“You killed him! You killed him for nothing! It was you!”

Ricky shook his head. His eyes gleamed with a strange, unshakable confidence. “But you’re not going to say anything, are you? Everyone knows who really killed Ajax. It was written on the wall. Just like all the others. It wasn’t me. It was a terrible, vicious, savage beast.”

Nausea made my stomach lurch. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Oh, I know exactly what I’m saying. Believe me.” Ricky raised his arms high over his head and curled his fingers like claws. He bent down, and he shoved that horrible monster face into my own. I heard the noise of his breath. Hufffffff.

“You, see, I have what the whole world has been looking for,” he went on. “Bigfoot, Yeti, Sasquatch. I have what all the monster hunters are dying to see. And the sheriff, too. I have a picture of the Ursulina.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When dawn came, I bundled you up in a little coat and put the tiniest hat on your head. I wrapped you in a blanket to keep you warm. Then I put you in your car seat, and the two of us drove to the Fair Day resort. The early morning was crisp and cold, the kind of chill you can feel like needles inside your nose. It was below freezing. Out on the lake, a gray film of ice waited to melt with the sun.

I saw the yellow Cadillac in the parking lot, so I knew Ben Malloy was still there. I didn’t know which cabin was his, but I nestled you inside my jacket, and I crunched across the frosty grass from door to door until I found one that had a smell of pipe tobacco wafting from inside. I knocked.

Ben answered the door in sky-blue pajamas. His cherubic face lit up through a cloud of smoke when he saw me. “Deputy Rebecca! This is an unexpected pleasure. And little deputy Shelby with you, too! I’m honored.”

“I’m sorry to come so early, Ben.”

“Oh, I’m typically up at five, so this really isn’t early to me. I still have lots of publicity details to deal with for tomorrow’s broadcast. Are you going to be at the party, by the way?”

“Yes, it looks that way.”

“I hope so. Put Shelby in a costume. An Ursulittle to go along with all the Ursulinas.”

I tried to smile, but I couldn’t. To Ben, this was a big joke, a carnival like Ursulina Days in Mittel County. To me, this was my life falling apart, crumbling down. I could already see the future, and it made me want to rip my heart out. Ben must have noticed the distress on my face, because he unclamped his lips from around his pipe, and his eyebrows knitted together with concern.

“Are you all right, Rebecca?”