Safe From the Dark (25 page)

CRACK!

Evie
screamed and went down, and Colin watched in shock. His worst fear was coming
true, right before his eyes.

Candace
climbed in and peeled out, driving one handed, her gun trained on his groin.

“Try
anything and I’ll permanently disable that cock you use so freely.”

Colin
looked back over his shoulder and said a silent prayer because, behind him,
Evie was picking herself off the ground, clutching her arm, and racing for her
gun. Down, but not yet out. The relief was so intense it made him dizzy.

“Where
are we going?”

“Somewhere
we can be alone.”

SON
OF A BITCH.
Evie
ripped part of her shirt to make a tourniquet. The bullet had just grazed her
arm, but it still hurt like fuck.

The
truck had rounded the bend by the time she had her weapon up.

“Shit!”

Millicent
pulled herself to her feet, shaky.

“She
was here when I arrived.”

“I
know. It’s okay.”

Evie
kicked the side of the house in frustration, pulling out her phone.

“You
couldn’t have done anything,” continued Millicent, “She was going to kill him.”

“She’s
going to kill him anyway,” said Evie, and dialed.

THE
DINER WAS PACKED.

“I
don’t know about this, Tony,” muttered Evie, anxiety seeping into her with each
scornful look or gossipy whisper.

“The
roads in and out of town are blocked. She’s holding him somewhere in this
town.”

“Yeah,
but detective work by committee doesn’t seem like the greatest idea in the world.”
Evie flexed her newly bandaged arm, wincing.

Jocelyn’s
hands had been shaky as she patched Evie up. It was the first time Evie had
ever seen her rattled. She had promised the petite doctor that she would move
Heaven and Hell to bring Colin home safe. And she meant it.

Tony
clapped his hands.

“Okay,
people, listen up! By now you all know the situation – ”

A
chorus of disapproval and shock as each resident of Bright’s Ferry tried to
express their horror over the discovery that one of their own was a deranged
killer. Tony flapped his hands for quiet, and they settled down.

“We
called you here because we don’t have very much time. Candace Wilkinson has
taken Colin somewhere within the city limits, and we need your help to find
them. His life could be in danger. I’ve already got teams scouring the hills,
but you’ve all known Candace for decades, so what we need from you is some
insight. Where would she take him?”

There
was a rumbling of quiet anxiety as the locals discussed the problem, and then
Dreyer Morton stepped up.

“She
likes the movies. Try the theater.”

There
were nods of approval, and Evie sighed internally. Apparently if you were the
richest man in town, your reputation wasn’t going to be dented by the fact that
you occasionally shacked up with a psychotic killer.

The
suggestions started flowing.

“Town
Hall.”

“The
library.”

Zeke
was busily writing down the half-dozen suggestions, but Evie looked at Tony,
despairing as the list grew – there was no way they could cover all of these
locations.

“It’s
not enough,” Evie said.

“We’re
thinking as fast as we can, young lady,” said a little old man, frowning at
her. “And shame on you,” he continued under his breath, “your grandmother would
be so upset.”

Evie
steeled herself and continued.

“There’s
no way the police can search all of these places. We need volunteers to go
in
groups
, to check them out. But if you see anything out of the ordinary, do
not, I repeat,
do not
go inside. This is not the woman you knew and
respected. This is a woman who will have no trouble killing you, or killing
Colin, in the most brutal manner possible.”

There
were whispers now, and Evie could see the indecision flashing across many faces
in the room. And then Jocelyn stood up, bless her.

“Of
course I’ll help.”

Grace
joined her, but stiffened as Matt Harris followed suit.

“Me
too.”

Slowly,
the whispers turned to nods, and Evie felt a pang as the town decided to put
aside their antagonism to help her find Colin.

Tony
offered a few more strict instructions, and the groups filed out, promising to
check in every fifteen minutes.

Zeke
was quiet, absently tapping his list with a pencil. Evie was coming to
interpret his expressions well – the kid had good instincts.

“What’s
up, Zeke?”

“Well,
she’s not going to take him to Town Hall or the library or any place like that,
is she?”

Evie
thought about it.

“She’s
going to want to take him someplace personal to her, but something out of the
way.”

“Do
you think,” Zeke gulped, “Do you think he’s still alive?”

Evie
quaked inside, but nodded, firm.

“She
doesn’t really want him dead. She wants him to understand and agree with her. She’s
only going to kill him if he gives her what she wants and she has no more use
for him. Or if he pushes her to the point that she just can’t stand it
anymore.”

For
once in your life, Colin, don’t push back,
she prayed.

Mary
was still leaning on the counter, thoughtful.

“I’ve
known Candace my whole life. She always was a cold thing, but I never thought
she’d do something like this.”

“What
was she like as a child?”

“Quiet.
Clean. I never saw such a neat child. Her mama was the same. Died when she was
a teenager. Word was she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, but we always
figured that bastard husband of hers was to blame. Can’t tell you the times I
saw him pushing her around, and Candace was always covered in bruises. He died
in an accident down at the docks while she was in college.”

“He
was a fisherman?” Evie struggled, trying to put all the pieces together. She
wasn’t surprised to learn that Candace had had a difficult childhood – that
always left scars of some sort, as she was well aware. Of course some people
managed to rise above it, to escape into adulthood and get a fresh start. She
reasoned that only a very few became homicidal maniacs.

“Not
a fisherman. He managed that fishery. Alan took it over after he died, so it
wasn’t too surprising that she married him. For continuity and all.”

