“Winslet didn’t die during Rivalry Week,” Quinn tells him. “But you knew that.”
“A month after the car went into the river, I started hearing stories of home.” He pauses. “Three murders—all Pirates. And Winslet can get very angry.”
“Did you return to Weston?” Quinn questions. “Did you see her?”
“Yes.”
Quinn meets my eyes. Such a quick and simple answer. She was right. Their trail doesn’t go cold after the Night Ride. More has happened in the years since.
He adds, “But you’re not at that part in the story yet.”
“Where did you see her?” Quinn asks. “Just tell me that.”
For a moment, I don’t think he’s going to answer. Then, he says, “Camp Blackhawk.”
The summer camp before it was renovated and reopened. She was hiding there after she survivedthe river.
Her own friends tried to murder her. She couldn’t go home.
Or she didn’t want to. She wanted her revenge.
“What did you do when you saw her?” I ask him.
“It was a long night, I’ll tell you that.”
I shake my head.
“Why are you leaving a trail for us?” Quinn begs him. “What do you want?”
But he simply counters with another question. “How did she look?”
How did she look?
Quinn thinks it was Winslet who saved her tonight. He knows she’s here?
“Younger than I thought she would,” Quinn tells him.
“Because we stop aging when we die,” he points out.
“You believe that?” I narrow my eyes in disbelief. “That Quinn saw her ghost tonight?”
I don’t mean to mock him, but come on…
“I believe…that I can still taste her on my mouth and smell her on my clothes.” His voice seems like mist, a whisper. “And I believe she’s still where I buried her. At Blackhawk.”
Quinn’s eyes widen, but before I can say anything, the line dies.
“Wait!” I growl.
We call back, but it goes straight to voicemail, as if he’s turned the phone off. This phone will never be on again. He’ll ditch it.
Quinn searches my eyes. “What do we do now?”
I don’t know.
But at the very least, we can write everything down while it’s fresh and fill everyone else in tomorrow.
And we can add to the murder map at Carnival Tower. Time to focus Hawke’s research on a new lead.
