by Sarah Barrie
‘Even if that’s true, I just can’t see Paisley hurting Callie. She’s protective of her to a fault.’
‘To keep her on side, to make her grateful. The second thing you need to know is I believe Paisley is likely suffering from a hereditary mental illness.’
‘Is that sort of thing genetic?’ he asked. ‘Besides, what would be the chances of having two children affected by mental illness in the same household? Ned was never completely right, we knew that, but Paisley?’
‘Actually the chances are quite high, but Ned was adopted, remember? His problems are a result of mild Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. His mother was a teenager with a drinking problem that resulted in her making bad decisions, falling pregnant. Her family had money and they wanted the problem resolved. They paid Eileen and Cliff a lot to take him on.’
‘And you think Paisley is suffering from what—schizophrenia? Why?’
‘The average age of onset of schizophrenia in women is much later than men—around twenty-five to thirty. Paisley could have been developing the disorder for some time and not known it. You know she talks to her mother all the time, right? Won’t tell us how to contact her?’
‘Yeah. So?’
‘Eileen Waldron died ten years ago.’
Connor’s breath rushed out on a stunned curse. ‘Are you certain? How could Ned not know?’
‘Absolutely. Apparently the split between Eileen and Cliff was incredibly nasty. When Eileen and Paisley left, Ned chose to stay with Cliff. Eileen made no attempt to contact him again—he’d made his choice and that was that. And I don’t think Paisley is deliberately lying. I think that, regardless of whether or not she acknowledges Eileen is dead, Paisley genuinely believes her mother is talking to her.’
‘What’s the third thing?’
‘Adam has been systematically taking out people who’d in some cases not only moved, but changed their names, their identities. Paisley told us her mother was the only one who kept track of everyone’s movements so she could warn them when Adam got out. And Eileen’s dead. So how did he find them, unless Paisley was in possession of the list and provided that information?’
‘I can kind of see what you’re getting at with Waldron Park. Paisley gets Callie to fund it, then something happens to Callie and she gets the lot. But why would she help Adam kill the others?’
‘Because they stood there and did nothing. That’s what she said. They could have helped that night, but they didn’t. I don’t think she ever forgave them for that. She wanted them to suffer.’
‘But Ava didn’t die. She knows that. How could she side with the monster and want to hurt her now?’
‘I think she saw Adam as a means to an end with the others. Payback. And look at this differently. What happened that night took a toll on her whole life. In many ways, it destroyed it. She may have loved Ava then but it’s very possible that, over the years, that turned to resentment, even hate. Up until Dale’s death, Callie’s life had been close to perfect, while Paisley’s life hadn’t really gone anywhere. If she kills Ava now, she’ll finally be the one who has it all. And you know what tonight is?’
‘Should I?’
‘It’s the winter solstice. The longest night.’
CHAPTER
38
The inky darkness glittered with orange and gold, threads of flame flickering all around, illuminating the edges of her vision. Her eyes focused in on stars while her head throbbed. Biting cold seeped into her skin and caused cramping from the pull of her extended arms and legs. They itched and ached from the tight ropes holding her still. A shadow loomed over her, blocking the stars. A black figure in a hooded cloak. An ugly, smiling face looking down at her from beneath it.
She dragged at her hands and found no give in the rope. Adam’s finger traced the line of her cheek. She flinched, disgusted, as her heart hammered in her chest and fear clutched at her throat.
‘Too bad you’re my sister,’ he said with regret. ‘You always were pretty.’
She turned her head left, right, everywhere. It was the only part of her body that would move. She was on the ground. In the circle. Oh God.
‘You know your mother used to hold séances and medium sessions in the cellar? They used to call things. Dark things.’ He leant down until his lips grazed her ear. ‘We’re going to call them back, Ava.’
Callie choked back a sob. ‘I’m not Ava! Let me go!’ A rumble of thunder warned the change was moving in and a light gust of wind bothered the torches. ‘You’re sick! You think you’ll get away with this? Even if you kill me, they’ll find me, find you. You’ll be back in prison, not playing make-believe!’
