“Liam!” she exclaims. “Are you… I mean, did he…？”
“I’m fine.” Liam shakes his head and makes a face. “It’s his blood.”
Hannah’s mouth falls open. “Is he… dead?”
Liam nods slowly. He doesn’t give any other details and I’m glad.
“I told you not to come,” she whispers, her eyes filling up with tears again. “You’re going to get in trouble now.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me, Hannah. He would’ve killed you. How could I let that happen?”
Then she throws her arms around him, and she hugs him so tightly that when she pulls away, her father’s blood is all over her shirt too. She wipes her eyes as he crouches down next to me on the floor, where I’m clutching my ankle. In the light of the flashlight, his eyes look black. “What’s hurting?” he asks.
I show him my ankle. He shines a flashlight on it, and we both gasp simultaneously. It looks terrible. It’s swollen to twice the size it should be, the skin is shiny and red, and yellow pus is coming out of a break in the skin. I had no idea it was that bad.
“Don’t worry,” Liam says. “We’re going to get you out of here. I promise.”
One corner of his lips moves up in a crooked smile, and I remember how much I used to like him. How he used to make my heart speed up in my chest when I watched him race around the track after school. It seems like an eternity ago.
Liam is tall enough to see over the trap door when he stands on the mound of dirt I made. He calls to someone else to come help him. For a moment, I’m paralyzed with fear that his father is there, but then I hear his mother’s shaky voice.
“I’m going to lift them out through the trap door,” he tells his mother. “You have to help them out.”
Liam is very gentle with me. He takes his time putting his left arm under my knees so he won’t hurt me when he lifts me up. I cling to his neck as he steps up on the mound and carefully raises me up to his mother. She is shaking like a leaf as she helps me get onto the wood floor of the cabin. My ankle gets twisted in the process, because she’s not as careful as Liam was, and it hurts so bad, my eyes water.
After Liam lifts Hannah out of the hole, Mrs. Cass won’t stop hugging her. She throws her arms around Hannah’s shoulders, sobbing that she thought she was dead. Hannah clings to her just as hard. Watching them makes me want my mother so much, it’s painful. At least now I know I’m going to see her soon. It wasn’t like when I was trapped in the hole. This is almost over.
“He told us he was going to come back and kill us as soon as he was done with the two of you,” Hannah sobs. “He meant it. You could see it in his eyes.”
I still can’t manage to stand up. My ankle hurts more than I would have thought possible. It’s not just broken—there’s something really wrong with it. Liam looks at me, writhing on the ground, and bends down beside me. “I’m going to pick you up, okay?”
I flinch, not wanting anyone to get within two feet of my ankle. “It hurts a lot.”
“I’ll be really careful. I promise.”
What choice do I have? “Okay.”
He does what he did before, gently scooping me up in his arms. He doesn’t even grunt when he lifts me. I had no idea he was that strong. In spite of everything that’s happened, a sense of calm comes over me as he holds me, and I rest my head against his chest. I feel safe here.
Liam carries me out of the cabin with his mother and Hannah leading the way. After about ten paces, he stops short and looks at something on the ground.
It takes me a moment to realize he’s looking down at his father.
Mr. Cass is lying face up on the dirt. His shirt is soaked with blood, far more than what’s on Liam’s shirt. There’s blood on his chin too, his eyes are staring up at the sky, and his mouth is hanging open.
He’s dead. He’s definitely dead.
It’s over.
Chapter 63
Transcript of police interview with Erika Cass:
“Mrs. Cass, can you repeat for me one more time exactly what happened when you reached the cabin?”
“After we parked, I saw Jason coming out of the cabin. He had a knife and he told me that Hannah and Olivia were both dead. He admitted he was the one who killed them, although I didn’t realize at the time he was lying.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I didn’t know what to believe, Detective. Jason and I were married for twenty years. I never imagined he could do something like that. But you didn’t see the look in his eyes…”