There was a moment’s silence, which Sadie-Grace obligingly filled. “I don’t mind about the hole,” she promised sweetly. “Accidents happen. Lily and I once accidentally kidnapped Campbell and tied her to a chair for three days, and that turned out fine.”

“You what?” Aunt Olivia said.

“You can still walk away from this,” I reiterated, putting everything I had into those words. “Things don’t have to be perfect. They can just be.”

For a moment, I thought she was considering that. And then she finished dousing the wood in lighter fluid and pulled out a lighter.

CHAPTER 58

“This isn’t just about Liv.” Aunt Olivia toyed with the lighter for a moment, morose. “I could have dealt with the body washing up. That forensic sculptor nonsense—well, like Campbell said, I imagine someone in her family will be motivated to take care of it.”

“If this isn’t about the body,” Sadie-Grace said quietly, “what is it about?”

What in the world had possessed Aunt Olivia to give up the game, ask Ellen to drug us, and haul us out to this island? Why dig the hole? Why throw us in?

“I thought I could talk to you,” Aunt Olivia told me. “Make you understand.”

“Because drugging people really puts them in an understanding frame of mind,” I said.

“Also,” Sadie-Grace added seriously, “holes.”

“I wanted you sedated and contained,” Aunt Olivia explained. “I wanted time to make this right, to do damage control. I never said anything about a hole.”

“Ellen,” I said out loud. “You asked Ellen to sedate us, and she had us tossed in a hole.”

“I’m afraid she’s never once attacked a situation with a scalpel that she could go at with a hatchet. I thought I could handle this situation, have a little chat with you girls. She was a bit less optimistic. Hence, the hole.”

“So, what?” I said. “Ellen or her henchwomen helped you haul us out here, and the plan was just to keep us captive for a bit of chitchat?” Unbidden, my eyes went to the gun in Aunt Olivia’s hand. Was that the backup plan?

“It pains me to say this,” Aunt Olivia sighed, “but Ellen was right. Talking was never an option. There’s too much of your mama in you, Sawyer. You can’t ever just let things be. You push and you push, and the consequences be damned.”

What consequences? She’d already said that this wasn’t just about the body. Back at Ellen’s, she’d told me that I’d brought this on myself. But I hadn’t gone to Ellen’s asking about the Lady of the Lake.

“The baby,” I said. I hadn’t quite pieced this together yet, but that was the only explanation that made any kind of sense. “We went to Ellen to ask about the baby.”

Campbell’s eyes widened. “Am I missing something here?” she asked.