Chapter Sixty-Six

I TRIED TO remember the last time I’d scaled a drainpipe as I pulled myself, hand over hand, up the side of my house. I’d done it a few times on the job. Especially as a rookie. You always send the new guy up over the roof. New guys are disposable. I gripped the sill below Neddy Ives’s window, thinking to myself how much easier it had been all those years ago. My socked feet found purchase on the window frame below, and I hauled myself up, praying Neddy’s window wasn’t latched. It wasn’t. I inched it open, imagining the nose of Driver’s gun edging around the curtain, the blast of light that would end me.

There was a clock ticking in the darkened room somewhere. I pushed the curtains all the way back to give myself some moonlight. I was stunned for a moment by what I saw.

The recluse’s room was strangely orderly. I’d always imagined a hoarder’s nest, but two walls were lined with filing cabinets, the drawers neatly labeled. EYEWITNESSES. CASE NOTES. CRIME SCENE. Above the bed, the wall was completely covered with photographs, newspaper articles, little pink sticky notes. Trying to drag myself away from my curiosity, my eyes caught headlines as I headed for the door.

POLICE HUNT HUSBAND IN SHELLEY IVES DISAPPEARANCE

SPENCER EDWARD IVES SENTENCED TO THIRTY YEARS

I put my hand on the doorknob and froze. I’d been hoping to silently twist the knob, pull open the door, and check where Driver was in the hall, but as I gripped the cold brass in the dark I realized the knob was one of the old-style ones that had existed in the inn when I bought it. I’d replaced every knob the year before, but was unable to get access to Ned’s room, so this one remained. It was likely squeaky or rattly, like the others had been. I had no choice but to yank open the door and hope I caught Driver by surprise, if he was indeed still standing at the top of the stairs.

I took my hand off the knob, lay flat on the floor, and tried to look down the hall through the crack in the bottom of the door. I couldn’t see far enough. Taking the knob again, I filled my lungs with air, held my breath, and pulled open the door.

The door smacked against the latch holding it shut. I looked up, spotted the latch and bolt that I’d completely missed in the semidarkness, sitting at the very top of the door. It was a makeshift hidden lock, accessible from the outside, something Neddy must have installed himself. There wasn’t time to do much more than fling myself sideways as Driver arrived at the other side of the door and started firing.

Gold light speared through the room from the bullet holes in the door. I fired back and heard a scream I recognized. In my terror, I saw a flash of blond hair through the bullet holes as Susan collapsed outside the door.