This body was plastered to the sand.

Kelsey gave one last shove and it came loose, flopping over on its back like a weighted rag doll.

At first she thought he was screaming. His mouth was open. And then she saw the yellow teeth, and the tongue swollen twice its size…

And the gaping hole where the eye patch should have been—

And the long red scarf twisted around his neck.

And then she realized that Isaac was quite dead and that the screams were coming from other places—the wind—the sea—the dark caverns of her mind…

Isaac! Her head pounded mercilessly, her chest squeezed in revulsion. Isaac! Washed up on shore like all his helpless, innocent victims, and now Kelsey was safe…Neale…Justin…everyone, at last, was safe…

In morbid fascination she stared down at the grotesque figure and saw something shiny in one of his hands, something small and blue and shiny, part of it still wedged between his stiff, clawed fingers, as if Isaac, even in death, was loath to give it up.

Curious, Kelsey leaned over and reached for it. Suppose he’s not really dead…suppose he grabs me and pulls me into the water and—Kelsey snatched the object away and jumped back, a frown creasing her brow as she examined the thing in the palm of her hand.

It was a key.

And she had seen it—or one just like it—once before.

Kelsey felt faint, yet she couldn’t wrench her eyes from that key. And while the rain pelted her unmercifully, she was suddenly standing in the bright sunshine in a spot not far from this very beach, on another day, defending herself against Neale’s anger…

“Only the lifeguards have keys to it…”

Only the lifeguards.

Skip’s key had been gone this morning. He’d said he lost it last night in the water…diving after the victim that nobody could find…

“Oh, my God,” Kelsey whispered. She stared down at Isaac’s contorted face, frozen in a cold mask of fear. She remembered how she had struggled with him…how terribly strong he had been…

But someone had been stronger.

Someone would have to be stronger to overpower Isaac.

And Isaac must have fought desperately for his life.

Desperately enough to rip a key away without his attacker knowing it…desperately enough to rip a key from a chain around someone’s neck and leave a burn…

She couldn’t believe it,

Kelsey began to cry. For Beth. For herself. For Isaac. “Oh, no…no…”

Only the lifeguards.

She saw the shape, then, tall and distorted, a staggering blur through the fog.

He wasn’t hurrying. He was taking his time.

“… the tracking … that’s the real fun of it…they don’t see you…but they know they’re going to die…”

“Kelsey!” Skip shouted. “I know you’re there!”

And Kelsey ran…

And knew she was going to die.

Chapter 22

SHE NEVER EVEN CONSIDERED where she would go. Panic left her with no sense of direction, and she raced along the beach in a mindless frenzy. Where was he now? How close behind her? Would he kill her first and then throw her into the sea or—