That evening, Katie pored over her notes and followed up on some of the other people in Sylvia’s book. She’d been so focused on Nick and then Christopher that she hadn’t looked at some of the outlier possibilities.

There was Cecily, who Katie was currently disposed to suspect of any number of crimes. If she thought there was an affair between Ellen and Nick, would she have killed her friend? Did the friendship fizzle because Ellen had mentioned Cecily’s secret past or because of Nick?

Dan was still a possibility. He had a temper and had possibly seen Ellen as a threat, but surely someone would have recognized him if he had come to town that night. And how would he have gotten Demerol?

Then Katie changed tactics and looked at the problem from the point of view of opportunity. Who had access to Demerol and access to Ellen’s house?

She was back to Nick or Cecily. Either of them could have taken Demerol from the clinic, and both could have gotten into Ellen’s house. She would have let them in herself.

Katie kept circling back to the hoodie-wearing stranger that Mrs. Peabody had seen. She was convinced it was Christopher because he had a key . . .

Her phone buzzed with a text message from Lynn: I’m sorry to ask this of you, but I can’t take my dog to the safe house. If I leave him behind, Eric might hurt him. He’s threatened as much in the past. I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you take him for a little while, just until things settle down?

A dog in trouble was Katie’s weakness.

Katie sent back a message: Yes, I’ll take him. Where’s the dog? I’ll come get him.

What followed was a list of directions that seemed to wend their way into the woods. Lynn sent a photo of a small cabin: We left Samson with my friend for the evening until you can come get him. Thank you, Doctor! I’ll be in touch soon.

Samson? She hoped it was an ironic name for a toy poodle.

* * *

Katie parked her car off to the side of the cabin on a patch of bare ground. She heard the woodsy sounds of squirrels chattering and crows cawing. The trees seemed to draw close around the small house as if protecting it from intruders. But the light was fading fast, and the shadows were deepening.

She crunched through the few leaves and stepped onto the wooden porch. Her knock echoed in the small clearing. Katie looked around nervously. The dog didn’t bark.

Worried now that she was too late, she tried the door. Locked. Katie walked to the back of the cabin and peeked in the window. The place seemed deserted. Could Eric have already harmed the dog? Had he found them and taken them back home?

She wondered if there was a key hidden under a rock or on a windowsill.

Katie pulled out her phone to check the text. Could she have stumbled onto a different isolated cabin? Then she noticed that the text had come from Lynn’s phone—her old phone. Katie had warned her not to bring her phone with her when she left.

Thinking about a hidden key reminded her of a fleeting thought she had about the key to Ellen’s house. Besides Ellen, Christopher, and Beth, there was one other person who would likely have a key. She thought back over the last couple of days, and then she knew who had really sent the text.

Katie frowned. The pieces finally clicked into place. She backed quietly away from the window and turned to run to the car.

“Stop right there, Dr. LeClair.” The voice was cold with just a hint of threat.

Katie stopped and turned slowly. Maybe she could bluff her way out of this.

“Marilyn, what are you doing here?”

“This is my cabin. I come here sometimes when I want to get away.”

“I came out here to pick up a dog for a friend. Do you know anything about that?” Katie stayed at the bottom of the steps looking up at Marilyn. The light from inside made Marilyn no more than a silhouette, and Katie couldn’t read her face.

“There’s no dog here,” Marilyn said. “Would you like to come in?”

Katie backed away. “No, I must have made a mistake.”

“Yes, you did.” Marilyn opened the door wider and pointed a hunting rifle at Katie’s chest. “Come inside.”

Katie cast a forlorn look at her car, but it was too far away to make a run for it. That was why Marilyn hadn’t answered the door. She’d wanted to get Katie as far from the car as she could. She had no idea how good a shot Marilyn was but wasn’t going to take the chance.

She walked up the steps and into the cabin. It was lit only by a couple of oil lamps on the kitchen table.

Marilyn pulled out a chair. “Give me your phone. Sit.”

Katie sat and surveyed the room. They were in a barely used kitchen. If Marilyn spent any time here, she didn’t do much cleaning. The table where they sat had been recently wiped, but the counters were covered in dust and food wrappers.

Marilyn gestured at the mess.

“My son likes to use this as his hunting base camp. I never could get him to clean up after himself.”

Katie didn’t say anything. She watched the rifle and stayed very still. She didn’t want to agitate her more than she already had.

“I really liked you, Dr. LeClair. I wish you had left the Ellen Riley thing alone. What is it about you newcomers that you need to stir up trouble by looking into the past?”

“Marilyn, all Ellen discovered was that you might be related to Christopher. She suspected you had the same father.”

The gun dropped and pointed toward the floor. “So it’s true?”

“I don’t know for sure, but it seems likely.”

“When Todd told me, I was so furious with Christopher for all the years I’d tolerated his mother. All the years I was grateful to him for paying me to clean his house just so I could get by. I could run him over again, just thinking about it.”

Katie didn’t think she was doing a very good job of defusing the situation. She decided to give Marilyn something else to focus on. “You can take a DNA test if you want to find out for sure. Then you could sue him for your portion of the business.”

“No, I don’t care anymore. I just want to be sure Todd is okay.”

“Todd?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Marilyn glared at Katie. “Ellen Riley must have told you. She found out somehow. I heard her arguing with Christopher about how he should do the right thing. That Todd could handle it.” Marilyn’s eyes narrowed, and she swung the gun so it pointed right at Katie.

