Chapter 29

HOPE’S PLANS HADstalled. She knelt on the deck of her yacht, sanding the scratches in the polished wood, trying to keep her fury contained. The scratches went all the way from the anchor mount to a door at the side of the vessel, from where she’d dragged the anchor she had tied Claudia to.

In the first days, Hope had been sick whenever she’d thought about it. All that would go in time. Already she couldn’t remember her face. Piece by piece, the memories would fall away. She just had to continue with the plan.

Hope heard a shifting in the bathroom. She got up and marched there, slammed open the door. Finally he was awake. Ken was just coming to his senses, shaking the chloroform fog from his head. He looked down at his sleeping wife, at the sheen of sweat on her skin. The woman was ghost white.

“So I had a magnificent time at the bank,” Hope snapped.

“You got the money?” Ken’s eyes widened. “Now you can let us go. You can—”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t try to send me into a fucking trap, Ken.” Hope slammed the door again so that it banged against the shower frame. “The joint signatures? You were hoping to trip me up, and your plan failed.”

“I wasn’t,” Ken panted, swallowed hard. “Hope, look, I didn’t try to betray you. I just want to get my wife to a hospital. I just want this to be over. Jenny has got hours, not days, until her kidneys are going to fail and she’s going to die. Do you understand that?”

“Do you think I’m a fucking idiot?” Hope sneered.

“No.” Ken shook his head. “No, of course not. You’re very clever. It would take someone very clever to pull something like this off.”

“I’ve planned every aspect of this thing,” Hope said. “Nothing is going to stop me. I deserve this, you understand? I’ve waited my whole life for my moment. You’ve got to make your own life, Ken. You’ve got to change your own destiny. Nobody’s gonna change it for you.”

“Imagine if you staged an incredible plan like this without hurting anybody.” Ken nodded along. “Wow! You’d show everybody. You’d go down in the history books.”

Hope sighed. She’d been enjoying Ken’s praise, but he’d taken it a step too far. The man must know what had happened to Claudia. Two young, professional women had approached him about his boat. Those same two had accompanied him and his wife around the harbor, followed him down into the engine cavity to inspect the boat’s inner workings. Now that their real purpose had been revealed, one of those girls was gone. Even from the bathroom where she’d locked them, Ken and Jenny must have heard Claudia’s scream as Hope had brought the hammer down on the back of her skull. The scrape of the anchor. She felt exhausted as Ken launched into his tired pleas again.

“It won’t take long. All you have to do is bring the machine in here,” Ken said. “There might be enough dialysate left for one more dose. Just untie one of my hands, and I’ll—”

“You’re going to die, Ken,” Hope said suddenly. The man before her stiffened, his eyes wide. Hope shook her head, bored, as she continued: “You’re both going to die. You might as well just accept that now.”