Adam grabbed her throat, those black eyes furious. ‘They haven’t got a thing on me! I laid low, waited more than a year to see if Dale would take the rap for Lisa’s murder and you for his. Mitch, Orson and Kaicey had to be put on hold all that time. Different time frames, different states.’
‘Same methodology. You kill the same way, and you only killed the ones who testified. They know it’s you. They’ll prove it’s you.’ Light-headed, she struggled to breathe against his painful hold.
He only smiled. ‘Knowing it and proving it are two different things. Besides, you didn’t testify against me, did you, Ava? Not that they’ll find you. Not here.’ His grip marginally slackened as he sneered. ‘Have you heard the devils? Do you know why we lure them?’
She couldn’t speak.
‘Devils have the most incredible jaw strength. They’ll eat a whole carcass. Demolish it. Bones and all.’ He let her go.
The breath she dragged in was loud and painful.
Paisley knelt over her, traced something on her forehead in oil. Adam disappeared from her line of sight and reappeared with a knife. He pointed it around the circle, chanting.
‘What is he doing?’ Callie whispered.
‘Casting the circle, summoning the spirits,’ Paisley murmured. She smiled gently and moved to the edge of the circle. She pulled out a doll, walked a short distance away to place it on the memorial stone. ‘Front row seat, Mum,’ she said, stroking the doll’s hair. ‘I told you I’d do it. And I will.’
As the doll sat on its perch, the fire reflected in its eyes and the wind tossed its hair. It looked alive; as evil as the act it was witnessing.
Adam crouched beside Callie again. She wanted to beg, but the words wouldn’t come. He grabbed the neckline of her shirt, staggered back. ‘What’s this?’
‘Dad’s amulet.’
Crack.
The breath in Callie’s lungs whooshed out as Adam fell on top of her. Paisley stood over him with a tyre iron dangling from her hand. His blood dripped onto Callie’s throat, trickling to the ground as Paisley dragged him off her.
‘Mum told everyone the amulet was magically charged,’ Paisley said, working quickly to free Callie’s hands, releasing them from their bonds before moving to her feet. ‘That to harm the wearer was to forfeit one’s soul. Crazy, right? She only made it up to stop anyone within the coven giving her any trouble. Apparently, Adam’s psycho enough to believe it, which is why Dad wore it. Why he gave it to you.’
‘I thought you were going to kill me!’ Callie couldn’t stop her teeth rattling as the tremors continued. She could barely make her legs work to stagger out of the way.
‘I would never hurt you!’ Paisley was already dragging at Adam’s heavy, prone figure.
‘He kept calling me Ava.’
‘Because you are. You think you sleepwalked your way to Ava’s hidden things by accident? Dad even padlocked the cellar, because you wandered down there asleep once, got lost in the dark.’
‘No. It’s not me,’ she insisted.
‘He left you a share of Waldron Park, too. The wording in the will was “To my children, and to Eileen’s”. He wasn’t your father, but Eileen was your mother. He didn’t want to love you but he did. And then he met you again, and he didn’t want to love you, but he did.’
‘I’m not Ava! That didn’t happen to me.
’
‘Your father, Adam’s father, took you away. You were so little and damaged from what Adam had done to you that night, you didn’t remember much of anything when you woke up. They worked out a story about a car crash and in time, your father made you believe it.’
‘That thing is not my brother.’
‘Well, not for much longer.’
The way Paisley said it had the panic building in Callie’s chest again. ‘What are you doing? Why are you tying him up like that?’
‘He made me kill our dog and then he dropped you anyway. Didn’t you ever wonder why you hated swimming so much? I could never get you in your own pool.’
Tears mixed with the rain. Her life had been a lie, just like Lisa had told her. She really was Ava. She couldn’t process it. Not there, not yet. ‘It’s awful, Paisley. It is. But what are you doing?’
