He paused at the car, looking down the block. The houses were dark. It was closing in on midnight—a family with kids wouldn’t be out, older people usually went to bed fairly early, and Ginger did not seem the type to party late. Naturally, the block was quiet.
He was still suspicious. But Kylie had said that the man had the woman in a hotel room.
Anyone can rent a hotel room.
He called Ben back again. “Ben, is there any way to find out what hotels have rented to locals?”
“What?”
“You need an I.D. to get a hotel room. Can we find out if any hotels have rented rooms to locals?”
Ben sighed deeply. “I can start trying. But do you know how many people run bed and breakfast establishments or use those travel sites—”
“This is a hotel. A regular hotel.”
“Jon, how do you—?”
“Please, Ben.”
“All right, all right. I’m on the street myself. Looking for a fairy. At Halloween.”
“Stop any fairy you see. We can sort them all out later.”
Jon glanced at Kylie. She was watching the road intently. After they drove the streets in the tourist section, he expanded the search. But after forty-five minutes, he knew that the fairy would most probably be back in her hotel room.
With a sigh, he headed back to Brim House.
He had barely parked the car before he heard a cry of anguish. Hopping out, he saw that Kenny Innes was lying in the yard, looking around desperately. “Help! Someone, please help. Ginger, oh my God. He has Ginger!”
Seeing Jon, Kenny tried to rise and fell again. Jon strode over to him.
“Kenny?”
The man seemed to be hysterical with fear, and he was raving.
“He came back. He was back! Maybe he knew you were gone, but Ginger stepped out because she said a cat was crying on the porch or something, and I saw her with someone and hurried out. He slammed me with some kind of a giant hook and then…she was gone. I saw him going the same way he did before, dragging her. Please, help me. He’s going to kill Ginger because…he wanted to kill you or her or…oh, God, I don’t know! He’s going to kill Ginger. He headed into the woods.”
Kylie was behind him, reaching into her purse for her phone to call Ben. “Go!” she yelled. “Go!”
Jon headed toward the woods, wondering if the killer had known that Kylie had been in his mind.
He ran…
And almost ran through Obadiah Jones, standing there in the woods as if he knew that Jon would come.
* * * *
Jon hadn’t even disappeared into the darkness before Kenny reached out for her, pleading, “Please, just help me to my feet. We need to call the police, if you’ll just help me!”
Kylie hurried over to him, reaching down.
She wasn’t sure what alerted her.
The hand.
She had seen the hand in detail in her vision from the hotel. For a few minutes, it had been her hand.
She started to back away, but he suddenly had her, clutching her wrist with a grip like steel, coming to his feet and swinging her to the ground. He reached into his pocket and produced a vial.
She was down, twisted at a funny angle.
But he didn’t see that her cell phone was still in her left hand.
She was right-handed, and she wasn’t sure what she could accomplish, but Jon was number 1 on her speed dial, and she could try…
“Drink!” he commanded, ripping the plug off the vial with his teeth. “Drink!” he demanded. “I will get this down your throat. You…you…there is something about you, and I’m damned sorry. You’re not right for this, but you have to die—what?”
He’d seen her phone.
She threw it out onto the grass, hoping it had dialed through.
That Jon was listening.
“You’re creepy!” he screamed at her. “Drink this!”
He tried to force the vial to her lips. Strychnine. And she wasn’t seeing this through other eyes this time.
It was happening to her.
But Kenny was accustomed to seducing and tricking vulnerable females. She wasn’t helpless. She was terrified, of course.
But she knew that she had to act.
She had taken a few excellent self-defense classes since she and Jon had gotten married.
Kenny thought he had her, but he wasn’t watching his balance—or his person. She smiled eerily, and when he frowned, confused, she shot up and raised a knee to his groin, causing him to scream in anguish, and allowing her a moment’s freedom. She righted herself, ready to let out a scream that would wake the very dead before she kicked him in the head to make sure he’d stay down until Jon got back.
But sound never left her.
A woman came running out of the house, brandishing a gun.
It wasn’t Ginger Radisson.
It was Mandy Nichols.
“What the hell are you doing, Kenny? This should have been over with already. We’ve got to get her out of here before that idiot comes back saying he’s sorry he couldn’t find Ginger.”
“Idiot? I’m sorry, Jon can be an idiot at times, but not about his job. And if he comes back and doesn’t find me, don’t you think he’ll know damned well that you’re guilty?” Kylie asked.
“Not me,” Mandy said. “I don’t even live here. He won’t find me. I’m just here because Kenny got beat up by a girl.”
“Kenny has killed two women. At your suggestion, I’d guess?” Kylie said.
“You made me do it, Mandy. I loved you!” Kenny cried. “I did it all for you. This place, Ginger…I did it for you!”
He was still curled up in a fetal position. Obviously, Kylie had hurt him.
“Kenny likes killing. I just want the house back,” Mandy said.
“What?” Kylie said incredulously.
Where the hell is Jon?
Mandy started to laugh. “Kenny likes women, but he gets a real hard-on when he gets to kill someone. As I said, I only want the house back. And, hey, growing up, I heard the coolest stories about my family, so it only seemed just that I point out the right people for Kenny to kill. Man, talk about dysfunctional! Mary kills Teresa, Teresa’s kid kills Mary, Ezekiel goes to the gallows. What’s more just than killing off a few of Teresa’s great-great-a-million-times-greats or whatever grandkids? And stick a body in Brim House. I figured Brenda would run like a bat out of hell!”
“What? Why the hell didn’t you just buy it yourself when it went up for sale?”
Mandy waved a hand in the air. “I got rid of those out-of-town buyers with no sweat whatsoever. Then the owner insisted he sell to Brenda. She had integrity, and she was such a good person, and she was paying his price. Blah, blah, blah. Enough. Kenny, give me the damned vial. I’ll get the poison down her. By the way, how was it getting beat up by a girl? You look like you’re really in pain. Oh, you are. Poor baby.”
Mandy Nichols waved the gun at Kylie.
“Get in the house! Now. Or I’ll put a bullet right between your eyes.”
“Where is Ginger?” Kylie demanded. “And if you’re going to put a bullet between my eyes, you’d better know where Ginger—and her phone is.”
“Wasn’t that a nice touch? Kenny and Ginger being so helpful, showing you the clown?” Mandy asked. “Ginger is knocked out, big dose of a sedative. We’ll get to her later.”