Frank crawled over to me, his hands still bound in front ofhim.
“I-I can’t get the knot,” Frank said, his voice quavering. “I need aknife.”
“Jesus Christ, I’m not giving you aknife,” Shane yelled. “Untie him or I’ll shoot you righthere!”
“Shane, think for a second,” I soothed. “Just think. If you shoot us here, they’ll find you. You know they will. They’ll trace the gun and know it wasyou.”
Shane frowned, like he hadn’t consideredthis.
“Who’ll take care of Molly’s place if you getcaught?”
“You’re trying to trickme.”
“I wouldn’t!” I so would. “I just know how it feels to lose someone, remember? Toss Frank a pocketknife, if you have one, and he’ll give it back as soon as he cuts meloose.”
Shane frowned, but I held his gaze. The sky was lighter now — pink and gold, like sunrise was coming — and I could see him clearly, read the indecision on hisface.
“Course I have a pocketknife,” he said. He tossed it at Frank. “No funnybusiness.”
I shook my head solemnly. “No way.” And then I added, just to keep him distracted, “What happened with John Carpenter? Did he disturb Molly’splace?”
“Yeah,” Shane admitted. “I go there to talk to her a lot. I was telling her I forgave her, and I was sorry it had to happen like that, and next thing I knew, he was right there.Listening.”
I shuddered. Poor JohnCarpenter.
“And then Elliot Marks?” Iprompted.
“Same thing,” he said. “I had to go back and make sure Carpenter hadn’t left anything behind for you guys to find and Elliot saw me there. He tried to pretend it was fine, but I could see he was suspicious.” Shane shook his head. “He had togo.”
Fuck. Seeing how paranoid Shane was, it was likely Elliot hadn’t been suspicious atall.
“It was easy,” Shane mused. “No one in town suspected athing.”
“That’s for sure,” I agreed. And as much as I hated the way O’Leary never allowed people to change, for better or worse, I thought it was probably to their credit that they’d never think one of their own capable of something likethis.
I really hoped they stayed that way after someone figured out what Shane haddone.
Because they would. I believed that truly. Whether I got out of this or not, whether he was mad at me or not, Silas wouldn’t rest until he’d caught the personresponsible.
Silas didn’t give up. And I swore right then and there, I would never give up onhim.
Frank cut through the rope behind me and straightened. “It’s done,” hesaid.
“Toss me theknife.”
Frank hesitated for a second, then threw it high and wide, so it sailed off into the woods behind Shane. “Sorry!” Frank said. “Sorry! My aim isterrible!”
Shane fumed and his jaw worked. For a second, I thought he was going to kill Frank then and there. But instead, he jerked his gun to the side. “Move. Evfirst.”
We headed out — me fuckingbarefoot, not that it mattered at this point where my shoes were — and I tried to think of a way out of this, but my panicked brain refused to comply. I could jump to the side, duck behind a tree. I might be able to run far and fast enough to get away at first. But then Shane would shoot Frank and come after me… and I knew for a fact that I wasn’t nearly good enough atorienteeringto elude him for more than tenseconds.
“I killed him the day you came to town,” Shane said from behind me. “John Carpenter, I mean. I’d left my car parked down one of the paths off the Camden road, and by the time I’d cleaned up, it was full dark. I thought you were gonna hit me with your car.” Hechuckled.
I stumbled to a stop. “Wait. That wasyou?Out on theroad.”
“Almost hit me,” Shane repeated. “Wouldn’t that have beensomething?”
I turned in place, stunned. I’d thought he was Adrian. I’d thought he was some kind of ghost or sign fromabove…