‘I screamed. I screamed so loud the parents finally heard and I ran to the river. It was so dark, but your little pink pyjama top had snagged in the branches of the tree he’d dropped you from. The adults came. Mitch’s mother was a doctor. She revived you and she and Mum fixed up the damage Adam had done. Your dad put you in the car and drove away. We were never to speak of it. Not ever again. But the hurt, the guilt, were always there. I was the big sister. I’d promised to look after you. But I let him take you. I let him trick me. We lost everything that night. Even you. So I promised Mum before she died that this time, when Adam came back, I would look after you. I’d do a better job.’
‘Your mum is dead?’
‘I hear Mum all the time. Protect Ava, protect Ava. I hear her, I see her. She won’t leave me alone. This is the only way I know for sure he won’t ever hurt you. It’s the only way I can keep my promise.’ When Paisley’s eyes met hers across the flames they looked as wild as Adam’s had.
More thunder, a giant clap of it this time. The wind picked up again, a violent swirl of it that rattled and bent the trees and pulled leaves from branches. Adam came to with a snarl, viciously throwing himself around in an attempt to get free. ‘You bitch!’
‘Stand back,’ Paisley told her. ‘Get out of the circle.’ Then she lifted her hands, began to recite words Callie didn’t understand. Adam’s thrashing became wilder, more desperate. Vile words spilled from his mouth.
‘You don’t know what you’re doing!’ Adam cried out.
Caught up in the terrible ritual, Callie could have sworn it was unnatural, the way the wind tossed the flames, shook the trees. The athame glinted menacingly as Paisley turned it downwards over Adam’s chest.
‘You need to know,’ Paisley said loudly over Adam’s curses and threats, ‘the night before Dale died, we’d gone out to see Lisa, but Adam had already killed her. Dale thought about calling the police but I reminded him everyone had gone to so much trouble to hide, to keep their locations a secret for so long. If we brought it all out in the open, Adam might find them. So he took the photos of Lisa just in case, for evidence, then we buried her. You’ll find her just past the gate to the high paddock. That’s why he was so filthy. It took hours. And he did hit that roo, he wasn’t lying.
‘I turned up with Adam just after he got back. I was going to take you away while Adam killed him. If you hadn’t been fighting, Dale would still have died that day. But you were fighting, and at one point Dale looked up, looked behind me and I saw the panic. I knew he’d seen Adam. That’s why he was so desperate to stop you going outside. I smashed through the glass door and sent you off to get cable ties. Then Adam came in and finished Dale off. It wasn’t anything you did. You didn’t kill him.’
‘Oh my God.’ Callie’s pain cut through the horror, added tears to the rivulets of rain streaming down her face. ‘You helped Adam kill Dale?’
‘You have to understand, he’d stood there that night, the longest night, and watched me kill Pixie, watched Adam drop you in the water and did nothing—except run. He ran away with the others. And then he married you. Almost seven years older than you and he put a ring on your finger while you were still so young.’
‘Paisley, I was twenty-three. I wanted to marry him.’
‘He had no right! Do you know how difficult it was for me to work with him? I had to be close to you to keep an eye on him, but I hated him. I hated all of them.’
‘Oh, God. There’s more, isn’t there?’
‘When I knew Adam was going to be released the second time, I started going to see him. I told him the story about you being dead had been made up to keep you safe from him, that you were alive. That I’d bring you to him. All he had to do was kill the others. I told him with Dale out of the way I could convince you to sell up and invest in Waldron Park. Set it up so he could sacrifice you on the longest night and I would own this place outright. We’d run it like it used to be run. Of course, there’s no real way that could have happened, but this is Adam. His ego tends to get in the way of common sense.’
Callie jolted from her shocked stillness when Adam reared up sharply against the restraints and hissed out more curses. Paisley looked towards the doll, its clothes saturated, its hair limp against its shining face.
‘While he’s alive, he’ll cause death.’
Adam continued to swear, spit, struggle. His eyes gleamed unnaturally in the flames that fought the chaos of the wind and rain. He reminded Callie more of an animal than a man.
‘You need to know I was never going to let Adam hurt you. I wanted him to believe that, but it was never the plan.’ Paisley dropped to her knees, athame raised.
