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  A million thoughts rushed through my mind in that instant. Lucy had been hiding out beach-side with the baby. If she had come back, it had to be important. It had to be worth the risk of being seen. But what could it be?

  “William,” I mumbled as my heart dropped. “Oh, my Lord.”

  “I want five big ones,” T-Bone said. “For the information.”

  I grimaced. I didn’t have five hundred dollars I could spare, especially not now that I was probably out of a job, and I wasn’t sure Lucy’s parents were going to pay up. I mean, the dad would probably do it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him where his daughter and the grandchild he didn’t know existed were—not after I saw the bruises on his wife.

  “Listen, T-Bone, I am…”

  “I get it. You don’t have the money, do you?”

  “Not really, but I do need to know where the girl is. It’s very important. Can I owe you one?”

  T-Bone laughed. “It’s gotta be a big one then.”

  “It will be. I promise you.”

  “Okay. I’ll hold you to that. You know, I will.”

  “I expect you to.”

  T-Bone sniffled. “All right. I’ll text you the address.”

  We hung up, and I stared at the phone until the text arrived. I then glared at the address, startled, before I started the minivan back up and rushed down the street, cursing myself for not having seen this coming earlier.

  I had made it to the neighborhood and approached the address when my phone rang again. I stared at the display. An unknown number, again.

  I picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello…Harry?”

  My heart dropped. “Jean? I…I haven’t heard from you…where…I mean…what can I do for you?”

  “Harry, I have something I need to tell you. It’s urgent.”

  Chapter 42

  Jean told him everything she knew, everything Sophia had told her while mumbling in her sleep, a feeling of great relief rushing over her as she spoke.

  “And you’re sure about this?” Harry said, sounding somber. “Not that it surprises me. I had a hunch about this, but it’s great to get it confirmed. It all makes a lot more sense now.”

  Jean sighed, exhausted. “That is good news. I hoped it would. I’m just glad I could be of help.”

  “So…where are you? I tried to call you?” Harry said. “You never picked up. I was…worried.”

  Jean felt her eyes fill as she thought about being kidnapped and held captive in the trunk. It was hard for her even to put it into words, as it still filled her with such profound fear.

  “I…Sophia was attacked, and then…I tried to help her; I was…”

  Jean stopped talking. Not because she didn’t know what to say or how to say it or because it filled her with sadness and fear. No, it was because someone had taken the phone out of her hand. Now, Jean was staring at Sophia’s attacker, holding the phone in their hand.

  She could still hear Harry on the other end.

  “Jean? Jean? Are you there? Jean?”

  The attacker then reached over and slammed a fist into Jean’s face so hard that she fell backward and hit her head into the door.

  “JEAN?” Harry yelled somewhere in the distance, drifting slowly further and further away until she almost couldn’t hear him anymore.

  “What’s going on, Jean?”

  Jean wanted to answer, but she couldn’t. She fought bravely to stay conscious as her attacker lifted the phone again and spoke into it.

  “Jean can’t talk now.”

  Her attacker then hung up and looked at Jean while she fought not to see double. The attacker then reached over, grabbed her by her collar, and pulled her closer, then lifted the fist again and slammed it into her face. Jean screamed as more punches fell. She pulled her arms up to cover her face, then lifted a leg and planted it in her attacker’s stomach. The attacker flew backward with a shriek, and Jean reached for the handle of the door, then pulled it and opened the door. She crawled out, fighting to see straight, and was almost out when something grabbed her ankle and pulled her back. Jean screamed as she felt the hands on her leg, yanking her backward. When she was close enough, she turned around and placed a couple of fast punches on her attacker’s jaw. The attacker screamed and let go of her leg, so Jean managed to slide out onto the asphalt, then kick the door of the car closed just before her attacker could follow her. She fought to get to her feet, then made a run for it. She could hear her pursuer opening the door with a loud grunt, then the footsteps behind her as the pursuit began. Jean screamed and sped up, running faster and faster, pushing herself. Luckily, Jean had always kept herself in good shape and was used to running on the beach. This was to her advantage now as she ran toward a strip mall. She turned a corner, thinking she had lost her pursuer, then spotted a family of four who had just parked their car and were walking up toward a Tropical Smoothie Café.

  “Help,” she hissed, but not loud enough for them to hear. She tried again, but it sounded mostly like wheezing. She turned her head to look behind her and could no longer see her pursuer. Happy about this, she sprinted to the end of the building where the parking lot started. Just as she came around the corner, someone stepped out in front of her. Startled, she let out a small scream to get the attention of the family across the parking lot, but her pursuer grabbed her, and with her mouth covered, she was dragged back toward the black Hyundai, crying and screaming, digging her nails into her attacker’s skin.

  Chapter 43

  “JEAN?”

  I stared at the phone that had gone dead. I tried to call the number back, but it just kept ringing.

  What had happened to her? Who was that person on the phone? Whose was that nasty voice?

  Heart hammering in my chest, I kept staring at the phone, wondering what was happening. I had to help her somehow. What was it she said again? Before the phone was hung up?

  “Sophia was attacked and then…I tried to help her; I was…”

  She was what? Attacked? Kidnapped?

