“Arrrrrgh!” Kate yelled as she went down. THUD. Oysters flew everywhere, raining down on her body like, well, like stinky oyster rain. Kate made a horrible wheezing noise as she kicked and jerked, trying to free herself from the slimy mollusk pile. Grimalkin meowed happily and began to bat the shellfish across the rug.
Morrie slipped into the shadows of the Children’s room just as the front door swung open, banging on the wall so hard the shelves rattled. Hayes burst into the hallway, followed by Sergeant Wilson and four officers. “Well done, Mina. We heard everything. Kate Danvers, you’re under arrest for the murder of Dave Danvers. You have the right to remain—”
“I don’t care!” Kate howled, twisting away as Grimalkin kicked an oyster toward her. “Just get me away from that damn cat before I… argh…”
Kate clawed at her throat. Wilson barked at one of the officers to call an ambulance, while she and Hayes tried to pull Kate free of the slimy trap.
“Morrie, where are you?” I glanced around, but so much of the room was in complete darkness to me now I could barely see the end of my nose. “Did you hear that? I think you’re officially a free man. Isn’t that… Morrie? Where are you?”
A lanky figure slunk out of the gloom, but it wasn’t Morrie. Sherlock inclined his head, peering at me over his hawk-like nose. “He climbed out the window.”
What?“Did he say where he was going?”
Sherlock shrugged. “He said he fancied a walk. Sam told him about a trail to a beautiful waterfall, and—”
A waterfall.
My heart leaped into my chest. I grabbed Heathcliff and shoved him toward the door. Hayes waved at me to stay, but I was already shoving on Oscar’s coat. “No time to explain, but Morrie’s in trouble. We need to get back to Barsetshire Fells.Now.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Heathcliff barked orders at the officer as he pulled into the Wild Oats parking lot. With the siren blaring, we made it to the Wild Oats center in record time, but we passed a black taxi heading in the opposite direction.Morrie beat us here.
I shoved open my door and lifted Oscar out before the car came to a complete stop.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Heathcliff held up his phone, casting a faint beam of pallid light across the ground. We’d never find Morrie in the dark if he didn’t want to be found.
“Arf?” Oscar pawed at my leg.
Of course.My fingers closed around Oscar’s lead.
“Oscar, find Morrie.” I’d grabbed a pair of Morrie’s brogues from the hallway as I ran out the door, and I held them in front of Oscar’s nose. Oscar sniffed the air, and he yapped with excitement as he tugged me around the back of the lodge, where a small sign pointed to an overgrown forest trail.
I raced down the path, my boots sinking into the soft mud. Pain blossomed across my chest as I yelled, “Morrie, where are you? Morrie, it’s Mina.”
Spurned by my speed, Oscar took off at a trot, his nose to the ground as he followed Morrie’s scent. My boots skidded over the uneven ground, but I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t.
Please, don’t let me be too late.
The trail widened out, and the rush of water pounded in my ears. We’d reached the waterfall. Oscar led me to the edge of a river, guiding me to where a rickety wooden suspension bridge crossed to the opposite bank. My fingers grasped the railing, and I leaned over the side.
Water poured into the pool forty feet below, churning up white foam that crashed against the rocks. The water rushed in my ears, fast and hard and deadly. If a person fell into that, they’d surely be pulled under and dashed against the rocks—
“Arf, arf!” Oscar scratched at the railing, jumping against the side as if he saw something above the waterfall.
He can see something I can’t.
Tears stung my eyes, but the wind whipped them away before they fell. “Morrie, where are you?”
“He’s over there.” Heathcliff leaned out over the railing, jabbing his finger at the rocks. The moon hung full in the sky, and in the beam of its light I could just make out the outline of a figure standing on a rock at the very edge of the waterfall.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Heathcliff cupped his hands and yelled across the chasm. Morrie’s head snapped up at the noise. I was too far away to see his features, but the very fact he stood on that precarious rock—
“Don’t burst a blood vessel, I’m just thinking. Get Mina away from here. It’s not safe,” he called back, his voice clear and decisive.
“Like hell I will. If you want to do something so tremendously stupid as throw yourself over a waterfall, you have the guts to do it to her face.”
“You should do hostage negotiations,” Morrie yelled back. “You have a hidden talent for it. I’m not throwing myself over. I just needed...oh, fuck off. You wouldn’t understand.”
