It was like something out of the movies. A serial killer’s den. A shrine to deaths across the globe.
Adeline wanted to run. Every fiber of her being told her to. But she stepped deeper inside the room and gently closed the door. There was too much information here for her to write down. Or memorize. She took out her phone and clicked the video option and began holding it up to everything she saw. She walked around the room, taking it all in.
Beyond the door, she heard footsteps on the landing.
Adeline was near the end of the room. The steps drew closer.
Her hand shook.
She reached her other hand up to steady the phone, her eyes on the door, expecting the knob to turn. The electroshock weapon was in the bag. Overpowering Constance wasn’t the problem. But what if Constance had help here in the house? What if the caretaker, Gretta, was more than that? What if she was an accomplice?
Outside the bedroom, Adeline heard footsteps on the stairs, labored, slow steps going down.
Constance.
Carefully, Adeline opened the door and peered out. The stairway was clear.
She heard footfalls on the rug in the foyer.
Now or never.
She raced across the upper landing on her tiptoes, hoping the sound didn’t echo below. In the master bedroom, she set down one of the frames and picked up the original, fingers fumbling for the tabs that held the glass and picture in place.
“Adeline?” Constance called from below.
Adeline froze. She focused on the frame, but her fingers wouldn’t work. It was as if they had turned to soft rubber.
“Adeline?” Constance called again from downstairs.
She was caught.
Adeline made for the door but stopped. One last chance.
In the master bathroom, she replaced the soap dish and pulled the medicine cabinet open. Bottles of prescription medications spread out in rows, filling each shelf.
“Adeline?” Constance’s voice was closer now. Was she on the stairs?
Adeline drew her phone out, snapped a picture, and dashed out of the room, out into the hallway.
Constance arrived on the landing a second after, panting, gripping the rail, head down. She looked up and saw Adeline.
“What are you doing here?”
The question struck fear into Adeline. She was caught.
It was over.
Adeline did the only thing she could. She lied. And she was surprised at how easily it came.
“I thought you might need help. You were gone so long.”
Constance squinted at her.
“And then I needed to use the bathroom.”
“You went earlier.”
“I didn’t… I only cried. I had to actually go this time.”
Constance studied Adeline’s face for a long moment. Her gaze shifted to the strap across her shoulder that led to the backpack filled with the pictures and items Adeline had just stolen from Constance’s home. It was as if the older woman could see right through the bag—and Adeline herself. She had never felt so exposed in all her life. How had she ever thought she could do this? That she could walk into Constance’s home and ever get away with it?
Had Daniele set her up?
Constance exhaled, as if disappointed. As if she was dreading whatever she had just decided. She turned and descended the stairs. She didn’t ask Adeline to follow, but the younger woman fell in behind her.
In the living room, Constance didn’t sit. She stood, the fire crackling behind her, staring at Adeline as she entered the room.
“Dani said you had something you wanted to give me.”
Adeline hesitated. The porcelain figurine of her father had a glass eye with a camera in it. Inside it contained the router that would transmit all the signals from the surveillance items she had placed throughout the house to a satellite. But if Constance broke the small statue open, she would instantly see what it really was. All she had to do was release it, and let it drop to the stone patio floor, and it would all be over.
“Do you have it?” Constance asked.
Adeline set down the backpack and took out the figurine and handed it to the older woman, who gripped it with both hands and studied it.
“Interesting,” she murmured. Adeline had the distinct impression that she was staring at the camera in the statue’s eye.
TWENTY-THREE
The sun set, and Sam swam for the shore.
He crested the waves and pumped his arms, making his way toward the small sliver of land on the horizon that was his only chance of survival.
Soon, the darkness began to swallow the coast. Using the stars above, Sam committed the location to memory. Getting off course could be deadly. This was his second night in the Triassic. It might well be his last. Swimming in the wrong direction might be the last mistake he ever made. Assuming he could even reach the shore.
With night came another storm that roiled the sea.
Sam swam on, stopping only to float on his back to rest and gather rainwater in his mouth. The rain and the buoyant outfit were his salvation on the open sea. Would they be enough to see him ashore?
Sam wasn’t so sure.
He was weak. A day without food would do that. And Sam had exercised more that day than he had in a long time.
He felt as though the sea was testing him, and there was no pass or fail. Only live or die.
The crescent moon glowing above him hung silently like a proctor watching, waiting to see if he had what it took to survive here.
In his mind, he returned to that source of strength: the vision of him stepping out of Absolom, reaching out and hugging his children, of the world set right again. He didn’t know how he could do it, only that the prospect of seeing them again was worth giving everything he had.
Sam rolled over and began cutting through the water as the rain pelted harder and the sky grumbled. The storm was growing stronger. He wondered if that was the pattern of this corner of the Pangea coast: late afternoon showers and night storms.
When the muscles in his arms and legs were burning, he once again flipped onto his back and rested, letting the rain gather in his mouth. He was weary to his bones. And hungry. Exhausted in a way he had never known—or even knew was possible.
He wondered if he were only swimming for himself—if he didn’t have anyone to come back to—if he would have given it up.
It wasn’t just seeing his family again. He needed to get back to protect them. Whoever had framed him might be watching them right now—plotting something else.
He had a promise to keep. And he would, no matter how far he had to swim. He would make it to that shore or die trying. Those were the only two possibilities for him now.
He realized then what a powerful source of strength a child in danger could be. Nothing gave a parent superpowers like knowing their child needed them and that no one else could help them.
Sam had never experienced that until now. But he had seen it.
As he floated, staring at the stars, gathering his strength to battle the sea again, a memory came of lying on a narrow child’s bed, staring up at a smattering of plastic glow-in-the-dark stars that had been puttied to the ceiling. He was holding a book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Adeline lay beside him, her eyes drooping, her small left hand gently resting on his chest. Sleep would come soon for her, but she always fought it with the last shred of strength she had. During her childhood, Sam had likely asked her a million times, “Are you tired?”
In those years, he had only ever heard one reply: “No.”
That included the instances when her eyelids were nearly closed and when she fell asleep within sixty seconds of declaring her lack of fatigue. This was one of those times.
As Sam turned the page, he glanced over at her, checking to see if Adeline had drifted off.
She saw him and instantly raised her eyelids, fighting to stay awake. He was caught. She wasn’t going to let him get away that easy tonight.
He continued reading. Across the hall, Ryan was crying. Sarah exited the master bedroom, cradling him in her arms, lightly rocking, her sing-song voice starting a tune to soothe him. This was the anthem of their nights now: a reading dad, a singing, marching mother, and a crying baby.