Chapter 37

THIRTY-SEVEN

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Monday, September 23

6:32 p.m.

"I knew you'd come for me."

The words echoed around Leigh's head. Over and over until the new voice collided with the old. With her brother's. They were the same exact words he'd spoken when she'd pulled him out of Chris Ellingson's garage. Because she hadn't given up. Not for a single moment.

"That's what friends do." A blurred vision of dark hair, creamy skin, and impossibly dark eyes crystallized in front of her. Exactly as Leigh remembered. "They are there for each other, and I knew you of all people would be here for me when I needed you the most."

The past slinked back into the box she'd tried to keep it in for the last six months, but there was a truth to what she'd told Saige Fuentes. It would always have a say. It would always be right there. Waiting to make the next decision for her. Leigh tried to drag her head level, but her entire body felt so… heavy. Useless. "Elyse. You're alive?"

"Hi, Leigh." That bright smile she'd noted in the first few seconds of coming out of anesthesia flashed wide. So out of place now. Bruises patterned across the outside of one eye where a row of stitches held a laceration together, and the cut through Elyse's lip felt… wrong somehow. Her friend seemed thinner than a mere two weeks ago. Tired.

How long had she been unconscious? Leigh tried to take in the room. Her position in the straight-backed chair. But there was something missing. Something important. "Detective Moore. Where is she?"

"You don't have to worry about her anymore, Leigh. She's not going to bother us." Elyse sat back on the edge of the queen-sized bed.

Dread pooled at the base of Leigh's spine. "What have you done?"

"What you taught me to do, Leigh." Hints of soap penetrated Leigh's senses. Fresh. Clean. Showered. Elyse was alive. How? While bruising and small cuts interrupted her complexion, there was a sense of revitalization and rest in her expression. "I took care of my family the best way I knew how. Thanks to you."

"I don't understand." None of this was making sense. Where was Detective Moore? Was she dead? No. This all had to be some kind of mistake. Elyse wouldn't hurt anyone. She wouldn't kill a police officer.

Elyse leveraged both hands onto the edge of the mattress, accentuating a set of dark red scrubs Leigh hadn't noticed until right then. "I guess you wouldn't, would you? I've been turning all of this over in my head for so long, it's hard to remember what I've told those closest to me. Or if I told them anything at all."

She moved to swipe her hair out of her face. Only her hands didn't seem to want to obey her brain's commands. Her skin prickled like a thousand needles in her fingertips, and Leigh realized she'd been bound. With a section of rope. "Elyse, I'm a federal agent. You stabbed a detective, and the police think you killed a man. This isn't something you can come back from. Please, let me go, and we will figure this out. Together. Okay?"

"Do you know who that man was?" Elyse's comforting smile slid from her face. "Do you know what he did to Poppy Slater and Ruby Davis? What he did to my daughter and was going to do to Saige Fuentes?"

She had to get to Detective Moore. She had to get out of here. "Elyse?—"

"He hurt them, Leigh. He drugged them. He raped them, and then he disposed of them because he broke them," Elyse said. "The police had no idea what kind of monster he was, but I knew. And I wasn't going to let him hurt anyone else. So I stopped him. Me. With what you taught me."

"Taught you?" Leigh asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?" Elyse cocked her head to one side, changing the arrangement of her features into something otherworldly and foreign. Or maybe it was the brain damage Leigh had suffered a little while ago birthing her delusions. "All the times I asked you about your cases, about your job, and the details you shared. I took notes, Leigh. Because after Ava told me what happened to Poppy Slater last summer at that party, I knew I might need them someday. When he predictably would come for my daughter. And I was right. Samuel Thornton tricked her. He hurt her. Violated her. She was worried he might kill her if we reported it to the police. She has nightmares she's still in that house, and I had to do something. It's a mother's job to make sure her child feels safe. And, as you've seen, I take that job very seriously."

"The claims you'd lost your memory? The blood downstairs?" Leigh took extra effort to put her questions together. So many questions. Too much pain at the back of her head. "It was all a lie."

"No. Not all of it." Elyse angled her attention to the nightstand lamp, its warm light urging Leigh to close her eyes for just a moment. But there was a chance she might not wake up again. That Detective Moore would die if she gave in. "There are things I don't remember from the past week and a half. Mostly small details. As for the blood, I imagine your forensic techs are going to come to the truth sooner or later once they run their little tests."

"What truth?" Leigh asked. "The blood tested as yours."

"It is mine. Just not as fresh as I wanted everyone to believe." Her friend cocked her head to one side, studying her as a spider studied its next meal. "I'm a physician's assistant, Leigh. Do you know why I became a nurse? Because I'm good at helping people. I'm good at taking care of people, especially those who don't know what they need. But you and I both understand that there are some things in this life we can't stop from happening. All we can do is be prepared for the worst."

Not as fresh as she wanted everyone to believe? Leigh should've seen it before now. "You… banked your blood?"

"Not just mine," Elyse said. "Ava's and Wesley's too. Just in case. I keep it stored at a local blood bank in case there's an emergency. You can never be too careful."

"For what, Elyse?" Pain pulsed at the back of her head. Something dry and crusty itched. Blood. Leigh struggled to keep herself focused, but it was getting harder. Her head was getting heavier. "Why make everyone believe you were dead? Why put your daughter through all of this?"

"My daughter is stronger than you think." Elyse bounced off the bed. Then pulled a suitcase out from the closet. "And someday when she learns the truth, as I imagine she will, she'll understand how much I love her. How far I will go to protect her."

"You were the one who got Saige Fuentes back to her family," Leigh said. "You were the one who took her to a hotel to recover after you got her out of Samuel Thornton's house."

