“Only because I caused it.”
I hold his rapt attention as I describe the events of that night, detailing every step of my crime.
“Why are you telling me this now?” Eli asks.
“Because it helps everything else make sense,” I say.
The everything else is what’s been going on at Lake Greene. Again, no detail is skipped and not a single bit of my bad behavior is overlooked. I hoped admitting everything would leave me feeling as cleansed as a sinner after confession. Instead, I only feel shame. I’ve committed too many wrongs for the blame to rest solely with Len.
Eli listens with an open mind. After getting to the part about Len taking possession of Katherine’s body, I say, “You were right. Something was in the lake, waiting. I don’t know if it’s all bodies of water or just Lake Greene or something special about Len. But it’s true, Eli. And it’s happening right now.”
He says nothing after that. He simply stands, leaves the den, and goes to where Len is being kept. Their voices drift in from the living room, too hushed and urgent to be heard clearly.
Ten minutes pass.
Then fifteen.
Eli ends up speaking with Len for twenty minutes. A fraction of the time I spent talking, but long enough for me to get anxious that he doesn’t believe me. Or, worse, believes whatever lies Len is telling him.
I hold my breath as Eli finally returns to the den and sits down.
“I believe you,” he says.
“I—” I struggle to speak, flustered by both surprise and relief. “Why? I mean, what convinced you?”
Eli cranes his neck to pass a glance into the distant living room. “She—sorry, he—admitted it.”
That word—he—tells me Eli’s serious. Knowing that he believes me would typically leave me fainting with relief if not for the last thing I need to tell him.
My plan for what’s next.
Again, I go through every step, answering all of Eli’s questions and addressing each of his concerns.
“It’s the only way,” I tell him when I’m done.
Eventually, Eli nods. “I suppose it is. When do you plan on doing it?”
I turn to the window, surprised to realize that while I was talking to Eli and he was talking to Len, the storm had moved on. No more gusts rattle the windows and no more rain thrums against the roof. In their place is the quiet stillness that always follows wild weather, as if the atmosphere, having blustered and bellowed to exhaustion, is now taking a long, restful breath. The sky, once so dark, has now thinned to a medium gray.
Dawn is on its way.
“Now,” I say.
In the living room, Eli and I stand before Len, who’s still trying to pretend he’s bored by all of this. The old Len might have been able to get away with it. The new one, stuck with Katherine’s exquisitely expressive face, can’t. Curiosity peeks through his impatient facade.
“Tell me where you put those girls,” I say, “and I’ll let you go.”
Len perks up, his feigned boredom vanishing in a snap. “Just like that? What’s the catch? There has to be one.”
“No catch. There’s not a whole lot I can do here. I can’t kill you because it would mean killing Katherine, too. And I can’t keep you tied up like this forever. Like Tom Royce, I could try. Chain you up in the basement. Feed you and bathe you. But more people are going to start looking for Katherine, and it’ll only be a matter of time before they find you.”
“And I can go anywhere?”
“The farther, the better,” I say. “You can try to live like Katherine Royce for a while, but I suspect that’ll be extremely difficult. She’s pretty famous. Her four million Instagram followers will easily pick you out in a crowd. My advice is to change your appearance and get away as far and as fast as you can.”
Len thinks it over, no doubt considering the hurdles of starting a new life in a new place in a very recognizable body.
“And you’re willing to help me?”
“I’m willing to drop you off at the Royces’ dock,” I say. “After that, you’re on your own. What you do is none of my concern.”
“It should be,” Len says. “I could cause a whole lot of trouble out there on my own. Or, for that matter, a whole lot of trouble right here. You know what I’m capable of.”
If his goal is to get a rise out of me, it doesn’t work. I assumed he would make such a threat. To be honest, I would have been shocked if he hadn’t.
“It’s a risk I have to take,” I say. “This isn’t an ideal option. It’s the only option. For both of us.”