Her mother shook her head. “It will only be for a moment. Just a mother-daughter talk. She will understand.”
His hold tightened. “I don’t want her to understand you.”
Chloe glanced at him. Realized that he knew the secrets, too.
His stare was on Chloe. “I don’t want you to understand.” Now those words were for Chloe. Only for her.
Her mother’s soft laughter filled the air. As warm as the sun. As sickeningly sweet as the flowers.
Chloe had the urge to grab her father. To hold him tight. But her mother was there. Smiling her innocent smile. Pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. He always did anything for her mother. Love. That was what he called it.
Chloe didn’t believe it. She thought it was something else. Something darker. More consuming. An obsession.
He slipped away a few moments later, but he didn’t go far. Never, too far. Chloe saw him watching as he stood near the red rose bushes.
“You are still such a child.” Her mother touched her cheek. Even though her hands were warm, the touch sent a chill through Chloe.
“I’m not…” she denied.
“Only a child would think you could change what was meant to be.”
“Reese doesn’t have to be locked away. I can help—”
Her mother bent her head. Stared straight into Chloe’s eyes. “Darling, I worry that you won’t even be able to help yourself when the time comes.”
Chloe wanted to back away. She couldn’t move.
“Don’t you feel it, too? I was only a little older than you when it called to me the first time.”
When Chloe saw the memories, she didn’t see the darkness of her tomb.
She tapped with her ring. Three short taps. Three long. Three short.
***
“Get your hands off me!” Joel snarled. “You’re not putting me in the fucking—”
“Let him go.”
Joel whirled at the nasally voice. A voice that he hadn’t particularly wanted to hear again—because it belonged to a jerk he normally disliked but…
“You heard me.” FBI Agent Paul Richardson lifted his ID and flashed it at the two cops who’d been working to shove Joel into the back of a patrol car. “FBI Agent Richardson. I’m in charge of this scene now, and I’m telling you, take your hands off him.”
They slowly let him go.
Joel immediately ran for the cemetery’s entrance.
Richardson grabbed him, and Joel turned ready to swing—
“Hey, how about try thank you instead of a fist to the face,” Paul huffed as he lurched back to avoid the blow. “Look, I’m on your side. So calm your ass down!”
“Chloe.”
“I know. I’ve been briefed. And the FBI is in charge because this case is a clusterfuck.” He jerked his thumb toward the entrance of the cemetery. “You want in there? I’ll get you in. But you stay at my side the whole time. I heard what Cedric said. He isn’t wrong. The place could be rigged to explode.”
“Then why are you letting me in?”
“Because I don’t really give a shit if you explode.” A shrug. “I’m not attached to you the way Cedric is.”
Fine. Fair enough.
“And I also think this killer wants you in there. That means he’s got some kind of message in that place for you. You see it, and maybe we can figure out who the hell he is and why there is a line of bodies in this town.”
Joel didn’t need to hear more reasons. He just wanted in.
Once more, he took off for the entrance. This time, Paul was at his side.
***
“I-I…I didn’t…want this…”
Her brother was bleeding. Chloe stared down at him. A tear had leaked from the corner of his eye and slid into his hair line. The scent of blood was so strong.
And it was everywhere.
Her nightgown was soaked with blood. A white gown, stained red.
Her mother had once danced in a white gown that had been stained with—
“Push it in deeper, Chloe. I need you to take the knife and push it in deeper.”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to do that. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And I don’t want to hurt you.”
Her lips wouldn’t stop trembling. There was no way for her not to know. She’d found the bodies. Her father. Her mother…
“If you don’t stop me…” His hand closed around hers. His fingers were covered in warm blood. “I’m scared I will hurt you.”
“Reese…” Her whole body was shaking apart.
“I love you.” He squeezed her hand. Yanked down.
The knife sank deep. “I-I love you,” she whispered back. And then she couldn’t stop crying.
Chloe kept tapping with the ring. Three short taps, three long taps, three short. A pause. Three short taps, three long, three short. A pause.
I love you.
After her brother’s death, she’d never said those three words to anyone again…until Joel.
Three short taps, three long, three short.
Pause.
Three short taps, three long, three short.
***
“What the actual hell?” Cedric clawed at his tie and glared at Joel and Paul. “What part of the civilian stays outside did you not get?” He had a flashlight in his left hand that he shone at them.
“I’m afraid it is not your call any longer, Detective Coleman,” Paul replied as his hands went to his hips. “I’ve been placed in charge. Dr. Landry knows the risks, and he’s accepted them. If he gets blown to hell, that’s his prerogative.”
Cedric shook his head. “Because you don’t give a fuck about him, right, Agent Richardson?” He stomped toward them. “I do. Chloe is my friend and so is Joel, and I am not going to watch while—”
“I think we may have something!” A young cop rushed forward, with his light bobbing. Excitement had his voice cracking. “I heard something about twenty yards away!”
“Heard something?” Cedric’s light immediately swung toward him. “What?”
“It was…a tap?”
“A tap? Show me.”
They flew after the young cop. Joel was aware that the bomb squad members were still there, and he was also aware of the fact that he wasn’t slowing down. He was running hell fast, and the place was like a maze. The cops had lights, and the lights were swirling and bobbing and bouncing off the monuments and the white vaults that rose from the ground—
The young patrolman froze. “I was right here when I heard it.”
There was a murmur of excitement.
“Shut the hell up!” Cedric boomed. “Quiet, everyone. Just listen.”
Silence.
Joel strained, his whole body vibrating with tension. Chloe, baby, please, if you are here, then help us to find—
Tap, tap, tap. Three fast taps. Then…Tap. Tap. Tap. Longer taps. They were—
“SOS,” Cedric breathed the words. “That’s SOS!”
That was Chloe. And the taps were close. Joel spun to the right. Saw the vaults that spread as far as he could see. Chloe was there. Chloe was in one of those vaults. She was tapping SOS. If she was tapping, she was alive.
“I want the bomb squad team checking this area! Make it clear—then let’s go!” Cedric was still giving orders. Paul Richardson was watching in silence.