What She Found in the Woods

‘Yeah,’ she pants. ‘Up to the ridge.’ She pants some more while she digs in the pocket of her jeans. ‘Cars are parked up there. Go on,’ she says. She hands me her keys and shoves me forward. ‘I’ll catch up.’

I ignore her lie and haul her along with me. ‘How did you figure it out?’ I ask. ‘About the shelter and Dr Goodnight?’

She turns her head to look right at me. ‘Because his son looks just like him.’

We stop dead.

‘His son?’ I repeat. ‘You saw Dr Goodnight’s son?’

‘Yeah. With you. You don’t know, do you?’ Gina sinks down on to a log, grimacing and holding her side. ‘Maria called me back into her office. Tells me to tell you I can’t drive you home,’ she says, exhausted. ‘Then she tries to tell me that boy you were with didn’t look anything like Michael. She knew Michael better than I did. Shit. We both got eyes.’ Gina spits blood. ‘I knew she was lying, so I followed her.’

‘Michael who?’ I ask. I need to be sure.

‘Michael Claybolt. He’s Dr Goodnight. That boy you were with today is his son.’

I hear a loud crack, and I jump, ready to run, but Gina topples forward on to the ground in front of me.

‘Someone’s always got to ruin it,’ Rob says, coming out of the shadows. He’s dressed in dark camouflage gear and he’s holding a gun. ‘Hi, Magda.’

4 AUGUST. PITCH DARK

Two killers.

One clean. One bloody.

Dr Goodnight. And his son.

I back away from Rob. I almost knew this was going to happen. Almost.

‘Or is it Lena?’ he asks, coming towards me. ‘I’ve noticed you like to be called Lena out here in the woods. Or is it just that you like it when Rain calls you Lena?’

I keep edging back slowly.

‘It’s always been hard to keep track of your different personas. You were one person here in the summer, and another person in New York, and then someone else entirely online. You taught me I had to be more than one person to do whatever the hell I wanted and get away with it. Thanks for that. It’s been so much fun watching you all these years.’ His expression suddenly darkens. ‘Not so much fun watching you cheat on me with Rain, but I’m sure we can get past that as a couple.’

I see Gina’s hand twitch, and I don’t know if that means she’s still alive, or if it’s a dying reflex.

Rob jerks his head towards me expectantly. ‘No questions? Nothing you want to ask me?’ When I don’t respond, he smirks at me. ‘Come on! Aren’t you curious about the fact that I’ve been following you the whole time I was supposed to be with my mother – which would be tough because my dad killed her when I was thirteen.’

He laughs at that, but it isn’t funny to him. He wants me to ask him about his mother’s death. He’s wanted to tell me about her since our first date when he showed me that picture in his wallet. I don’t ask. I don’t want to listen to his origin story, but he isn’t going to be denied this moment.

‘He killed her in front of me. He made me help. But it was easy because she deserved it,’ he says simply, though there’s nothing simple about it. ‘That’s when I realized what I really was inside.’

He pauses, allowing himself to catch up with his feelings. Whatever they are, he pushes them down and adopts an airy tone.

‘Coincidently, thirteen was the year we met, and I fell in love with you, but you went for Liam that summer. You didn’t like woodsy boys back then, did you? So I changed for you.’

Let him blame me. Let him tell me I made him. I’m not going to fight it. I’ll eat his sins and add them to my own if I can just get him away from Gina. Her breathing has sped up, and I think she’s coming around. I edge ever so slightly away from her.

‘Still nothing?’ he snaps, following me. ‘You don’t even want to know how I convinced you that you were the murderer? That was pretty amazing.’

He pauses to congratulate himself, but when I still don’t react, I feel his frustration mount.

‘Don’t you want to know how I came up with the idea? Your journal,’ he answers his own question, annoyed that I’m ruining his catharsis. ‘You had no idea you were writing in it. If you didn’t know that, what else didn’t you know about yourself? That, plus I found all those bloody clothes in your closet. I figured if gaslighting you didn’t work, I’d cram a whole bunch of pills down your throat. Works for my dad.’

Now it’s not just Gina’s hand that’s moving, but her face, too. I keep leading Rob away from her.

‘Sorry about Mila, by the way,’ he says, still fishing for a reaction. ‘She saw me go into the woods by your house, and she followed me because I never go into the woods, right? I started setting that up when I was thirteen, like you taught me. You need to be at least two people in order to get away with doing whatever you want.’ He pauses, but I don’t react. ‘But Mila caught me. She was going to end up on my father’s table sooner or later anyway. Fucking junkie. I don’t like the table. I like the hunt. Like you.’