Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Theo
As soon as Esther said the words Peregrine Cove, my brain jolted into action. I turned off the oven, dinner be damned, and yanked on a coat as I ran out to the truck. I dialed Alex’s number as I pulled out of the driveway.
“Are you in Spruce Hill?” I asked as soon as he answered.
I could almost hear him frowning at the phone when he replied, “Yeah, I just finished plowing Mr. Ankarberg’s parking lot at the north end of town. Why?”
“I need your help. Esther had a delivery this afternoon. She couldn’t find the address, so I offered to help. She was headed to Peregrine Cove. Jesus, Alex, the call cut out but she said someone was walking up to her car.”
“Shit,” he whispered. “Okay, how far are you from the Ankarberg plaza? Should I head straight to her or should we go together?”
My hands were shaking, so I gripped the steering wheel so tight that my knuckles went white. “I’ll be there in a minute. We go together. And Alex…thank you.”
“Just shut up and focus on driving. I’ll see you soon.”
Peregrine Cove was a little community of cottages at the edge of town, mostly used as beach houses during the summer. The party on prom night had been at Number Seven.
And it was right next to the lighthouse.
I swung into the parking lot barely a minute later and stopped beside Alex’s plow truck. He hopped into my passenger seat, still buckling his seatbelt as I pulled back onto the road.
“What the hell is happening?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but I think she’s in danger. Can you call Chief Roberts or Hanson, get them to send someone out?”
Alex made the call, sounding so calm that it almost settled my nerves until I heard the undercurrent of fear when he spoke to me again. “They’re on their way. You accused me of being behind the pranks—what pranks, Theo? What’s going on?”
As I turned onto the road leading out of Spruce Hill, I told him about all of it: the flowers, the phone calls, the email, the box of peanuts, even the nude photos. Alex swore under his breath when I reached the end, rubbing both hands over his face.
“You think it’s all connected to Peregrine?” he asked shakily.
I puffed out my cheeks. “I didn’t until ten minutes ago. No one lives at Peregrine year round. Who the hell would order cupcakes out there in the dead of winter?”
Neither of us had an answer to that.
Even after eighteen years, I remembered the way there, though I couldn’t quite recall whose family had owned the cottage we were at after prom.
The area was one of those hidden gems only townies knew about, tucked away off the main road at a turn that non-locals barely even noticed.
I wasn’t surprised Esther had trouble finding it.
This stretch of road was poorly lit, apart from the eerie glow of the snow on either side of the black pavement. When my headlights washed over Esther’s car on the side of the road, I pulled up beside it and hopped out, leaving the truck running. Alex moved to follow me, but I waved him back.
After grabbing Esther’s phone and the purse containing her EpiPen from the floorboards, I jogged back to the truck. I wasn’t sure what the hell we were going to find when we reached Peregrine Cove, but my imagination ran rampant.
Given the nature of those threats, I wanted to be armed with epinephrine just in case.
The turnoff was only a mile from Esther’s car, but the lighthouse came into view first. I forced myself not to slow down as we drove by, though both my brother and I held our breath until we were beyond it.
Alex let out a shaky sigh. I wished I could find the words to reassure him, then we were turning into the entrance of the abandoned row of cottages.
The driveway hadn’t been plowed, but there were tire tracks leading straight to a house all the way down on the left.
“It’s like a ghost town,” my brother whispered. “Theo, what’s the plan? We can’t just go crashing in there if someone’s got Esther inside.”
I flipped off my headlights as we crept along the row of cottages, but apparently we were expected.
The outside lights at Number Seven flipped on, nearly blinding us, and a silhouetted figure flung open the front door.
I couldn’t make out any features, but whoever it was gave a jaunty wave with a wicked-looking knife, as though inviting us in.
“Maybe you should stay in the truck,” I said quietly. “I doubt he got a good look at us. You can send the police in when they get here.”
Alex glared. “You’re an idiot. No way are you going in there alone. The chief should be right behind us.”
“There’s no sense in us both walking into danger, Alex.”
Though he didn’t look any less annoyed, he gave a slow nod. “You go in the front. I’ll wait until you’re inside and then sneak around the back. You’re not facing this on your own, brother.”
“Fine. My toolbox is in the back, find yourself something to use as a weapon. Crouch down so he can’t see you when the door lights go on.”
“What will you use?” he asked, cramming himself in the space between the seat and the dashboard.
I said nothing as I got out of the car. If Esther was a hostage, I wouldn’t give whoever was holding her here an excuse to hurt her, even if that meant walking in unarmed.
Without a backward glance at the truck, in case anyone was watching from inside the house, I strode through the snow to the open door.
Whoever had waved me in was no longer standing in the doorway, so I took a deep breath, opened the creaking screen door, and went inside.