“You okay?” he first asked.
“You’re asking her that now?” Laura demanded. She was practically shivering with rage.
“I’m okay,” Marissa said in a squeaky voice.
“No, you’re not. God, how could this happen?” Laura was breathing hard.
“Tell me what happened,” Cooper asked Marissa calmly.
“I told the officers everything already . . .” she said uncertainly.
“I know. I just want to hear it from you.”
“Don’t you think she’s been traumatized enough?” Laura demanded.
“When did you first see him?” Cooper asked Marissa, ignoring his ex.
“I was in the living room. I was looking out . . . that window.” She glanced fearfully toward the front of the house. “I was . . . the kids were in bed. They wanted to sleep in the same room. It’s what they like to do whenever there’s a babysitter. I put them down and I was in the living room. I felt something . . . cold air . . . I turned around and . . .” Her voice was rising to a high squeak. “He had on a ski mask and . . . and a knife!”
Laura’s hand flew to her own mouth. Hearing it from Marissa brought the hairs lifting on Cooper’s arms as well.
“What did you do?” Cooper asked quietly.
“I ran to the kids’ bedroom. I was . . . I was on the phone . . . with Harley. . . . I screamed! I threw the phone down and grabbed the chair and shoved it under the doorknob. I grabbed up the phone again and called 9-1-1 and I . . . called you. . . .” She swallowed. “I could hardly hear, my heart was pounding so loudly. He rattled the door and I screamed again and it woke the kids.... I didn’t come out till I heard the officers. . . .”
“Okay,” he said as Marissa started shaking some more.
“That’s enough,” said Laura.
“Who was it?” Marissa asked rhetorically.
“I’m going to find out,” Cooper said, just as Ted Ryerson returned from the bedroom. Immediately, his kids started calling for him.
Ted said, “I want to know what happened from beginning to end.”
“We’ll go over it tomorrow,” said Cooper as he glanced back to the bedroom door.
“Fine.” Ted was white-faced.
Cooper herded Marissa and Laura to the back door and Ted followed, locking it behind them with a distinct click.
“He could’ve been more concerned for Marissa,” Laura said tightly.
Cooper wasn’t going to argue with her as he walked with them to her Land Rover. He asked Marissa, “Was the back door unlocked?”
“I don’t . . . think so,” she answered uncertainly.
“Is that how you entered the house?”
She nodded slowly.
“And how Mr. Ryerson left?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t remember locking it behind him?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed.
“Stop badgering her, Cooper,” Laura said angrily.
He lifted his palms. “We’ll pick it up tomorrow.”
“We’re going to be at the new house all day. Marissa’s with us,” Laura said.
“Then I’ll see you there.” Cooper shut Marissa’s passenger door behind her and waited till they pulled away from the curb.
In his SUV, he put in a call to Jamie. She answered right away. “Everything’s okay,” he told her, then launched into the details of Marissa’s babysitting scare.
* * *
It was close to midnight when the text came through on Harley’s phone. She’d been lying in bed, trying to get to sleep for over an hour. She and Mom had stayed up talking for a while after receiving the news that Marissa and the Ryerson kids were fine. The relief had been huge. Mom had poured herself a glass of wine and then gripped the glass’s stem as if her life depended on it. She’d then told her that the circumstances of Marissa’s scare were very similar to Aunt Emma’s attack—and at the same house!
Harley had been so freaked out, she’d almost asked for a glass of wine herself, except she hated the taste. Horrible, foul stuff. She’d told herself she could sleep now that she knew Marissa was okay, but she’d stared at the ceiling, wishing she’d kept her night-light on as the dark seemed to press around her.
Harley was charging her phone on the dresser. For a moment, she didn’t want to get out of the warm safety of her bed. But only one person would be texting her, most likely.
She slid out from under the covers. Tiptoed rapidly to her phone. The screen had gone dark, but she touched it awake.
She could read the start of the text: I’m scared shitless don’t say anything I don’t think it was the guys, they’d left. But if it was them why—
Harley had to plug in her code to open the phone and read the rest of the text.
—did they bring a knife. God I’m scared!!!
Harley listened for her mother. She didn’t want her coming into her room unexpectedly. When she determined the house was quiet, she quickly texted back.
It can’t be the guys, they wouldn’t do that
Would they?
Harley thought back to Marissa’s scream. It had scared her shitless, too. But some of the guys had come by the Ryersons’ earlier. They’d tossed pebbles at the windows, and Marissa had gone to the back door and been able to catch sight of them running down the block. She’d been pretty sure one of them was Troy Stillwell and one was Greer Douglas. She thought Tyler was there, too, but she hadn’t seen clearly. Harley had wondered—hoped, actually—that Greer had come because Marissa had let it be known that she would be babysitting, too . . . until she wasn’t.
But to come with a knife? They’d had props at the mixer. Freddy Krueger’s fingers . . . the Grim Reaper’s scythe . . . but with Marissa . . . the sudden appearance of the guy in ski gear with a knife . . .
“It wasn’t them,” she whispered aloud, hopefully, not totally convincing herself.
Marissa texted back: gotta go . . . talk tomorrow . . .
Harley signed