Katie felt her heart racing. Her mouth was dry. She had to keep Marilyn talking. Maybe she could convince her to put the gun down.

“Marilyn, how is Todd involved?”

Marilyn pulled a chair away from the table and sat down facing Katie. The gun didn’t waver.

“I might as well tell you.” Marilyn sighed. “I’m sure you’ve heard Christopher’s side of the story. Even if Ellen never told you, I know you went to see him at the hospital. Besides, neither one of us is going to get out of this alive.”

A chill crept down Katie’s spine. Just keep her talking, Katie told herself. Watch for an opportunity.

“It was a night like any other,” Marilyn began. “Eric was at a friend’s house, so it was just me, Todd, and Noah. We’d finished dinner, and I was cleaning the dishes while Todd did homework at the table.”

Marilyn nodded toward the table where Katie sat.

“I was nervous because Noah had been drinking. Anything could happen when he was drunk.” Marilyn stopped and stared into space.

She looked back at Katie. “Anyway, Todd asked a question, and I turned to answer him. I hit a plate on the edge of the sink, and it broke.” Marilyn mimed the action.

“That was all it took. Noah went ballistic. He came at me saying I was clumsy and stupid and that he wasn’t made of money.”

She hesitated.

“I don’t know why I did it. I still had the broken plate in my hand, and when he swung at me, I lifted my hand, and he sliced his arm open on the jagged edge. Blood was everywhere, and he was enraged. He launched himself at me and got his hands around my neck. I thought, This is it; he’s really going to kill me this time. Todd was yelling at Noah to let go. Just as I started to see black dots, Noah’s hands loosened, and he fell to the floor.”

Katie didn’t move. She didn’t want to break Marilyn’s trance.

“Todd stood there with the baseball bat that Noah kept by the front door. His ‘antiburglar system.’” Marilyn tightened her grip on the gun. “Todd was only thirteen, just a kid.”

“I’m so sorry, Marilyn,” Katie said. “I didn’t know.”

Marilyn shrugged off the sympathy. “It was in Sylvia’s book. She showed me where she had it all written out. After she died, I kept thinking, Someone is going to find the book, and after all these years it will all come out. But then, nothing happened. I thought maybe Sylvia had destroyed it before she died. Then one day at the house, I saw Ellen with the book. She tried to hide it, but I knew what I had seen.”

“What happened to Noah?” Katie asked, but she had a feeling she already knew.

“Noah lay dead on the floor in his own blood. I didn’t know what to do, so I called Christopher. We’d been close since we were kids. He was the only person I could think of who would help me and not run screaming from the house.”

Marilyn stood and paced in front of Katie, far enough away that Katie didn’t want to try to get the gun away from her.

“Ten minutes later he arrived. He took Noah out back and buried him while I cleaned up the blood. The three of us swore never to tell anyone. But Christopher told his mother, the worst person in the world to tell. She held it over my head until the day she died. She made it clear that with one word from her, Todd would go to prison even though he had been underage at the time. I was so glad to see that witch buried. And then, somehow, Ellen found the book. I wasn’t going to live in fear of someone spilling the secret again. I had to get rid of her.”

“I’m so sorry for what you went through with your husband, Marilyn,” Katie said quietly. “But if Ellen knew about it, I don’t think she wanted to hurt Todd. Christopher said she wanted him to acknowledge Todd as his nephew and to give him part of the business. I have the book now. You and Todd are not in it, but there is a page missing. Either Sylvia destroyed it or Ellen did.”

“What?” Marilyn turned to face Katie.

Katie shifted in her seat, trying to gauge whether she could knock the gun out of Marilyn’s hand.

Marilyn’s eyes grew wide, and she set the gun down on the floor next to her. “What have I done?”

Katie stood and reached for the gun just as the back door flew open. Marilyn stood to face whoever was there. Katie’s eyes widened in surprise, and she ran for the front door.

“Don’t move, Doc.” The voice was deep and raspy, and Katie knew who it had to be.

Katie turned slowly to face Eric Swanson.

“Eric, put the gun down,” said Marilyn.

Eric shook his head. “Sit down, Doc. You too, Ma.”

“Quit messing around,” Marilyn said. “That thing is loaded.” But she sat next to Katie at the kitchen table.

A crooked smile spread over Eric’s face. “I’m glad you weren’t bluffing. Imagine my surprise when I followed the GPS on Lynn’s phone out to the cabin. I didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to try to hide here. And I was right.”

“Mr. Swanson, please put the gun down. I’m sure you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Eric spun and leveled the gun at Katie. “I’ve been trying to get you to back off for weeks. I left those notes. I warned you. I thought once that meddling Ellen Riley was dead that Lynn would settle down. Little did I know it was my own dear mother who killed her.” He winked at Marilyn. “Thanks, Ma. I could always count on you, right? And then you started in with Lynn, telling her to leave me.”

“Eric—” Marilyn began.

“No. I’m not listening to you anymore. You have Lynn’s phone, which means you must have helped her get away. How could you do that?” His eyes became red and watery. “She took the kids, Ma.”

Marilyn stood and took a step toward Eric. She put out her hand, but just as she was about to touch him, he raised the gun and pulled the trigger.