“But you’re the one guilty of killing four people.”
“Four? No way!” Scott was rising from his chair, but his lawyer placed a staying hand over his forearm.
“Mr. Pascal is telling you what he knows. About the deaths of Glenn Stafford and Mitchell Bellotti.”
“What about Renee Trudeau and Jezebel Brentwood?”
Scott wasn’t waiting for his lawyer. “I had nothing to do with that. I wasn’t anywhere near the coast when Renee had her accident. Jesus, I have an alibi. I was at a meeting with bankers about refinancing Blue Ocean. The meeting was in Portland at Second Community Bank. Check with Davis Sheen, he’s my banker.”
“We will.”
“And I didn’t kill Jessie. I hardly knew her.” He was nearly convincing as tears glistened in his eyes. “You have to believe me.” He turned his tortured gaze to his bland-faced lawyer. “It’s the truth. I didn’t kill Renee, and I didn’t kill Jessie. And I don’t know who did.”
Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, Becca gazed at the wand in her hand with its two bright pink lines that indicated, yes, she was indeed pregnant.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, staring at the two lines in wonder.
I’m having a baby. Hudson’s baby!
Again.
She blinked against a spate of tears and told herself that all she had to do was step through the door and tell Hudson, who was waiting downstairs. He’d wished her luck as she’d hurried up the steps of her condo, pregnancy test kit tight in her hand.
If she figured right, the baby would be born in late November or early December. A Christmas baby!
“Stop it,” she said, not wanting to get caught up in the host of fairy-tale dreams. It was too early for that. She’d been down that rocky road once before.
But it was time to inform Hudson that he would definitely be a father by the end of the year.
She stood up quickly and as she did, she felt the floor start to buckle beneath her feet. The walls closed in on her. A vision…Her head felt like it was splitting in two.
Oh, God, no! Not now!
Her vision fogged and she felt as if she were going to faint. She grabbed on to the sink for support, dropping the test. Head throbbing, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror only to have the image fade to watery waves. The smell of the sea was thick in the air, and in the glass she spied the same teenaged girl she’d seen before. Again on a rocky out-crop, the wind teasing her hair, her eyes, so like Becca’s, wide with fear, her skin nearly translucent.
Dark clouds spun above her, the churning sea roiling far below.
“Jessie,” Becca whispered as the girl looked at her and placed a finger to her lips.
But this time Jessie wasn’t alone. This time there was someone else, a dark, faceless figure looming behind her, an evil presence of which Jessie appeared unaware. Becca cried out and the demon seemed to look straight at her, his eyes hidden, his nose tilting in the air, as if to smell the breeze.
Though she couldn’t see his features, Becca knew deep in her heart that this monster was what Jessie had feared.
Her knees gave way, but she clung to the sink and realized there was something familiar about him, something bone deep and riddled with an evil as dark as all of Hades. “Jessie,” she tried to cry again, in warning, but her voice failed her as she slid further downward.
Jessie was already dead. She knew that…didn’t she? But this girl…she looked so much like Jessie.
This horrid creature, this malevolent force had already killed her. The girl on the cliff was only a spirit, a ghost of the girl who had been murdered and buried in the maze at St. Elizabeth’s. Becca knew that.
So why was she here?
Why had Jessie returned to haunt her?
Not to haunt you…To warn you…
Had that thought come from her own mind, or had Jessie mouthed the words?
She couldn’t tell, but the ominous figure in the dark cowl came closer, nose in the air, so close that surely Jessie sensed him. She had to feel the heat of his fetid breath against the back of her neck, yet she didn’t move, not even when he raised a hand over her.
Watch out! Jessie, run! Run as fast and as far as you can!
She mouthed something to Becca, then glanced back at the monster.
Becca’s heart was pounding, fear coursing through her bloodstream, but Jessie, facing into the wind, stood motionless. Didn’t try to escape.
No!
The monster stopped. Hand raised, he drew a knife from deep within the folds of his cloak and stared over Jessie’s shoulder straight at Becca.
Becca gasped. This was what had killed Jessie.
And it was coming for her.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Becca?”
She heard her name as if from a distance. It rolled inside her head, echoing.
“Becca!”
Hudson? It was Hudson’s voice?
“I’m coming in.”
She blinked, her eyes opening to the bright lights of her own bathroom. Her head ached dully and she was lying on the cool tile floor, her head inches from the bathtub, her feet nearly touching the tub. She remembered the demon in her vision, could almost smell the saltwater that had clung to him. Was he even real?
“Dear God,” she whispered, thinking of her unborn child.
She lay motionless, trying to pull herself together, trying not to shiver from the coldness and the fear.
The bathroom door cracked opened and Hudson, all six feet of him, stepped inside. Seeing her on the floor, he went pale as death. “What happened?” He was at her side in an instant, dropping to his knees as she struggled to hers. “Are you all right? Becca!” Concerned eyes studied her, strong arms surrounded her.
Wincing against the pain, she remembered the pregnancy test. Where the hell had the wand rolled to?
“You had another vision,” he realized, concern etched into his voice.
“Yes.” She rubbed the back of her head where it had hit the floor. God, it hurt. “I’m fine, though.”
“You need to see a doctor.”
“No doctor. I’ll be fine.” She spied the pregnancy wand with its two vibrant lines announcing that she was pregnant. Corralling it with one hand, she wordlessly handed it to him.
He looked down at the two pink lines. “This means…?”
“Positive. You’re still okay with this?” she asked anxiously.
“I’d be better if you let me take you to a doctor. You’re pregnant,” he said, as if she needed to be reminded. “And these visions…I don’t like them.”
“I know, I know.” Becca struggled to sit up. “But you’re okay about the baby? I just need to know.”
“Yes. More than okay. But we’re going to the Laurelton Hospital ER.” He pulled her, protesting, to her feet. “I want to make sure both you and the baby are okay. We’ll make an appointment with your doctor later.” He gave her a hard look. “You have a doctor?”
“Yes. But-”
“C’mon.”
He shepherded her out to his truck, and despite her continual assertions that she was totally fine, they headed over to Laurelton Hospital, which hung on the edge of a hillside, making the third floor on one side, the first floor where the emergency vehicles entered.
Becca was surprised when Hudson insisted on going into the cubicle with her. “I can do this by myself,” she said with a smile.
“I want to talk to the doctor about your visions.”
“I’ve been through this with my parents. There was never anything wrong.”
“You’ve never been pregnant before,” he said, and her heart clutched. “You seem to be having them more now. Maybe it’s connected. I don’t know.”