Chapter 31
Something hard jabbed Maggie in the shoulder. She groaned and tried to move, only to stop. She was bound. Her hands were behind her, and she couldn’t pull them apart. And it wasn’t just her shoulder that hurt. Her head throbbed.
“Get up, Maggie.”
The familiar voice had all the fine hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
Another hit to her shoulder. “I’m not fucking around. Get up before I shoot you in the hand.”
The aggression in the woman’s voice made it all come back to her. Nel standing at Polly’s car. The familiar scent of her bodywash. Maggie’s tablet in her bag. Then the gun.
Her eyes flashed open, the light behind Nel temporarily blinding her.
“I’m doing it, Maggie. I’m shooting you in the hand.”
Nel shifted the muzzle to Maggie’s hand, making fear lurch in her throat. “I’m getting up! I just…I need a sec.”
She pushed up into a seated position. It was hard with bound hands, and her head swirled at the movement. Two concussions in such short succession couldn’t be good. But that was the least of her problems right now.
She groaned, finally upright.
“Now get out,” Nel growled.
Who the hell was this woman? The Nel she’d interacted with in school had been sweet and soft-spoken.
She swung her legs out of the trunk, testing her feet with a little bit of weight before rising. She wasn’t steady, but she could hold herself.
She scanned the trees around her and slowly realized where they were.
Her heart thumped, but not in a good way. “What are we doing here, Nel?”
“We are not here, Maggie. You are.” Nel shut the trunk. “Walk.”
“This is near where my mother died,” Maggie whispered, steps slow and cautious as she moved into the forest toward the bank of the river.
“Correct. Near where your mother supposedly killed herself because she couldn’t handle you. Where your life with an aunt who hated you began.”
Maggie frowned. “Did Lilith tell you that?”
“That woman’s told everyone you killed your mother. She actually talks about you a lot. It’s why I decided to look you up over a year ago. I found your travel page. And your life looked so beautiful and picture perfect.”
Maggie’s foot hit a rock and she stumbled, barely managing to catch herself before hitting the ground. “So you’re the person who’s been messaging me and commenting on my posts?”
“I just wanted a small taste of your life. And it was good. I would stay up late and wait for your stories and posts. I watched and re-watched everything you shared.”
“Social media only shows a small portion of people’s lives. The good parts. You didn’t see how lonely I was or how much I missed Polly and Ethan.”
“Typical. So ungrateful for what you had. I pieced together where you lived. It took a while, but you posted your local café a few times. I found that, then studied every photo you posted inside your home, and spent hours researching real-estate sites—but I did it. Even found your spare key in the garden gnome and made a copy.”
A shudder rolled down Maggie’s spine. “You used my shower.”
“And slept in your bed. Wore your clothes and tried on your makeup. I loved your peach bodywash. While you were away, I could almost convince myself I was you.”
She felt so…violated.
“Back here in Deep River, I asked Ethan out on a date. And he actually said yes! We went on two, and they were magical.”
Maggie swallowed. “You really liked him?”
“I liked feeling powerful and confident and beautiful, like you.”
Nel actually thought she was all those things? She had no idea that Maggie had needed to claw her way out the pit of worthlessness.
“But then you moved back.” Nel shoved the gun into Maggie’s back again, making her stumble a second time. It didn’t help that the trees still spun around her.
She was so dizzy. And the closer they got to the river, the more her belly twisted and turned.
“And he dumped me,” Nel continued, not only anger in her voice now but hatred too. The kind that tainted every word. “He dumped me for you. And it pissed me off. I liked being you. I didn’t want that taken away from me.”
“So you broke into my apartment and stole things from me?”
“I hit the jackpot when I found your tablet. I opened your Facebook account and started messaging Ethan. And he messaged back. He laughed at my jokes. He wrote that he loved me.”
“He thought you were me.”
The next shove was so hard that Maggie fell into the dirt, her head slamming against a tree root.
Ouch.
“It wasn’t you,” Nel snarled. “It was me! I can be all the things that you are. I can be smart and pretty. I can smell like peaches and make Ethan laugh. But he basically admitted that as long as you’re alive, it’s you he’ll want. So…this is me fixing that little problem.”
The trees swayed. “How did you get into my place above Polly’s garage?”
“I heard Polly talking to a customer about you coming home and moving in there. She set the key on the counter, and it was like it was meant to be. So I took it.”
“Was Lilith part of this? Did she tell you I was coming this morning?”
“She mentioned it, but she didn’t know my plans. No one did. Just like no one will know what really happened today.”
They stopped close to the water, a small wooden rowboat sitting on the bank.
“Get in,” Nel growled.
She didn’t want to. Every part of her rebelled against the idea.
But then Nel’s fingers visibly tightened on the grip of the gun.
Maggie sucked in a breath and climbed into the boat.
“Move and I shoot.” Nel put down the pistol and picked up the oars. The boat rocked beneath them as she rowed into the river. The oars weren’t attached to the boat. So if Maggie could grab one, she might be able to use it as a weapon. But her wrists were bound.
“Have you killed or taken any other women?” Maggie asked, needing a distraction while she yanked at her wrists behind her back.
Nel frowned. “You mean those ladies who went missing? No. Why would I do that?”