"I told you." Elyse hefted the suitcase onto the end of the bed. Then paused. "I wasn't going to let Samuel Thornton hurt anyone else. I take it she gave you the necklace. The one that used to belong to Poppy Slater?"

"Let me guess, you took it from the beach house," Leigh said.

"He killed her. Just like he killed Ruby Davis. Like he was going to kill Ava and Saige. I thought her parents deserved to have it back when this was all over." Her friend smiled again. "I've always believed people come into your life for a reason, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago I realized why you'd come into mine. Why your cancer returned, why we became so close. But when Wesley suggested we take our annual fall vacation to Gulf Shores, I realized you could help me do what I've always done best. Take care of my family."

"You stole Poppy Slater's phone from her parents' house. Then you proceeded to bait Samuel Thornton to initiate a relationship with you over social media with a fake profile and photos." Leigh wanted to know. Everything. How had her friend become this… killer? "You could've just handed everything over to the police. The photos of Ruby, the hair you found, the messages between Ava and Samuel Thornton. None of this had to happen."

"The police?" Elyse's laugh triggered a chain reaction in Leigh that started with the tightening of her scalp and ended with the burn of acid in her chest. Elyse started pulling clothes from the closet. Just hers. Leaving Wesley's hanging. "I went to the police, Leigh. That detective you're so concerned about wouldn't believe anything I said. I told her Samuel Thornton assaulted me. I told her she needed to keep a better eye on him, but she wrote me off. I was nothing but a concussed, traumatized liar to her. So I did what I had to do, and you know what she tried to do when she found me in this house? Arrest me. Can you believe that? After everything that man has done to those girls, she wanted to arrest me. But, to be fair, I knew you would come looking once you got word I'd disappeared. I knew I could trust you to find the truth. That you would be the one to find the photos of Ruby Davis and the evidence of what kind of man Samuel Thornton was. Because that's who you are, Leigh. You're a good friend."

"What about Ava?" Leigh regained enough logical thought to twist her wrists within the rope binds. There was a bit of give. Maybe enough to wiggle free. Elyse hadn't bothered tying her ankles to the chair. Most likely relying on the head injury to keep Leigh complacent. But she'd never taken anything lying down. "You'll never be able to stop running, Elyse. You assaulted a police officer. You killed a man. You'll never see your daughter again. She'll end up in foster care, moved from house to house for the next four years. Is that the kind of life you really want her to live?"

"It's not your job to worry about Ava." Elyse shoved another round of clothes into the suitcase and started folding as if this were a typical laundry day. "She'll be perfectly fine. She's got her whole life ahead of her. We'll have the chance to start over. Just the two of us."

Realization struck. "Staying on the run isn't the answer. Changing your name, changing Ava's—it's not as easy as you think. There's DNA and photo recognition. US Marshals will catch up with you, and then what?" She didn't get an answer to that. Only more folding. "This isn't you, Elyse. The woman I know became a physician's assistant to help expecting mothers stay healthy and alive during their pregnancies. She was there for me when I woke up from surgery because she cared. She loved her family and her job. She loved Clarksburg and didn't ever intend on moving. I know what you're facing. I know what's happened feels like it's too much to take, but fleeing with two people's blood on your hands isn't going to fix it."

Elyse stared straight ahead, a shirt half folded in one hand. "It's amazing how little two friends can know about each other, isn't it? How weekly phone calls can hide as much as they reveal about a person. I put Ava directly in that monster's path. I failed my own daughter, Leigh. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"Yes." Leigh could only think of her brother's disappearance. Of her personal oath to find him and fix everything. No matter what it took. She imagined Elyse felt the same way. Responsible. Knowing that if she sat back and let the world work itself out, she'd be left with nothing but an empty space in her chest for the rest of her life. "I do."

"Then you know why I have to do this." Elyse shoved the rest of the clothing into the suitcase and zipped it shut. "So now I'm going to need you to tell me where my daughter is."

"You left a voicemail on my phone. You asked for my help. Well, here I am." Rope twine scratched at the thin skin along the back of Leigh's hand as she pulled one hand free with everything she had. She had to keep her upper body from jarring to one side so as not to attract Elyse's attention. "Let me help you."

"How? How are you going to help me? By arresting me like Detective Moore wanted when she walked in on me packing? By bringing me in and giving me a chance to tell my side of the story? You don't want to help me, Leigh. It's clear you've already chosen your side." Elyse turned a sad half smile on her. Warm light caught the tip of Leigh's pocketknife on the floor, the one she'd dropped while trying to keep Detective Moore from bleeding out. Her friend walked over to it, collected it in one hand. "And it isn't mine. So I'll ask again. Where is Ava?"

"I can't tell you that." Leigh kept her attention on the knife. On Elyse closing the distance between them.

"Then I'll make this quick." Elyse bent in half, setting her forehead against Leigh's, and closed her eyes. The tip of blade pricked through her button-down. Right against her heart. One wrong move, and it would all be over. "You've been a good friend. One I'll never forget."

"I won't forget this either." Leigh latched her free hand on to Elyse's wrist and brought both of her feet up. She kicked against the bed frame. The world flipped on its axis as gravity dragged her backward. Taking Elyse with her. Air knocked free of her chest as they hit the ground as one.

A groan filled the room. Leigh didn't realize it'd been hers until the pain started in her shoulder. The blood came next. Slowly leaking across her skin and staining her shirt.

Elyse fell to one side and struggled to her feet. Her gaze on the pocketknife protruding from beneath Leigh's collarbone. "I'm sorry, Leigh. I really am, but I'm never going to stop protecting my family. Even if that means losing you as a friend."