They’re quiet. The siren outside is screaming.
“But I put you in danger. I’ll never forgive myself for that,” Hope says. “In my mind, at the time, it made sense. I knew whoever it was would follow me. I knew it was the only way to get rid of him for good.”
“Hope.” Caro’s eyes are wide. “Were you planning tokillhim?”
“I don’t think so,” Hope says. “I was hoping to take care of it another way.”
“You don’tthinkso?” Ash’s voice is shrill. “Were you going to make us accomplices? Were you going toaccompliceus?”
“No,”Hope says. “That’s another reason I didn’t tell the two of you what I was doing.”
“We would have still been accomplices!” Ash can’t believe what she’s hearing. She could have lost her girls! She could have lost everything.
“They say not to meet your heroes,” Hope says.
Caro breaks out in a laugh. “I don’t know that you’re our hero, Hope,” she says drily.
And then they’re all laughing, in a slightly unhinged way not unlike some of their late nights online. They glance over at the EMTs, who have slightly horrified looks on their faces, and that makes them laugh harder.What the hell were we thinking, with any of this?
“Did you know it was Ty?” Caro asks when they’ve calmed down. “Because if you did, it would have been really great if you told us.”
“No.” Hope’s voice has gone raspy again. “I thought it was for sure one of the guys in the canyon. Spencer or one of his friends.”
“Holy crap,” Ash says, horrified. “Tony’sdead.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Hope says, putting her hand over her heart. She holds Ash’s gaze. “I swear. I never even saw him after the flooding began.”
“Didn’t you?” Caro’s voice is steady. “Hope, I saw you coming out of their camp the morning of the flash flood.”
“What?” Ash’s eyes widen.“Why?”
“I was looking around for something that might help me link them tothe lurker,” Hope says. “Like I said, I thought ithadto be one of them. But I wanted to try and find actual evidence.”
“You went in theirtents?”
“No,” Hope says. “They’d left a bunch of their gear out, and I was going through it. I was so focused that I didn’t even pay much attention to what was happening with the water. It came on sofast.”
“It’s hard to believe it until you’ve been there,” Caro says. “I’ve seen videos of flash floods. Actually beinginone is completely different.”
“I still can’t believe it even though wehavebeen through it now.” Ash bites her lip. “You guys, we came so close. Especially you, Hope. The fact that you hit the water instead of the rocks, the fact thatyoudidn’t die and that you climbed out of that canyon and made it here is a freaking miracle.”
“I won’t argue with you there.” Hope is somber. “I thought I was directing this whole situation. I was sure I had it all planned out, and it was an unmitigated disaster.” She looks at them, her audience of two, and both Ash and Caro feel the pull of Hope, her sincerity.
“I did do my research, though,” Hope says, after a moment. “Page told me about Mystery Canyon. I came a few days early, and she and I made sure I could find it and climb it. Page got my phones for me from the lockbox. Once I made it out after the flood, she picked me up and drove me to the ghost town. I stayed there while Jane and I tried to figure out who it was. That’s when I started sending messages from the burner. I also brought Page the movies for the Hope Hanover Film Festival to show as another way to get to him if we needed it.”
“Why send us up Seraph’s Perch?” Ash asks.
“I wanted you to be away from here while I confronted Ty,” Hope says. “Right when I got out of the canyon, Jane figured out the IP address belonged to someone at Sonnet. But she hadn’t been able to track it further. Once I knew the lurker was there, I wanted you guys away from the resort as much as possible.” She sighs. “But then nothing worked. Everythingstarted backfiring so badly. Page wasn’t ever supposed to come back to the ghost town after she dropped me off. It was too dangerous. But she got worried about me and came out to make sure I was okay. Ty followed her without her knowing. She wasn’t supposed to be there.” Now Hope is crying. “Do you think she’ll be okay? I should never have involved her.”
“Physically, yes,” Caro says. “Emotionally, she’s pretty tough, too.”
“Itoldher not to come,” Hope says. “And I sent you up to the Perch because I thought you’d stay up there. But Ty found me after I sent the text. He took the phone and drove over to Seraph’s Perch. He did the hike as fast as he could and came back here where he’d left me tied up.”
“So the @findhopehanover account? And the photo of us at the top?” Caro says. “And the pin, and the last message?”
“All from him,” Hope says. “He used the burner and sent them. He started the @findhopehanover account to mess with us. He missed being able to watch us.” She shudders, and Caro puts a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “The texts sounded like me, didn’t they? He’s been watching me long enough that he knows what I’ll say. How I’ll say it.” Hope closes her eyes, opens them. “He texted Page to bring food. And she thought he was me, too. I meant to keep all of you away. I’m so sorry.” She wipes her eyes furiously with the heels of both hands. “I thought I could keep everyone safe and catch him,” she says. “Put an end to this. I thought I could take him down, and I couldn’t.”
“How, exactly, were you going to catch him?” Caro asks. “With your bare hands?”