  I leaned back in the seat of my car. “Oh, dear God, no. If anything happens to her, to Jean, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  Try and think clearly now. If Sophia was attacked, then Jean was most likely attacked by the same person, right? So, all this must have to do with what is happening to the girls at the school. It must be the same person who killed them who has taken Jean, right? And if that is so, then there is only one thing you can do, only one way to find Jean.

  I took a deep breath, then stared at the entrance to the mansion in front of me. I got out of the van, then walked up to the gate. Just as I did, a small Mercedes convertible came up to it. The window rolled down, and a hand pressed the buzzer and was let in. As the gate opened, I hid in the bushes, then as the car disappeared, I snuck in afterward just as it was about to close. I then walked up toward the house, stayed hidden by some palm trees and bushes until the young girl in the Mercedes stepped out and walked up to the main entrance, where she was let inside. I waited until the door was closed behind her and then a few seconds more before I snuck up to the house, ran around the back, and found a door that wasn’t locked.

  Chapter 44

  I felt the gun in my holster and put my hand on the grip, then pulled it out as I walked down the marble-tiled hallway toward the voices coming from the dining room. The voices grew loud and angry the closer I got, and I recognized some of them.

  “Okay, you’ve proven your point,” one said. “You won.”

  Laughter followed. I knew that laugh a little too well.

  William.

  “No, no, my sweet girls. That’s where you’re wrong. It’s not over yet.”

  “Please, William,” another voice said.

  Lucy.

  “I thought you asked us to come here today to make a truce.”

  “You’re the ones who wanted to meet,” William said. “Not me. You texted me and picked me up at school, remember?”

  “It has got to
stop, William,” Lucy continued. “You’ve taken it too far.”

  “I’ve taken it too far? Me?” William hissed. “Need I remind you what you did to me?”

  They all went silent for a few seconds. I stayed hidden by the door, my gun ready.

  “When is it ever going to end?” Lucy asked, her voice strained. “I’m sorry for what we did to you.”

  “I’m not,” another voice said. I peeked inside and saw a girl I recognized from William’s school. I had seen her in the mornings when we arrived. There were several of them present in William’s living room. Some, I had seen before; others were new faces to me. But they all seemed to be about the same age.

  The girl from earlier continued as she received looks from the others. “I’m not. He had it coming, and you all know it.”

  Another wave of silence brushed through the room, and I sensed the rest of the girls there agreed with her.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lucy said. “What matters is what happens next. William, you have got to stop this. Killing people won’t solve this. Trying to make it look like I did it by placing stupid chess pieces on the bodies doesn’t make anything better either. What will it take to make you stop?”

  That made William stand to his feet. He walked toward Lucy and grabbed her around the shoulders, wearing that sly smile of his.

  “You know what I want from you, dearest.”

  She shivered and pulled away from him. “I can’t do that. You know I can’t. Anything but that.”

  William grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back forcefully. He grabbed her around the neck and held her tight.

  “That is my price. If you don’t, the killings will continue.”

  William held Lucy tight around the neck, and I heard her gasp for air. The other girls stood like they were frozen and stared at William as he tried to strangle Lucy. That was my cue. I had heard enough. I stepped forward, holding out the gun.

  “No, they won’t, William. It ends here. Let go of the girl. Let Lucy go. Now!”

  Chapter 45

  “Ah, Detective Hunter,” William said, grinning. “I was wondering when you’d join us. Did you like the little present I left for you in my car?”

  I kept my gun pointed at him. He finally eased up on Lucy’s neck.

  “It’s over, William,” I said. “I heard everything. I know.”

  William scrutinized me. “Do you now?”

  “Yes, I know what really happened at the beach last year. Sophia spilled the beans while she was in the hospital.”

  William’s smile grew broader. “Did she really?”

  Lucy’s face grew pale. I looked at her.

  “I realized it when I saw the baby. It was just a question of math, Lucy. If that child were a result of that rape, it wouldn’t have been older than three months by now. But your baby sat up on her own when I arrived. She was teething. I have a child of my own and know that babies teethe at around six months old. It’s also around the same age that they learn to sit by themselves. It was smart, though, to fake a rape to get back at him. And at the same time, you’d have an excuse to tell your parents how you got pregnant. So, you wouldn’t have to tell them that you had slept with a teacher…with Mr. James.”

  “That’s right, Detective,” William said. “All these good girls were in on it. They all seem so innocent with their straight A’s and volunteer work, but they did that to me. They planned this to get me sent to jail.”

  “And why did they do that, William? Because of what you did to them. You terrorized them. You forced Lucy to sleep with Mr. James, so you’d have something on him to be able to control him. You told her to do it, or you’d go to the immigration authorities and reveal that her mom was in the country illegally before she married Lucy’s dad. Marriage is no longer a security from deportation in the times we live in. Not if you have been ordered deported before you were married. Lucy would do anything to protect her mother from being deported. And she did.”

  Lucy’s eyes landed on the tiles beneath her, and she sat down in a recliner. Tears sprang to her eyes.

  “It was the most humiliating I ever had to do. And now…now, I have a child.”

