“ ‘Do you think I was stabbing her forty-seven times and cutting her throat?’ That’s what you said. How did you pick that number, Steve?”

“Why? Was I right?”

“Damn close. Close enough to raise an eyebrow,” Vince said. “Not that most killers keep count when they’re going at it with a knife like that. But I can tell you, stranger things have happened.”

“If I did, I’d be crazy to say so,” Morgan said.

“Yeah,” Vince said. “Like a fox.”

Morgan slowly drank the last of his whiskey and set the glass down without making a sound. He looked Vince right in eye and said, “You have no evidence linking me to Marissa’s death because there is no evidence linking me to Marissa’s death because I didn’t kill her. I’d like you to go now, Vince. Thanks for stopping by.”

Chapter 65

65

Crawl, G. Don’t just lie there. Crawl!

Marissa was on her hands and knees in the mud, bending down in her face.

Crawl! Damn it, Gina! You can’t give up now!

But I’m so tired, and it’s so nice right here.

No, it isn’t. Are you stupid? It’s raining. You’re facedown in the mud!

I’m so warm. I’m hot. Why do I have all these clothes on?

Oh my God. You’re not hot. You’re cold. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?

Shut up, Marissa. I hear something.

A very distant whup, whup, whup, whup.

It’s a helicopter, stupid.

Don’t call me stupid. This was all your idea.

I was trying to do good. We did something good!

You’re dead.

Then how can you see me? How can you hear me? Gina? Gina!

All she wanted to do was go to sleep, but Marissa grabbed her good arm and pulled it straight out in front of her, and tried to drag her.

Crawl! You have to do this for Haley! You have to get to the fire road. If you get to the fire road they’ll find you!

The fire road. She remembered being driven onto the fire road and marched up it with a gun in her back in the dead of night.

Who?

Who what?

Who will find me?

I don’t know! Firemen. Big, hunky firemen.

I love firemen. My dad was a fireman.

No, he wasn’t. Your dad sold insurance.

It’s my hallucination.

Oh, for God’s sake! Crawl, Gina! You’re going to die if you don’t start crawling! You don’t want to die. You can’t die! You’re the only one who knows the truth. You have to do this for Haley! Crawl, Gina!