A high young voice cried, “If you come one step closer, I will shoot a hole through you.”

CHAPTER 53

Death for the Undeserving

It was Catherine, sounding wobbly with fear. I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t tell how far away she was or what kind of angle she had. Or what kind of weapon.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said irritably. “Geraldine Graham is with me. Even if you could shoot a hole in me in the dark, Ms. Graham will tell your grandparents and your father, and you’ll have a hell of a time avoiding juvie court, let alone a Washington school. Is Benji here?”

“It’s you!” Her voice quivered with-what, disappointment? rage? “I ordered you to stay away from me!”

“Put a sock in it, Catherine.” I crawled forward, feeling for a chair or something to use as a shield. “I’m not interested in your temper tantrums. Do you imagine yourself as some kind of heroine, living in the north woods on the muskrats you’ll trap? What happens when the crew comes around to get the lodge ready to open-you’ll shoot them, too?”

I bumped into a stool. Behind me, I could hear Geraldine’s slow clumsy step.

“We’ll think of something before then. We have a month. Go away, unless you’ve already told Daddy and Granny where I am.”

As my senses adjusted to the space, I could tell she was above me,

probably on a back staircase, a servants’ staircase, that hadn’t registered in Geraldine’s mind when she was recalling the layout.

“Darlin’, there are no secrets in New Solway. Ms. Graham told me you’d likely be here, where you spent all those golden childhood days with your grandfather. For that same reason, your grandmother has probably guessed you’re here, and I daresay your father may have also. So put away your rifle and come along with me before your folks show up. You don’t want your granny to find you like this, do you? Not with Benji. Let me get you home to your bed, and let me take Benji to Chicago where I can negotiate his safety.”

She began to cry, racking sobs of frustration, exhaustion, adolescence. I heard Benji murmur to her, words too soft for me to make out over her sobs. I moved toward her sobs as fast as I could in the dark. The stairwell opened in front of me suddenly, a blacker black in the dark room. I climbed up, left hand feeling the steep risers in front, right hand keeping hold of my gun, just in case. Fifteen stairs and I touched the metal of the rifle barrel. I grabbed it and pushed it aside. Catherine pulled the trigger.

The noise was overwhelming in that narrow space. The shock from the barrel knocked me off balance. I jammed my spine against the bannister. Below me, Geraldine Graham cried out. Above the whining in my ears, I heard the thud as her body hit the floor and then Benji’s appeal of “Catterine, Catterine, why you are doing this shooting?”