“I need to get in, okay?” I said, nearly breathless.
“But what’s the matter?”
“Please,” I begged.
“All right. Yes, get in.”
I raced around the front of her car, threw open the door, and nearly dove into the passenger seat.
“We need to leave—right this second,” I told her.
“What?”
“Please, it’s an emergency. I’ll explain afterward.”
“You didn’t drive here?”
“I did, but I’m missing my key.”
I craned my neck and peered out the rear window. There was still no sign of Cody. “Hurry,” I urged.
In frustration, Riley made a tsk sound with her tongue against the roof of her mouth, but she did as I’d instructed, accelerating the Audi and aiming for the road.
“I wish you’d tell me.”
“Please, Riley, I promise to in a minute.” I worried that Blaine had reversed direction in the building and raced to the main exit, hoping to head me off. But no one burst through the front door as we neared the road.
“Which way do you usually turn to go home? Right?”
“Yes.”
“Go left instead. And then drive straight to the municipal center, to the sheriff’s office. You know where that is?”
“Um, yeah, I think so.”
Again, she followed orders, picking up speed even more after she took the turn. I was desperate to call Killian and alert him to the fact that I was coming, but my cell, with his number programmed into it, was also in my purse.
I twisted around in my seat but didn’t detect any car beams behind us. Maybe Cody hadn’t seen Riley come to my rescue and was searching for me on foot.
I still wasn’t sure what the hell was really going on. My gut told me Cody had killed his wife, but I had no clue why or how the campers figured into it. He wasn’t even in the country when they’d disappeared.
So... so maybe this guy Dirk had murdered Page and Amy and confessed to Cody when he lay dying. Even told him where he’d hidden the bodies. And when Cody had decided, for reasons unknown, to murder his lovely wife, he’d left her in the same place, making it appear like the work of a deranged serial killer.
I’d been looking for connections between the lives of the victims—and so had Alice—but maybe the only connection was the dark, forlorn basement where their remains had been dumped.
“I’m so lucky you came,” I said, turning back around and looking over at Riley. “You hadn’t left yet?”
“No. My husband and I ended up in a fight on the phone while I was walking to my car, and I needed to chill for a minute. And then I heard the door alarm go off. Whathappenedback there?”
“Cody came after me.”
“What?”
“It was because of something I asked him. About the reporter who died, Alice Hatfield.”
“Maybe he’s sick of going over the same ground again and again. No one seems to appreciate the hell he’s been through.”
“Riley, I know it sounds crazy, but I’m almost positive he murdered Shannon.”
