A nightmare was unfolding in front of Lily. Deputy Deluca was dead. There was no doubt about it. Blood and brain matter speckled the pale pine wall beside the fireplace, absurdly bringing to mind an abstract painting she’d once seen in a museum, a Jackson Pollock. Nothing seemed real. She felt nothing, not even fear. Time seemed to have slowed, and the only thing Lily was aware of was the whoosh of blood pulsing in her ears.
With effort, she pulled her attention from Deluca and Natalie. She had to think about Aiden now. Had to focus, gather her wits. Was he still breathing? She felt for a pulse and found one, slow and weak, but it was there! She wanted to cry with relief.
Natalie was standing by the fireplace, staring at her, grinning at her. Eyes half closed, watching and waiting for Aiden to die.
“What do you want me to do, Natalie? I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll confess to murdering Sara if you want. I’ll say Aiden came at you and you protected yourself. That you shot him in self-defense, just please call an ambulance!”
Natalie bent to her haunches, letting the gun dangle playfully from a finger. “He’s taking too long to bleed out, maybe he needs another bullet. To the head this time?” She seemed not to be addressing Lily, but to be giving voice to her thoughts. She raised the gun and Lily scrambled to cover Aiden with her own body. It would do no good, she knew. The bullet would just kill them both, but it was all she could think to do.
“Nah, I’ll let him die slowly.” She lowered the weapon. “Better that way.” Her expression was one of deep contentment, as if she’d never been happier in all her life.
Lily tried again. “I promise I won’t go back on my word. I’m sorry for all the things that happened to your family, but if you don’t act fast, your mother will be arrested. She’ll be sent to the maximum-security prison in Bangor. You don’t want that, do you? You never know what could happen to a woman like her in a place like that. She could be killed or raped. You wouldn’t want her to spend even a single night there, would you?” Lily was grasping but could think of nothing else to say. Maybe the mention of Natalie’s family would bring her back to herself, make her see reason.
The girl stood, and a laugh bubbled out of her. “This is Plan B,” she said, her words slurred. “Plan A was Antonio coming over to take your statement, you know, the one where you confess to killing your sister. I’ve been paying him to do my bidding. But let’s be honest, I kinda knew Plan A wasn’t gonna pan out. Plan B is more exciting and dramatic.” She gestured toward Antonio’s body and waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about him. He was a shitty cop anyway.”
Natalie took the bottles of alcohol out of her satchel. Each was plugged with a rag. Liquid dripped from the bottoms of the soaked fabric.
With the gun on the floor in front of her, Natalie eyed Lily as she took a lighter from her pocket and teasingly held it up for Lily to see. A tight smile lit her face as she flicked it, and all at once, a long flame appeared, dancing and dangerous.
“What are you doing?” Lily’s voice rose with panic.
Natalie threw her a look of annoyance. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“If you set the cabin on fire, you’ll die too. This whole place is made of wood. For God’s sake, it’ll be engulfed by flames in minutes.”
She threw Lily a look of incredulousness. “That’s Plan B.” Then she held the flame to a wick. It lit instantly. For a moment, she studied it, looking at it from different angles, fascinated, then catapulted the bottle against a wall. It exploded on impact, licks of flames shot up, catching the curtains, and small pools of liquor burned in dozens of spots on the tinder-dry floorboards. Another landed in the kitchen on the mat in front of the sink. Flames flared up as high as the ceiling, and shards of glass sprayed down like ice pellets.
Natalie held a third bottle, ready to light it. “This one’s for you.” There was a smile in her voice.
No time, no thought, no fear. Lily ran at Natalie, knocking the homemade bomb from her hands before she had a chance to light it. The girl fell backward, hitting the hard stone of the fireplace, but gained back her feet in seconds. With hands entwined in Lily’s hair, she smashed her head downward with a mighty thrust, toward an upraised knee. The sharp crack of cartilage echoed in Lily’s head, and pain seared her brain.
Blackness fell.
Natalie slid to the floor, her legs rubbery, her energy spent. She leaned against the wooden column between the living room and kitchen. The flames were spreading quickly, engulfing furniture now. They were pretty, so pretty, she thought in amazement as the heat and the pills lulled her into contentment.
She saw the dog flee upstairs to the loft, instinct driving him to a safer place, at least for the moment. Soon there would be no such thing as a safe place.
It was hot. Hot as hell, and Natalie yanked off her hat and tried to remove her jacket, fighting with it as it twisted and tangled in muddled-up arms that didn’t do what she wanted them to. She took the pills from her jacket pocket, then tossed her winter gear into the flames. Everything was right with the world. Justice had been done, and soon her pain would be over. No more worrying about her parents fighting, wondering when they were going to divorce and leave her, or be hauled off to prison. No more loneliness. No more disrespect. People would remember her now, know what she was capable of. She’d wait just a bit longer, enjoy the moment, and wonder at the beauty of the fire raging around her, then she’d down what was left of the pills and drift off. Her death would be painless. Just a calm, deep slumber.
Lily lay a few feet away, a puddle of crimson pooled around her head, but the sputtering coughs and labored breaths told Natalie she wasn’t yet dead. Smoke was filling the cabin, but the openness of the high, vaulted ceilings provided plenty of room for it to rise. Natalie still had time to enjoy her handiwork.
Aiden was sprawled on the couch, and she had no idea if he was still among the living, though she doubted it. Flames licked at the edges of the area rug near the sofa he was on. The fire would get him first. She didn’t really mind, but it would have been nicer if Lily was the first to go. That way Natalie would be certain to see her struggle to breathe her last. She would have even dragged her closer to the flames if the pills hadn’t stolen her energy.
Her eyelids were made of lead and she let them close. Just for a moment.