Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Friday, September 20

10:40 a.m.

She was almost finished.

By the time she was done, there wouldn't be a single piece of evidence left behind to place her in this house. Elyse swiped her forearm against her cheek, catching sweat in its track down her face. Then checked her watch. Samuel Thornton hadn't come home last night. Another upset in his routine. Though this one was significantly different than staying up past his bedtime. Giving her the opportunity to scrub every surface in this house clean of her DNA. Leigh had once told her suspects always left pieces of themselves behind at a crime scene, and they ended up taking a piece of the scene with them. Locard's exchange principle. When she was finished, police would never be able to connect her to what was about to happen in this house.

But Ruby Davis wasn't here.

She'd searched the entire property. Multiple times. Each attempt more desperate than the last, and she wasn't sure her heart could handle another disappointment.

Hints of vinegar and lemon essential oil tickled the back of her throat. In her experience, the odor wouldn't stick around long. She finished wiping down the fireplace mantel, crouching to get better leverage at the bottom. To find her phone cast among the ashes behind the glass. A disbelieving laugh begged for release as she shifted her weight to get a better view. The son of a bitch must've seen her bury it on Tuesday morning. Unearthed the evidence she was sure to use against him. He'd recognized her. Known exactly how to mess with her head.

It was fitting, really. The phone almost represented everything she was before this family vacation. Straight, narrow, reliable. Now it was nothing more than a charred brick of hard angles and eroded insides. Raw and used. Something foreign he hated. And all Samuel Thornton had done by destroying it was condemn himself farther.

A thud registered from outside, shocking her system back into the moment.

Elyse shoved to stand, the spray bottle in one hand and a damp rag in the other. Maneuvering to one of the windows over the driveway, she took in the red pickup truck. And the man of the house. Her nerves threatened to get the best of her, but she'd thought every detail through.

Samuel Thornton hid his face underneath a ball cap she hadn't seen him wear until today. He rounded to the back driver's side door of the pickup. Effectively blocking her view of him for a moment. She could just make out his outline through the tinted window and the curve of the door.

To watch him pull something large and heavy from the backseat.

Black tarp fluttered with the constant breeze coming off the water. Samuel Thornton took the brunt of the tarp's weight, stumbling back. And for just a moment, Elyse could've sworn she saw a hand slip free of the plastic cage.

In the next second, it was gone as Thornton disappeared beneath the house. Vibrations shook through the kitchen floor. Directly over the storage room.

"Ruby." She shoved away from the window. Her timing had to be just right. She couldn't waste any of it, or the plan wouldn't work.

Elyse set the homemade cleaner in the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink and bagged the rag she'd used to clean every other surface of the home. In seconds, she was back in front of the hidden closet by the stairwell, unpacking everything she needed to make this as quick as possible.

Footsteps pounded up the outer staircase then across the deck.

Kicking the duffle bag into the closet, she followed after. And closed the door behind her. The swish of the double glass door weatherstripping whispered through the thin closet door. Elyse breathed through her mouth in an attempt to let her heart rate catch up to the rush of adrenaline.

She could do this. She would do it. For Ava. For Ruby. For Poppy. Getting to whoever was downstairs would have to wait for now. She would come back. When the deed was done and Samuel Thornton's body was decomposing in the marsh, she would come back. She would let the girl out of that small, dark room and get her home to her family.

Elyse tightened her grip on the nasal sedative. She just had to time it right. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears. She mentally tracked Samuel Thornton through the living room, into the kitchen. Her skin was hot. Uncomfortably so, but she wouldn't let it distract her. Not from this.

But then it was quiet. Three seconds. More.

He wasn't the type to take his boots off when he came home. Which meant he'd stopped moving. No other sound penetrated through the closet door. She couldn't surprise him if she didn't know where he was. Elyse waited, but patience only lasted so long when determined to kill someone.

"I know you're here." His voice didn't match anything she'd expected in her head and their limited interaction in front of Detective Moore. Like he'd swallowed gravel. Possibly sold his soul to the devil. "You would've been better off using one my cleaners instead of your own."

Elyse backed deeper into the closet. And knocked into a metal coat hanger. The hook disengaged from the bar and hit her in the face. Automatic reaction had her trying to catch it with two full hands, and her knee rammed into the closet door.

Giving away her position.

"Did you really think I didn't notice you've been watching me?" His boots reverberated through the floor. He was on the move again. Hunting for her. "I know who you are. And that you stole my photos of Ruby."

She stilled.

"I know where you live, Elyse Portman. I know what kind of car you drive." The volume of his voice warped, growing distant. "You're married. You have a daughter. Ava, right? Beautiful name."

Blood drained from Elyse's upper body. She raised the other item she'd brought into the closet with her. More effective than a nasal sedative, but far deadlier. A backup in case Samuel Thornton turned out to be stronger than she'd estimated.

