a lantern and followed a well-worn path from the tower.
Hannah knew at once where it would lead and followed silently. She felt the creep of dread up her spine.
When the shed came into view, she ducked behind an old tractor. Alice would have the advantage of a lantern. Hannah, the idiot, hadn’t even brought a flashlight with her. However, she had the element of surprise on her side.
Something else clicked into place, then. A brown tooth.
You leave her out of this, Warren had said.
Alice slipped into the shed, and through the single two-by-two window, Hannah could see the soft lantern glow.
Hannah placed her hand on the door and slid it open.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Now
Alice was spreading a blanket when she was caught by surprise.
“Hannah!” Alice startled, her tone shrill. “I can explain. I was evicted yesterday. I just need a place to stay for a few days.”
“Why wouldn’t you ask to stay inside?” Hannah’s voice sounded strange, even to her own ears. Strangled.
“I didn’t want to bother you.” She lifted up her hair, twined it around her fist, and dropped it. Her long ponytail grazed her back, and Hannah could see the roots: a bright-auburn stripe around her crown.
The gesture felt intimate. She’d studied it as a newly minted teenager, thinking at the time that it was hopelessly sensual, exposing that raw curve of neck, the glimpse of pale skin.
Alice turned her head, and in the lamplight it was so obvious Hannah couldn’t believe she’d never seen it. That no one else saw it.
“You’re Ellie’s mother.”
Alice’s head whipped around; her eyes narrowed. She didn’t deny it. Her face transformed, hardening and taking on a wholly new shape: revenge personified. She dropped the blankets and from her bag extracted a hunting knife.
Hannah’s heart hammered, but her thoughts were too slow. She was too sleep deprived, too detached to assemble it all quickly in her mind. Hannah didn’t have anything to defend herself with—she hadn’t known she’d need it.
She had to buy time.
“If you’re Ellie’s mother, there’s only one reason you’re here.” Nothing about Alice being at Brackenhill was coincidental. She’d purposefully taken a job as Stuart’s nurse. Was she even a nurse? “You killed Fae.” It all seemed so glaringly obvious now. “You killed Fae because you think Fae killed Ellie.”
“Fae did kill Ellie. I heard her confess to Stuart the night she drove away.” Alice’s face contorted. “Unburdening herself. Crying about it! Ha.”
“You followed her.”
“I confronted her.” Alice’s voice boomed now. She was yelling, angry, her hair slipping from the tidy ponytail. “I heard her tell that vegetable of a husband how sorry she was for what they did. How she ruined his life and their lives. What about my life? She killed Ellie just as I was getting sober. I was ready to form a relationship with my daughter. Do you know where Ellie was going the night she ran away? The night she came here first?”
Hannah felt the answer flow through her like water.
“To meet me. She was taking the bus to Tempe from Rockwell. Then we were both going to New York City. Figured we’d both waitress, get a studio apartment, start over in a place no one knew us. I didn’t have a car. We’d been talking on the phone. Writing letters. Warren had no idea, but he was an abusive, alcoholic drunk. I was trying to finally make things right for my daughter.” Alice dropped her head to her chest, caught her breath. “When she didn’t show up, I took a cab to Warren’s house. He drove up here to find her because I told him to. He was drunk, I wouldn’t get in the car with him, but it was the only chance I had. He came back with nothing. All he told me was he saw her run into the woods, and he saw that bitch Fae chase her.” Alice sliced the air with the knife, the serrated edge glinting in the dim light. “She never loved Ellie.”
“How did you get this job?” Hannah felt breathless, almost paralyzed with fear, her legs shaking.
“God, it was so stupidly easy. I just showed up. Warren told me Stuart was sick. It was his idea. He said you can pretend to be a nurse. Years ago, I was an orderly in a hospital. I knew enough to get by. You can research anything on the internet. I didn’t need to actually help him; I just had to be believable. I had Fae order his medicine through his doctor.