‘He didn’t exactly give me a choice.’
‘I had no idea what to do about you. I certainly didn’t want to kill you. Fortunately, Austin took care of that for me when he knocked you out and buried you in that root cellar, which I considered a genuine blessing.’
‘That makes one of us,’ I said, as Lulu grunted sourly. ‘Make that two.’
‘I followed you up there to the ruins, making sure I kept a good, safe distance behind you.’
‘It was you who Lulu smelled. It’s a good thing for you that you weren’t wearing any of your essential lavender oil that day. If you had been she would have recognized your scent when you stopped by here with that chicken noodle soup and started barking her head off.’ I glanced over at her in her chair. She had an extremely alert, watchful expression on her face. ‘Everything went blank for me once Austin conked me over the head and entombed us in that root cellar. Tell me, what happened after that?’
‘He kept hiking his way up through the ruins of the old farm. I caught up with him and called out his name. He was utterly horrified to see me. “Go away! I don’t want you here!” he screamed at me. “I’m your doctor, Austin,” I said. “You’re sick. You have to come back with me.” He refused. Kept right on hiking, panting for breath, sweat pouring down his face. He was toting some kind of duffel bag. I stayed with him, stride for stride. “I’m never coming back and don’t try to make me!” he warned me. Then he pulled his gun on me and said, “I don’t want to kill you but I will.” I said, “Like you killed Paul, you mean?” We’d reached the railing next to the falls by then. “Sure, I killed Paul,” he confessed. “He was asking for it. He had a beautiful wife, three healthy kids. He was happy. He was smart. He deserved to die. Every person on the planet who’s happy and smart deserves to die. I hate them all. I hate you.” He kept on ranting. I let him rant. Just walked slowly toward him, staying calm and non-threatening. Whenever I hike in the woods I always carry a folding hunting knife in the back pocket of my jeans. Paul gave it to me in case I ever encountered a coyote or rabid raccoon in the woods. I keep it razor sharp. “It’s going to be OK, Austin,” I said gently. “I promise you it’ll be OK.” He’d exhausted himself enough by then that he let me approach him and put my hands on his shoulders.’
‘And then?’
Annabeth stared into the fire. ‘And then I spun him around, whipped out my knife and slit his throat from ear to ear,’ she said in a voice utterly devoid of emotion. ‘He wasn’t hard to kill. Didn’t even put up a fight. Besides, I’m strong. I do an hour of weights every day, don’t forget. He bled out fast once I’d severed his carotid artery. Then I leaned him up against the railing, picked up his legs and shoved him over the side. He was already dead by the time he landed in the stone gully at the base of the falls.’
‘How did it feel? Any regrets?’
‘None. It was payback, Hoagy. It was justice. In fact, a feeling of incredible calm came over me as I started back down the mountain trail the way I came. And it’s stayed with me ever since. I’ve never slept better.’
‘Still, you must have gotten Austin’s blood all over you.’
‘I did get some on my hands and face, which I washed off in a stream along with my knife. Also on Paul’s mackinaw shirt, which I wadded up just in case I ran into someone on the trail. The rest of my clothes were fine. When I got back down to the base of the mountain I heard voices and realized that Jim Conley had already set up a command post in the parking lot and recruited the volunteer fire department’s search and rescue team. They’d found Austin’s car, I gathered. I was glad I’d parked a good distance away. I got off the trail at once and made my way as quietly as I could through the brush in the direction of my car. When I finally managed to reach the paved road, I found it parked on the shoulder less than a hundred yards away. I got in and sped away, unnoticed. I made it home well before my mom brought the kids home from their after-school team sports. I buried Paul’s mackinaw shirt in the woods out behind the house. Then I took a shower and washed my hair thoroughly just to make sure there was no trace of Austin’s blood on me. I put on clean clothes, threw the ones I’d been wearing in the washing machine and started a load of laundry. By the time my mom brought the kids home I was seated at my desk, calmly working away in my home office.’ She stroked my leg, gazing at me with warm affection. ‘You want to know something? It feels incredibly cathartic to be telling you all of this. It’s almost as if it’s bringing us closer together. We’re sharing something that no one else knows. I want you to know. It matters to me, dear. You don’t mind if I call you that, do you?’
‘You can call me anything you want,’ I said, gently caressing her cheek with the back of my hand.
She took my hand, kissed it, and held it against her cheek. ‘When Austin’s body was found the next morning
