“Dear God.” Piper realized then that he was the person responsible for everything that had happened to the Howard family.

“Your brother is lauded as one of the best FBI profilers they have, Ava, and yet even he has not worked out what I’ve been doing.”

“Tell me it wasn’t you who cut Dad’s breaks, and poisoned Mom? Tell me Zander!” The words were torn from Ava.”

“We planned everything, and it worked. We kept your brother in Ryker Falls, and now he’s going to die… along with both of you.”

Piper shivered as Zander spoke the words calmly.

“And, Charlie?” Ava whispered.

“That was my father’s idea. He told me exactly what to do,” Zander smiled, and Piper saw the insanity then.

“Stop crying!” Zander waved his gun at Ava as she started sobbing. “Or I’ll shoot Piper now, with you watching.”

Piper pulled the girl into her chest and pretend to cry too, pushing her face into Ava’s hair.

“Don’t say anything, and run when I say,” she whispered.

Ava nodded.

“Stop talking!” Zander was getting agitated. “Now walk, we have a distance to cover, and then I need to set my plans in motion.”

“What plans?”

“I’ve told you,” he snarled. “Killing both of you and having your brother there watching. Then it will be his turn.”

Ava shuddered; Piper just got angry. She watched Zander untie Buzz and then motion them to go first.

“H-how could I be so wrong about you?”

He sneered at Ava, and Piper resisted the urge to return the gesture. For now he held all the cards.

“I put up with you for months. Now I don’t have to.”

“It doesn’t seem an ideal situation for you to kidnap us and walk up the mountain, Zander, considering you’ve spent months perfecting your plan,” Piper said, staying where she was. “I mean, what if one of the runners strays off the path and sees you holding that gun.”

Zander looked around him. “The run is finished now. I hadn’t planned it this way, but I watched you, you were suspicious of me, and I knew I had to act. Plus up is best for now. We’ll hide there until the runners have gone. When they realize you’re missing they’ll start searching, but no one will suspect me.”

“You cut Buzz, you bastard!” she snarled.

“I was only going to hurt him some.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “It would have had everyone focusing on him and nothing else. This town loves him more than most of its citizens.”

“You’re sick and twisted,” Ava said, and Piper was pleased to hear a thread of anger now.