‘I know. Of course I know. Put the knife down. Please!’ Callie begged.
‘Stop!’ Indy’s voice rang out as several torch beams focused on Paisley. ‘I can’t let you kill him, Paisley. I’m sorry. I don’t want to, but I’ll have to shoot if you move.’
‘The voices won’t stop until he’s dead! I need them to stop. I’m tired, I’m done. I need to stop. It’s only right he dies like this. Condemned to hell.’
‘You’re not a killer, Paisley!’ Callie cried. ‘You’re not one of them!’
‘No, I am one of us.’ She laughed harshly. ‘And this is my responsibility.’
She plunged the knife down.
A shot rang out, was lost in a clap of thunder. Paisley got to her feet clutching her damaged shoulder and stared at Adam’s lifeless body, the athame buried in his chest. She smiled serenely. ‘It’ll be okay now, Ava.’ She retreated towards the river. ‘You’re safe. The house is all yours. Look after it. Don’t ever let it be what it was. The ghosts have gone.’ She stumbled back one step too far, and tumbled into the water.
‘No!’ Without thought, Callie leapt in after her. The cold, black confusion of the fast-moving water tossed her violently. As panic clawed at her throat, she managed to grab Paisley’s wrist, fighting hard to reach the bank and find a low tree branch. As she clung to the branch and Paisley, the current pummelled her body, dragging and choking. It froze the blood in her veins and stung her eyes. She could feel herself slipping, but refused to let go.
As Callie’s vision cleared for a moment she saw Paisley—the Paisley who’d been her friend—smile sadly. Then she clasped Callie’s wrist with her free hand and pulled it off hers. She was swept away in an instant.
‘No!’
Callie let go, becoming tangled in debris. Disoriented, she couldn’t tell up from down. Her arms and legs floundered as her lungs exploded. This was the dream, the nightmare that had woken her so many times. Only this time, she knew, if the darkness engulfed her, there’d be no waking up.
A sharp clawing scraped at her arm, then a vice-like grip, a tight band across her middle. She fought it, reason lost to panic, until she felt the press of the warm body, the words in her ear.
‘Callie, it’s Connor. Stop fighting!’
Connor. She twisted in his grip, wrapped herself around him and held on, breathing hard as he somehow kept them above the raging water.
Then there were more hands pulling and hauling and she was on the bank, everything
aching and stinging with cold.
‘Are you all right?’ He hovered over her, dripping and shaking.
‘Yes.’
‘I thought I’d lost you!’ He dragged her into his lap.
‘Bring the cars down!’ Indy called. ‘Get a search team on the river.’
‘I couldn’t hold her,’ Callie choked out. ‘She pulled away.’
‘She didn’t want to come back to face all of this,’ Connor said, holding tight. ‘In her mind, it was done.’
She clung to him as she sobbed, heartbroken.
CHAPTER
39
‘She wasn’t a bad person,’ Callie told Indy as they stood by her car in the driveway. ‘She was just damaged.’
Indy’s smile was sympathetic. ‘I didn’t shoot to kill, Callie.’
‘I know. And I wouldn’t have let her go. She made that decision. I want to bring her back here, bury her ashes at the memorial.’
‘That shouldn’t be a problem.’ Indy turned and opened the car door. ‘I have to get moving. Unfortunately, I’ve got reports to work on. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Thanks. For everything.’
Once in the car, Indy lowered the window. ‘Hey, don’t forget dinner, okay? Thanks to you, we have a restaurant review to celebrate.’
Callie smiled, though it was shadowed. ‘I’ll be there.’
She waved Indy off and answered her phone as it rang. ‘No,’ she told her solicitor, ‘I won’t be giving them the eighty thousand. Tell the Johnsons that before they get a cent, I’ll be countersuing over the nearly hundred thousand in loans from the business they’ve accumulated over the years. Yes, I have the relevant documentation. And of course, I’ll be happy to drop my suit should they decide to drop theirs. You too, goodbye.’