her hand. The blade was about three and a half inches long. The tip was sharpened to a menacing point. “I don’t want to hurt you. Just give me the key.”
Sara took another step back. Her foot sank into the sandy shore. Panic gripped her throat like a hand. She had seen what Darla could do with the knife. She knew the woman had no qualms about killing.
“Give me the key.”
Sara heard the roar of the river swelling behind her. Where was Will? What was taking so long? She looked left and right, trying to decide whether to run.
“Don’t,” the woman said, guessing her thoughts. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want the key.”
Sara could barely speak. “I don’t have it.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Darla checked the station again. She hadn’t once looked at the clinic. Either she had already taken care of Will and Jared or she didn’t know they were still inside. “Don’t be stupid, honey. You’ve seen what I can do.”
Sara’s voice shook as she asked, “What happens if I give it to you?”
Darla stepped forward, closing the space between them. The blade was steady in her hand. She was less than three feet away now. Within striking distance. “Then you can walk home to your mama and daddy and I’ll be gone.”
Sara felt a momentary sense of relief before the truth hit her. It couldn’t work that way. They both knew Sara wouldn’t go home. She’d cross the street to the police station and tell them everything that had happened. Darla wouldn’t make it to the city limits before every squad car in the county surrounded her.
The woman repeated, “Give me the key.” Without warning, she slashed the blade through the air. The metal made a whistling sound as it passed in front of Sara’s face. “Now, dammit.”
“Okay! Okay!” Sara put her trembling hand in her pocket, but her eyes were on the knife. “I’ll give you the key if you tell me why you killed them.”
Darla stared at her in cold appraisal. “They were blackmailing me.”
Sara took a small step back. “The study?”
Her arm relaxed, but the blade was still close. “Students kept dropping out, not showing up when they were supposed to. I got Jason to double up his blood work and do an extra journal. He pulled Allison into it, then they got Tommy involved. We were gonna split the money fifty-fifty. Then they got greedy and decided they wanted all of it.”
Sara could not take her eyes off the knife. “You were trying to frame Jason for killing Allison.”
“You always were smart.”
“Did Hare know?”
“Why do you think I’m leaving town? He found Tommy’s paperwork. Said he was going to report it to the ethics panel.” For the first time, she showed remorse. “I didn’t mean for Tommy to get hurt. He didn’t know anything about it. I couldn’t have them looking too hard at the case reports.”
“Tommy doubled up on his pills,” Sara guessed. “He was enrolled twice, so he took twice the dose. That’s why his moods were altered. That’s why he killed himself, isn’t it?”
“I’m done fucking around with you.” She straightened her arm. The knife was a few inches from Sara’s throat. “Give me the key.”
Sara allowed herself a glance back at the clinic. The door was still closed. “I don’t have it.”
“Don’t lie to me, bitch. I saw you in the car.”
“I don’t—”
Darla lunged. Sara stepped back, holding up her arm in defense. She felt the blade slice open her skin, but no pain followed. All she could feel was heart-stopping panic as the ground under her feet suddenly gave way, sending them both tumbling backward.
Sara’s back slammed into the ground. Darla reared up, the knife raised above her head. Sara tried to scramble, instinctively rolling onto her stomach before she realized this was exactly the position Allison Spooner had been in when the blade plunged into her neck. Sara tried to roll back over, but Darla’s weight was too much. She gripped the back of Sara’s neck. Sara pushed with her hands, kicked with her feet, did whatever she could to get out from under the woman.
Instead of feeling the blade sink into her flesh, Sara felt the earth tremble, the ground again give way beneath her. There was another feeling of free fall. The roar of the river got louder as she fell face-first into the icy water. Sara gasped as the cold enveloped her. Water poured into her mouth and lungs. She couldn’t tell which direction was up. Her feet and hands found no purchase. She flailed, trying to find air, but something was holding her down.
Darla. She could feel the woman’s hands gripping her waist, fingers digging into her skin. Sara struggled, pounding her hands into the woman’s back. Her lungs were screaming in her chest. She brought up her knee as hard as she could. Darla’s hold loosened. Sara pushed herself up to the surface, gulping air.
“Help!” she yelled. “Help!” Sara screamed the word so loud that her throat was raw from the effort.
Darla shot into the air beside her, mouth gaping open, eyes wide with panic. Her hand clamped around Sara’s arm. The riverbank was a blur as the current shot them downstream. Sara dug her nails into the back of Darla’s hand. Debris slapped against her head. Leaves.
Twigs. Limbs. Darla held tight. She had never been a good swimmer. She wasn’t trying to pull Sara down. She was holding on for her life.
The water changed from a low roar to a deafening scream. The rock field. The jutting granite stones Tessa and Sara had climbed as children. She saw them up ahead, scattered like teeth waiting to rip them in two. Water split around sharp edges. The current turned violent as it hurtled them forward. Thirty feet. Twenty feet. Sara grabbed Darla under her arm and pulled as hard as she could, thrusting her forward. The crack of the woman’s skull against the granite reverberated like a ringing bell. Sara slammed into her. Her shoulder crunched. Her head exploded.
Sara fought the dizziness that wanted to take over. She tasted blood in her mouth. She wasn’t moving downstream anymore. Her back was pinned to a large crevice in the rock. White water pounded against her chest, making it impossible for her to move. Darla’s hand was trapped between Sara’s back and the granite. Her lifeless body waved like a tattered flag. Her skull was open, river water flooding into the gash. Sara could feel the woman’s hand slipping. There was a violent jerk, then the current whisked her downstream.
Sara coughed. Water poured into her open mouth, flooded up her nose. She reached above her head, feeling flat stone. She had to turn around. She had to find a way to climb on top of the rock. Sara bent her knees and braced the soles of her feet against the granite. She tried to push up. Nothing happened. She screamed, trying again and again with the same result. The water was peeling her off the rock. She was sliding, losing her grip. Her head dipped beneath the surface. She struggled to stay up. Every muscle in her body shook from the effort. It was too much. Her shoulder screamed with pain. Her thighs were aching. Her fingers were losing their grip. There was no fighting it. The water was too strong. Her body continued sliding down the rock. Sara took a deep breath, gulping in air just before her head dipped below the surface. The constant sound of the rushing water turned to complete and total silence.
Sara pressed her lips tightly together. Her hair floated out in front of her. She could see the moon above her, the bright light somehow managing to pierce the water’s edge. The rays were like fingers reaching toward her. She heard something underneath the quiet in her ears. The river had a voice, a gurgling, soothing voice that held a promise that things would be better on the other side. The current was speaking to her, telling her it was okay to let go. Sara realized with some shock that she wanted to. She wanted to just give in, to go to that place where Jeffrey was waiting for her. Not heaven. Not some earthly ideal, but a place of quiet and comfort where the thought of him, the memory of him, did not open like a fresh wound every time she breathed. Every time she walked in the places they walked. Every time she thought of his beautiful eyes, his mouth, his hands.
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