Tony
raised his eyebrows, saying, “The fishery’s empty. Plenty of ways to kill
someone there and toss the body without getting caught.”

“And
it’s a place that would remind her of how she grew up,” remarked Evie.

“Let’s
go,” said Zeke.

COLIN
PRIED HIS SWOLLEN eye open as his uninjured one adjusted to the gloom. The
smell of dead fish and saltwater was intense, and he realized that the
warehouse was in fact, Alan’s small fishery down by the harbor.

Candace
had pulled off the side of the road and knocked him out, and then apparently
dragged into the back of the truck. She was much stronger than she looked, and
he vaguely recalled his body hitting the deck outside the building. Once she’d
gotten him inside, the whirr of machinery disturbed him again, but before he
could make sense of it, she’d delivered a vicious kick to his head that sent
pain searing through his body before blissful blackness overtook him.

Now,
he pried his eyes open, and then realized that he was naked from the waist up,
and that he couldn’t move. She’d exchanged the handcuffs for rope and attached
him to the system designed to lift heavy fish nets from the boats for sorting. The
hook was on a grid, allowing it to move around the warehouse with freedom, so
Colin dangled six inches off the ground in the middle of the room, completely
helpless.

“Candace,”
he rasped, his voice weak. He licked his lips and tried again. “Candace!”

She
stepped out of the gloom, neat and calm as always, not a hair out of place, the
woman he’d known his whole life.

Well,
except for the crazy eyes. Those were new. And the fish hook.

The
hook was huge, steel, and sharp, with a worn wooden handle.

“Good,
you’re awake, Hank. I want to talk to you before this goes any further.”

“Colin.
It’s Colin, not Hank.”

Candace
shook her head as though to clear the cobwebs, and frowned.

“Yes,
of course. Hank is dead. Colin is alive. Hank is dead.”

“Please
let me go, Candace. Let’s discuss this, and then everything can go back to
normal.”

“Normal?
You mean invisible, don’t you?”

She
scraped the edge of the fish hook along his spine and he flinched at the feel
of cold steel against his skin.

From
the corner of his eye, Colin caught a flash of movement in the far corner of
the room.

Evie.

He
had to keep Candace distracted.

“You
were never invisible, Candace.”

“I
kept your calendar, I made sure you ate, I made sure that the leeches in this
town didn’t suck you dry with their stupid, stupid little problems, Hank. For
twenty-five years I was your wife, without any of the benefits.”

“I
should have paid more attention to you,” agreed Colin, “I’m sorry.”

“You
should have loved me! Instead, you stayed with that clinging woman. Martha was
never good enough for you, and I kept waiting for you to realize it.”

Vicious,
she slashed the hook across Colin’s shoulder and he gritted his teeth as he
felt the skin split, and warm blood trickled down his back.

“And
I watched Colin grow up,” she said, nostalgic, “and I thought, someday I’ll
have another chance.”

“But
you had Alan.”

“Alan?”
Candace scoffed, “Alan wasn’t a man. He was a pet who kept a roof over my head
and didn’t seem to care that he couldn’t please a woman to save his life.”

She
traced a finger through the blood on Colin’s shoulder.

“Daddy
always said that the boys wanted a nice girl. A girl who could cook. A girl who
was polite and knew how to keep her mouth shut. A girl who could keep a secret,
because people are always trying to pry into things that don’t concern them. ”

Candace
came around to Colin’s front, rubbing her arm as though from a remembered hurt.

“But
they didn’t. They wanted the sluts. The ones that wore short skirts and tight
sweaters, that tempted them with their round flesh and filthy lusts.”

Suddenly
coming out of her daze, she whirled on Colin again, frowning.

“You
hit me,” she accused Colin, “How could you do that?”

“I
didn’t know it was you. It was dark.”

“And
now she’s ruined you. Forever.”

She
stepped behind him again, placing the tip of the hook at his heart, and fear
filled Colin. Fear like he’d never felt before.

“Drop
the hook, bitch.”

EVIE
MOVED OUT OF the shadows, her heart pounding, her weapon trained on Candace’s
head. With Colin in front of her, she didn’t have a clear shot.

Dammit.

She’d
come in alone, worried that a full-on assault would prove fatal to Colin. They
had no idea what Candace was doing to him in that warehouse. Tony had
reluctantly agreed, and hurried to set up a perimeter. No matter what, Candace
wasn’t going anywhere.

“You’re
not welcome here.” Candace frowned, and pressed the hook lightly into Colin’s
skin. He gasped, and a small trickle of blood flowed down his chest. “Stay
back, or I’ll kill him. And then you can feel what I’ve felt. Alone. Rejected.”

“You
don’t want to kill Colin,” Evie breathed.

“You
don’t know what I want!” Candace screamed.

“You
want to kill me.”

Candace
paused, letting the idea filled her brain.

“Yes,”
she said earnestly, “I really do.”

“Because
I seduced him.”

“Evie,
stop it,” begged Colin.

Evie
edged closer, keeping a careful eye on the sharp hook pressed against Colin’s
heart.

“I
fucked him. Over and over again.”

“Disgusting,”
spat Candace, but her hands were shaking.

“He’s
an excellent lover. Did he tell you? His cock is always so big and hard, and he
can fuck all night if he wants to. Mmm…I’m wet just thinking about it.”

“Shut
up!” ordered Candace, panting, but Evie just smiled, taking a short step to her
left. Candace didn’t notice, too furious to care. “You’re vile, and you don’t
deserve Hank’s attentions. He was mine, do you understand?”