  “So, you decided to punish William for how he was treating everyone,” I said. “All of the girls got together and agreed to stop him; am I right? Except you forgot a couple of things. First of all, when something like this happens in this day and age, there’ll be video. From the beginning, it puzzled me that not one kid who had witnessed the rape had recorded it. It’s nasty, but it would have happened. Second, when a young girl is raped, she’s changed forever. When I met you at the apartment, you were strong and composed, not broken the way my sister was when it happened to her. That’s when I began suspecting you had been lying.”

  “It’s not like it was a total lie,” another girl said. “He did rape someone. He raped a girl from school who didn’t dare go to the police because her dad works for his dad, and she feared it might hurt her family. William knew this; that’s why he picked her.”

  “So, you just faked one,” I said. “On a girl who needed an excuse for her pregnancy. Bruised her up and left her in the sand to be found by her own father. Who made the call to Robert Lockwood, pretending to be William?”

  “I did,” a girl said. She had a deep voice, and it made sense that it could have been mistaken for a boy.

  “But then when it came down to it, you didn’t dare to testify, did you?” I asked. “You all backed out. You were supposed to tell what happened, to tell the police how you had seen William rape Lucy on the beach after the party. But you chickened out, didn’t you, all of you?”

  Eyes across the room avoided mine.

  “I was scared,” one of them said. “I’m sorry, Lucy, but I was terrified of what he might do to me. He came to me at school and threatened to kill me if I talked. Look what happened to Lisa, Georgiana, Sandra, Katelyn, and Martina. And what about Sophia?”

  William laughed. “Look at you all. So pathetic.”

  I lifted the gun closer to his head. “That might be. But you’re under arrest.”

  “For what?” he grinned.

  “The murders of Lisa Turner, Sandra Barnes, Martina Hernandez, Katelyn Patterson, Georgiana Nelson, the attempted murder of Sophia Fischer, and the kidnapping of Jean Wilcox.”

  William stared at me, grinning even more.

  “You think I did all that? I didn’t kill anyone. No, you’ve got it all wrong, Detective. I didn’t hurt any of them. I mean, I’ve wanted to, several times, but I didn’t. Besides, murder isn’t really my style. I prefer torturing people, seeing them suffer. That’s my thing.”

  Chapter 46

  “Wait. You didn’t kill them?” Lucy said, standing to her feet again.

  William shook his head. “You really need me to repeat it? No. I didn’t. I didn’t kill anyone. You just assumed that I did.”

  Lucy snorted. “Then why did you pretend like you were the killer just before when we asked you to stop?”

  “Because it was fun,” he said. “Thinking that I had killed your little friends gave me power over you. I enjoyed that, especially after what you did to me. I thought you deserved to fear me.”

  Lucy shook her head, narrowing her eyes. “You’re a sick monster.”

  William laughed. “I’m not denying it. At least I know who I am, and I’m not afraid to show it.”

  I scrutinized him while trying to understand. Something was off here; something wasn’t right. I lifted the gun again.

  “Nope. I’m not buying it,” I said. “You might not have killed them, but you know who did. Why else would you put that chess piece in your car? You wanted me to think that it was Lucy. Just like the one who killed the other girls wanted me to think that too…to get back at her. She tried to frame you for rape and you—and whoever is killing for you—wanted her to go down for murder. And you know perfectly well who this person is, don’t you, William?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe I do; maybe I don’t. What are
you going to do about it, Detective? You’re gonna arrest me and try to drag it out of me, huh? Is that what you’re going to do? Take me down to the station and play tough guy?”

  I walked closer, the gun pointed at him, then grabbed his arm and twisted it till he fell forward with his face against the dining table. I placed the gun to his head, then responded while smiling.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was fired today. So, I guess I don’t have anything to lose anymore, do I? I can act just as crazy as I want to.”

  That wiped the smirk off his face.

  “Tell me who did the killings; tell me now,” I said, pressing the gun into the back of his head.

  William didn’t answer. He whimpered slightly as I tightened my grip on his arm, pulling it up behind his back, hard.

  “Tell me where Jean is.”

  Still, he said nothing. I pulled his arm again, and he screamed in pain. My hands were shaking in anger as I pressed the gun harder against his head, my finger uneasy on the trigger, ready to pull. I wanted to, boy; I wanted to finish him off right here and now. Two bullets. One for Reese, one for Jean. He could sense my eagerness to fire the gun. Still, the boy shut up like a clam, refusing to speak. But then he did something else that helped me. He glanced toward the kitchen for a brief second, and that was when it occurred to me.

  Of course.

  It all made sense now.

  Chapter 47

  She was being pulled by her hair. Jean screamed in pain as she was yanked forcefully across the floor.

  “Stop, stop, please, just stop!”

  As the pain finally eased up on her scalp, she felt her body plop down on the tiles and managed to look around. All she could make out was that she was in a kitchen somewhere. Her attacker was doing something behind her back as Jean spotted a set of kitchen knives hanging on the wall and decided to make a run for them. Ignoring her aching body, she jumped to her feet and reached out her hand to grab one. But as she could feel it in her hand, her attacker grabbed her by the ponytail and pulled her back, hard.