Maggie wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant Nel wasn’t a serial killer. But it also meant that the killer was still out there.
“So, what’s the plan?” Maggie asked quietly. “You push me out of this boat in the middle of the river?”
The cruel smile made her shudder.
More tugs at her bound wrists. They actually weren’t that tight. If she pulled hard enough, she might just be able to get free. “Are you taking the boat back?”
“Of course. Then I’ll push it back into the stream.”
On her next tug, her wrist got halfway out. “Aren’t you scared of Polly telling people that you Tasered her?”
“Polly didn’t see me. Her eyes were glued to her phone screen.”
“Okay, what about Ward? He’s going to investigate this and realize I didn’t kill myself.”
Another laugh from Nel, this one almost hysterical. “Are we thinking of the same guy here? Ward’s never thoroughly investigated a crime in his pathetic life. Hell, let’s take your mother’s death, for example. I read the morphology report. There was Rohypnol in her blood stream—the date rape drug.”
Maggie froze. “What?”
“Yeah, Aunt Lilith got it wrong. If you were going to commit suicide, there are better ways to do it than taking a sedative and drowning yourself.”
Maggie swallowed, gaze going to the water beside them. Someone had killed her mother. Drugged her. Drowned her in this very river.
“So you’re killing me the same way she was killed?” The thought made ice creep into her veins.
A sadistic smile curved Nel’s lips as she rowed.
“You’re doing this because you can’t handle the fact that your mother killed herself to escape her life with you.
Your aunt might have said the words, but it’s something you’ve always wondered.
And after Lilith spent years telling you how worthless you were, it finally sank in that she was right all along.
You bring nothing good to anyone’s life. ”
Another tug at the ropes. She was almost out. “What’s wrong with you?”
“The doctors thought it was borderline personality disorder. Whatever the hell that means. All I know is that I become a bit obsessive about certain things. And your life is one of them.”
Maggie’s life had become Nel’s obsession…and Maggie hadn’t seen it. Ethan hadn’t seen it. No one had.
Nel reached into her pocket and pulled out a syringe. “I have a high dose of fast-acting antipsychotic in here. It’ll make you nice and sleepy. Maybe a bit disoriented. Then I’ll untie you and push you in and watch you drown. How’s that sound?”
Ethan paced the front of Nel’s house.
Where the fuck was Ward? He didn’t have time to wait. Every minute counted. Every damn second.
“I’m breaking in.” Ethan stepped toward Nel’s front door.
Connor grabbed him. “He said he was around the corner.”
At that exact moment, a patrol car pulled up behind their trucks.
Ward climbed out. He moved so fucking slowly he almost waddled. Ethan wanted to grab the guy. Yell at him. Hit him. Hit something.
Ryan stepped in front of Ethan to talk to the sheriff. “Ward, we need to gain access to Janelle Prater’s house right now.”
Ward cleared his throat and gripped his belt as he continued to the front door. “Actually, son, that’s my and my deputy’s job.”
“The fuck it is,” Ethan growled.
Ward’s eyes narrowed on him. “You need to keep it together.”
“We sent you the footage. Nel pulled a gun on Maggie. She has her. You let us into this house or we’ll get in ourselves!”
Deputy Cox touched Ward’s shoulder. “Come on, Ward. Let them help.”
Ward’s jaw clenched, but he stepped up to the front door and knocked. A few seconds passed, and he knocked again. “This is Sheriff Ward. If anyone’s home, you need to open the door. If you don’t, we have enough cause to enter the premises.”
Silence.
Ward turned to his deputy. “Call the locksmith.”
“Fuck that.” Ethan pulled a small pick from his wallet and took a knee.
“Hey.” Ward tried to step forward, but Ryan moved in front of him.
“This is faster, and we need to access the house right now.”
A few seconds later, the lock clicked.
Ethan stepped inside, pulling his Glock from his holster, Connor not far behind. Ward tried to protest again, but Ethan left Ryan to deal with him as he moved through the house quickly. The living room and kitchen were clear.
He moved down the hall into the master bedroom. Empty. The connected bathroom and walk-in closet were the same. They weren’t just checking for Nel or Maggie though, they were looking for clues about where she might be.
He checked drawers and cupboards. He was about to leave when something sticking out from beneath the bed caught his attention. A box.
He pulled it out and set it on the bed before opening it.
His blood ran cold.
Toothpaste. A familiar pair of navy earrings he’d given to Maggie when she was sixteen. He turned over a torn photo and cursed. The other half of the picture taken from Polly’s house. The half with Maggie in it.
Connor joined him. “You found something?”
“This is the stuff that was stolen from Maggie.”
At the bottom of the box, he pulled out stapled papers.
He frowned. Opal Sinclair’s autopsy report. Why the hell did she have this?
Rohypnol was highlighted. Drowning was also highlighted. Then a little note next to it—anti-psychosis drugs?
Connor reached in and pulled out the newspaper clippings at the bottom of the box. This time, the location where Opal’s body had been found was highlighted.
Connor looked at him. “You don’t think—”
“She’s going to recreate her mother’s death, but with Maggie.” That’s why she’d left the note. Nel wanted it to look like a suicide.
His world narrowed.
He dropped the papers and ran, sprinting out of the house and toward his truck. They’d already be at the river. He just had to pray he got there in time to save her.