"We've gotten to know each other. But you know that already, don't you?" It sounded like he'd taken to the stairs, his words an echo rather than something solid. A creak registered from the ceiling overhead. From the second living room upstairs.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

She'd lost the element of surprise, and she'd never get it back.

Elyse tested the closet doorknob and let in a crack of light. No movement from the other side. Still, she didn't trust her instincts. Not now. She'd read Samuel Thornton all wrong. The door eased wider, and she grabbed for the duffle bag at her feet. She had to get out of here. Now.

Scanning the living room and kitchen, she kept her footsteps as quiet as possible as she raced for the front door. Forget the plan. Forget about covering her tracks. The only thing she could do now was escape. Elyse wrenched the double glass door open, forgetting the noisy protest of the weatherstripping.

It swooshed. Too loud.

She didn't care. She bolted down the stairs. Her heel slipped out from underneath her and shot down two more steps. She landed on her ass, the worn wood digging into her back. She had to keep moving. She had to get out of here before the man she suspected of kidnapping caught up with her.

"Is somebody there?" Fear snaked through the muffled voice. From the storage closet underneath the house. Heaving sobs tainting every word. "Hello? Help me. Please. Help me."

Elyse's body was torn. Between wanting to run and wanting to help.

Between death and her own survival.

"Damn it." She couldn't let Samuel Thornton win. Cutting her attention to the door she'd left open on the main level, Elyse dashed for the storage room. The padlock secured the door shut. Dropping the duffle bag, she tapped her palm against the wood. "Can you hear me? I'm going to get you out of there."

Pounding echoed from inside. "I'm here! Please, open the door. Please. I don't like the dark."

"It's locked." Elyse pulled at the padlock, even knowing she'd never be able to muscle her way through it. Her fight or flight response had run logic right out of her brain, and it took a second to realize she needed something to break the metal. "Hold on. I'll get you out."

Seconds were slipping between her fingers. Minutes.

She searched around the storage room. Knowing full well the homeowner didn't keep any tools lying around. But that might not be true for his truck. Samuel Thornton worked construction. There was a chance he stored his tools inside. Elyse lunged for the driver's side door of the vehicle. The door opened easily. Because why lock it when you had the ability to strangle the life from people in your way? Her hands fluttered over the steering wheel and driver's seat. There was nothing up front. She moved to the back.

Too much time had passed. She needed to leave.

Elyse found what she'd been looking for in the back seat. The scratched and dented metal toolbox aggravated the soreness in her shoulder as she hefted it onto the back seat. The entire thing jarred backward as she flipped the case open. Spilling tools across the seat.

"Bolt cutters. Bolt cutters. Come on." She'd never handled a pair of bolt cutters in her life. The closest she'd come had been accompanying a professor to the cadaver lab in graduate school for research experience, where she had to snap multiple ribs and a sternum to get to a body's insides. But that'd been years ago. Elyse angled down toward the seat, looking through the windshield for signs of Samuel Thornton coming down the stairs.

Except he wasn't there.

Had he not realized she'd left the house? She didn't have time or the brain capacity to think about that. There were no bolt cutters in the toolbox, and it was only when she planted her hands on a hand saw that she realized they would've been too big to store in a backseat toolbox. "I'm coming."

She nearly collided with the door in a rush to get whoever was inside out. And set the saw against the padlock arm. The teeth scratched the shiny metal surface then started peeling back layers of shavings. The saw was going through. Elyse picked up the pace, regretting all the pushups and rows she skipped out on at the gym. Her muscles burned—more than she could bear—but she couldn't stop. She wouldn't give up. "I'm coming."

The saw cut through the last of the padlock with a hard jerk. The tool fell from her hand, clattering to the concrete. She ripped the padlock out of the bracket and flung open the door. It slammed back against the house. If Samuel Thornton wasn't aware of where she was, he sure as hell knew now. Elyse stretched her arms into the darkness of the storage room. "Come on. We've got to go."

"I can't… walk. I'm dizzy." The girl inside tried to stand. Off balance and over correcting. "I think… he gave me something."

"I've got you." Elyse crossed the threshold and slipped both hands underneath the girl's arms. As she'd done a thousand times with expecting patients wanting to get out of the hospital bed during labor. It took a different kind of strength. Stability. Both of which had waned considerably in the last few minutes. They were out of time. "Saige?"

Not Ruby. She couldn't let her heart settle on that fact.

"Do I… know you?" The girl's head fell back on her shoulders. Her eyelids heavier than they should've been.

"I'm Ava's mom. Hang on to me." Elyse threaded Saige's arm over her shoulders and hefted the girl's weight into her side. Heading for the door. They were going to make it. She had to believe that. "Lean on me. Okay? We're going to get you out of here."

"Well, well, well. Looks like I'm not the only one who's been busy." A shadow blocked their exit. Samuel Thornton. "Why don't you stay a while?"

Elyse lunged for the door, burdened with Saige at her side. "No!"

Just as he secured them inside.