Page 33 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

I take his hand. He’snot in the tub yet, just sitting on the side, with his feet in. “You need toget out there more. You used to date a lot. You stopped.”

“I guess my heart hasn’t been in it.” He picks up his wineand holds it out for a toast. I tap my glass against his and take a largeswallow.

The only trouble with this drink is how easy it goes down.Fortunately, I know that Aaron keeps a car service on call, so if I get tootipsy, it’ll be easy to get home. Or I can always get my boyfriend to pick meup.

The thought makes me smile. Boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

Oh, sexy boyfriend.

I should have eaten more. Three big swallows and I’m alreadyfeeling loopy.

I take another sip as the hot tub starts to get warmer, thentry to focus as Aaron goes through his notes, all of which I agree with, thoughI’m having a hard time focusing.

I close my eyes and lean back, feeling so incrediblyrelaxed. “This might have been a mistake,” I say.

“What?”

“Working in the hot tub with drinks. I could just fallasleep right here.”

“I’ll turn down the temperature,” he says, picking up hisphone and going to the app that controls the pool. Instead of getting cooler,though, I feel the hot tub immediately start to get hotter.

“I think you hit the wrong button.”

“Damn,” he says, but nothing seems to change. I reach for mydrink and finish it, then sigh. My eyes are starting to get very hard to holdopen, and I’m feeling more dizzy than drunk. And heavy and exhausted.

“Aaron, I’m not feeling so good.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

“Think I’m gonna get out.”

“Hold on,” he says, “let me go get you a towel.”

I start to protest, but I can’t seem to form the words. Ifeel very strange. And something is very, very wrong. Really wrong. So wrong.But I don’t know what it is that’s wrong…

My eyes are drooping, and that’s when I see it.

His fence.

The wrought iron that surrounds the property. There’s amonogram mixed in about every ten feet. It’s an open triangle crossed by a lineat a slant with a slight curve at the end. The letter A. A is for Aaron.

I’ve seen that before.

Where have I seen that before?

I try to keep my eyes open so I can get a better look, butit’s just not possible. My eyes close, and I feel myself start to slip. I tryto push myself up, knowing that if I fall off this step, my head will be underwater. But I’m sliding, and I can’t seem to help myself.

The water is over my mouth, coming close to my nose. I wantto cry out, but if I open my mouth, I’ll breathe it in. I try to hold on to theside, but my fingers aren’t working. And as the water starts to tickle mynose—as I try to force my feet to hold me steady and keep my head above thewater—I realize where it is that I’ve seen that A before. But when I saw it, itwas upside down. It was a V with a calligraphy line. V is for villain.

Oh, God.

The V in Carolyn’s diary. It wasn’t a V at all. It was anupside-down A.

Aaron was her mysterious boyfriend.

Aaron was the one who was there the night that she died.