Chapter 9
“Please tell me you see it, too.”
“I see it,” Tess said.
The light reflected down the corridor of limestone, glinting off rivulets of trickling water, replacing every color with red.
The tunnel suddenly felt like a photographer’s darkroom. She heard a sharp intake of air beside her and realized the unbreakable
Allie Merritt, the woman who’d already died once before, was finally afraid.
Still, she stepped forward.
“Who’s there?” Allie’s shout was startlingly loud in the limited space. It echoed strangely, and Tess heard a disembodied
mimic of her best friend’s voice—Who’s there?—as the tunnel’s sonic trickery did its thing.
Her voice rebounded to silence.
No answer.
The red light didn’t move. Every shadow held still.
“I . . .” She glanced back at Tess—just a blink of uncertainty—and then hardened again. “Whoever you are, you need to back
off. I have a gun.”
I have a gun.
I have a gun.
I have a gun. The cave mocked her bluff.
Tess knew Allie practiced at an indoor range twice a month and owned three target pistols. She also knew for a fact that none
of the three was here.
This part of the tunnel was linear: one way forward and one way back. There were no formations to hide behind, no alternate routes to skirt. The hovering red light saturated the entire world, turning the rock, the dripping water, Allie’s skin, all red. Everything livid, arterial red.
“That’s the only way back,” Allie whispered.
Past the red light.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Then it moved—Allie shivered with a jolt—and it seemed to levitate closer to them, throwing new shadows. Red light and blacks
swirled, the tunnel a giant kaleidoscope.
“Tess,” Allie whispered. “Stand behind me.”
She did.
The ball of fiery light intensified, and a new form separated from the darkness: a human figure wearing a red headlamp. As
it strode closer, Tess kept her eyes locked on the sandy floor. She didn’t need to see his face. She already knew who it was
and what was about to happen.
A familiar voice echoed: “Nice to see you girls again.”
Allie said nothing.
“How’s the cave?” His red beam spotlighted her. “Spectacular, right?”
She took a step back—nudging Tess, too—but there was nowhere to retreat to. The rock walls were suffocating; cold stone enclosed
them on all sides. The figure’s wide shoulders blocked the tunnel. Tess felt her best friend’s neoprene-gloved fingertips
press her collarbone, holding her back. And in Allie’s other hand, something glinted. Held low, concealed purposefully behind
her hip.
Her survival knife.
Shielded from the man’s view, Allie thumbed the blade open with a soft tick.
“So, I need to get something off my chest.” Jacob strode closer, his face still obscured behind that balaclava. “When I introduced myself back there, I lied about being affiliated with Green Ridge. The truth is I’m more of a private contractor working in the area.”
Allie’s voice was brittle. “What do you want?”
“Just to talk.”
“We’re talking now.”
“And I understand how this looks, but please let me reassure you: I have no bad intentions here. Cross my heart.” He patted
a hand to his barrel chest. “To be honest, what you said to me back there hurt my feelings. So I figured I’d follow you two
down here. Maybe, I figured, after some time to think about your nasty words, you might take this opportunity to apologize
to me.”
Allie’s grip tightened on her hidden knife. “You came here for an apology.”
“Yes.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes.”
“And after I apologize, you’ll just leave?”
“Yes.” He straightened a glove.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Cross my heart,” he repeated in a gentle and pleasant voice. “But I’d need to get closer to properly hear this apology. I
believe in mutual respect, and apologies are best done face-to-face. So I can safely get close to you, I’ll have to ask that
you both kindly take a few precautions.”
He tossed something down the tunnel. It splashed into a puddle at their feet, and Allie’s headlamp illuminated it.
A bundle of white zip ties.
“It’s strictly for my own safety,” he clarified, his voice muffled by fabric.
“Please understand. If I’m going to get close enough to hear your apology, I have to make sure I’m not making myself vulnerable.
You’ve already shown hostility toward me today, so I’d say some caution on my part is warranted, don’t you?
You never know who you’re meeting in the woods. ”
His red glow flicked down to the zip ties.
“So,” he added, “I have to kindly ask you both to tie your wrists, please.”
Allie glanced back at Tess with wide eyes and shook her head once. The motion was both furtive and sharp, the message clear.
Don’t do it.
“Sorry. I know it’s awkward.” He stretched his shoulders, lazy and catlike. “You don’t even have to put your hands behind
your backs. They’re not handcuffs, and I’m not a cop. Just loop the cable around your wrists, thread the edge through the
little square, bite with your teeth, and pull. It’s surprisingly easy.”
Allie said nothing. She was a coiled rattlesnake, every muscle tense.
“I’ve been very polite so far,” he added. “Wouldn’t you agree, Allie Merritt?”
Tess felt a change in her best friend’s stance. She could sense the woman’s thoughts, a stab of crystalline terror: He knows my name.
How does he know my name?
“I’ll make you a counteroffer,” Allie responded, her voice surprisingly controlled. “I have almost fifty thousand dollars
in my bank account. If you let us both leave this cave, right now, I’ll give you my debit card.”
He snorted. “I’d just take it anyway—”
“And my PIN.”
Silence.
Jacob’s face was unreadable behind the black ski mask. But he tilted his head with a creak of rubber and fabric, as if considering the offer, and the headlamp’s red light shifted slightly. With her free hand, Allie unzipped her side pack and tossed her wallet.
It splashed near his boots. He didn’t pick it up.
“Here’s the deal.” Allie’s tone was low and measured. “We’ll all leave this cave peacefully. First, you’ll let my friend go
to the surface. Your problem is with me, not her.”
His gaze flicked to Tess, then back.
“I’ll wait here with you for a few minutes, so I know Tess is safe, and then I’ll go, too,” Allie said. “I’ll give you my
PIN, plus whatever bank information you need. Then we’ll all three go our separate ways. No one has to tie themselves up,
and no one gets hurt. Deal?”
He made a slurping noise, as if sucking on his lip. “Tempting.”
“Is it a deal?”
“You’ll just report your card stolen.”
“Twenty-four hours.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you?”
“Cross my heart.” Allie didn’t blink. “Or whatever dumb shit you said.”
For a few seconds, neither side spoke. Then he shifted his weight, and Tess saw something Allie didn’t: the faint outline
of a handgun concealed in the man’s pants, its barrel resting somewhere above his testicles.
“You’re a badass, Allie Merritt. I’m starting to admire that about you.” He sighed, his hand resting on his belt. “But it
seems we’ve reached an impasse.”
Twenty-eight hours later, in a recovery room at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Tess has to stop.
Whatever happened next, she’s not sure if she can say.
Her cheeks flush and tears glisten under fluorescent lights.
On a monitor, her heart rate is accelerating.
She squeezes her hands into fists and breathes.
Then she looks up at the detective with haunted eyes, the burst blood vessel a vivid red butterfly.
“He . . . shot Allie in the head.”