“I tried to save them! I just put on a show for the others, but it was all an act, I swear!”

“No…” The pistol wobbled in her hands.

Maybe he could talk her out of this. Maybe he could take the weapon from her.

“Just listen. There might be time. Kristi and Ariel might still be alive.”

“Kristi? Kristi Bentz? You dragged her into it? And Ariel? Her, too?” Her eyes hardened as she aimed the gun at his head. “She’s missing. Has been since last week…and it’s your fault. Oh, God, she’s dead. I know she’s dead. I should have warned them, told them.”

He took a step toward her, but her fingers moved on the gun’s trigger. He stopped. Held up both hands in an attempt to calm her. “We just have to find Preston. He’s…he’s the one who got to know the girls, who helped them…. He has a place, it’s connected to the Wagner House by the old tunnels that Ludwig Wagner used.”

“They’ve been sealed for a hundred years,” she said dully. “This is another lie.”

“No, no, I swear. Preston claimed he was helping them all start over, gain new lives, disappear….”

“Helping them die.”

“Lucretia, I didn’t know. I swear, I did not know,” he said, trying to keep her engaged in conversation as he thought of a way to strip the weapon from her, to tackle her and take his chances.

“But you suspected. Just as I did.” She focused on him, the gun steady but lowered to his chest again.

His heart shuddered and for just a second, over the howl of the wind that shrieked down the hallway from the open door, he thought he heard something. Footsteps?

“You’re guilty, Dominic. We’re both guilty.”

“No! Lucretia, just wait. Listen to reason. I’ll call the police and tell them all about Preston, about the girls, about my part in it. I’ll confess. Please, my love, just give me a chance,” he said, changing tactics, smiling at her, stepping toward her. She wanted to believe he still loved her, so he would give it his all. “I’m so, so sorry,” he said in the voice that always had made her melt. “I’ve always loved you. You know that. I’ll tell the police about Preston and the plays and the tunnels from Wagner House. They might be able to find Kristi and Ariel. They could still be alive. Come on, honey. Trust me.”

She flinched, then looked him straight in the eye.

“Lucretia, baby—”

“I’ll see you in hell, and when I do, I’ll remember to spit on you.”

She pulled the trigger.

Jay didn’t wait.