I swung my cane up, ready to fire, but Earnshaw took hold of his gun and aimed it at me. He opened his mouth, about to say something else, something to make me lose my shit, when a bullet struck him right between the eyes.
Earnshaw’s face froze in shock. His arm fell to the table, taking the gun with it. I flicked my eyes up at Dolly, arms out, her gun still in position from the kill shot.
“Time for tea,” she declared coldly, then slowly lowered her gun. She shrugged. “I got very sick of him talking, Rabbit. He had such bad manners, don’t you think?” She creased her brow and pouted her lips. “You know how I feel about bad manners.”
Dolly jumped from my lap and dusted her hands down her skirt. I watched her, spotting Earnshaw’s blood beginning to pool on the table from the corner of my eye.
I flicked the final card beside his head.
The King of Hearts was no more.
Dolly walked to the wall of pictures next to the door. Her breath hitched as the picture of her mother stared back at her, all long blond hair and blue eyes. She looked just like Dolly.
Dolly’s shaking hands traced over her face. My gut twisted when I saw her swipe a tear from her eye. Then she moved to the picture of Ellis. She must have been only about eight. I remembered her like this. The little girl who sat beside me on the grass, when no one else talked to me. The girl who told me we were friends, when I never had any before.
Dolly laid her hand against Ellis’s smiling face for so long that I rose from my chair. Before I got near, Dolly said, “Ellis has gone.” I froze, mid-step. “Ellis is free . . .” Dolly sighed and turned to me, her hand slipping from Ellis’s face. “She has gone to the part of Wonderland where the skies are bright blue. The grass is green, and there are lots and lots of tea parties.”
Dolly’s eyes fell. When they looked up at me through false lashes, I knew why. She was gauging my reaction. Seeing how I would react to knowing that my little Ellis, the person who lived behind a door in Dolly’s mind, had gone for good.
She wanted to know if Dolly was good enough for me.
I moved toward her and cupped her face. “I’m glad she has gone. I want her to be happy. No more darkness and no more sadness.” I kissed Dolly’s mouth, and she sighed against my lips. “Rabbit has his Dolly; it’s all that matters now.”
The responding smile was blinding.
Dolly looked around the room. “What now, Rabbit?”
“The mission is complete.” I reached into Dolly’s pocket and pulled out her lipstick. “The last one,” I prompted, and Dolly nodded.
She looked about the room. Her eyes fixed on the wall behind where Earnshaw lay dead. Dolly walked behind him and began her scrawl. “SICK FUX,” for the final time, in her favorite pink lipstick . . .
Right below a picture of Ellis sitting in Earnshaw’s lap.
Dolly dropped the half-used tube to the ground. She opened her mouth to say something else, but the howl of police sirens sounded outside.
“Come. We must go,” I said, the pulse in my neck leaping into a sprint.
Dolly giggled in excitement and ran to me. I dragged her from the room to one of the windows. Police cars raced down the road.
“What pretty blue lights!” Dolly said in awe.
Pulling her by the hand, I raced down the stairs. I tried door after door until I found one that led down to a cellar. I knew from the PI’s maps that there was an underground tunnel to the barn. No doubt the way he brought in the batches of kids he’d raped before he got sick.
We raced down to the cellar, closing the door behind us only moments before I heard the police enter the house. Muted voices came from the floors above us. I pulled Dolly through the large cellar until I found a door. I opened it to see a short tunnel. I was about to run through when I realized that it led to the storm cellar.
“Wrong one,” I said and began looking for other doors. My heart pounded faster when I couldn’t find one. Then I saw a large shelving unit. A cobweb clung to the top of it . . . a cobweb that was blowing like there was wind behind it.
The doorway was behind the shelves.
I pulled Dolly toward it and released her hand to start pushing the shelves out of the way. Dolly hummed behind me, dancing on the spot.
A gasp came from the bottom of the stairs.
I whipped around to see a man wearing a cowboy hat. Heart beating wildly, I pushed Dolly behind me and pulled out my cane. But the Ranger wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were fixed on Dolly.