Allison Brennan - The Kill

“Why is it shredded?” Olivia asked.

“He was enraged,” Zack said. “She’d outmaneuvered him. That would explain why he didn’t pay attention to the road. The marks on the trail indicate he’d been driving way too fast for the soft ground. He overcorrected when he saw the deer, hit it, then slammed into the tree.”

“Makes sense to me,” Miranda said. “Let’s fan out, figure out which way she went.”

Ten minutes later, Zack called Miranda and Olivia to his location. “Look.” He pointed to a mark on a tree.

N.M.

It was faint, low on the tree, and looked like it had been made by her thumbnail or a small branch. “She may have been marking her path in the hopes of retracing her steps in daylight,” Zack said.

“Maybe she’s hiding. Laying low until it’s safe,” Miranda said.

Olivia called, “Nina!” Zack and Miranda joined her.

“Nina!”

Their voices had an odd, hollow sound in the mist. The entire mountain seemed to hold its breath, waiting.

A bright light cut through the trees and Olivia stifled a scream. Zack took two strides and got in front of her, gun drawn.

“It’s the trail we drove in on,” Miranda whispered.

A Jeep passed slowly only ten feet from them as they hid in the trees. It then stopped.

Zack put his finger up to tell them to stay quiet, and walked along the edge of the trees to the vehicle up ahead. Voices trickled down.

“That’s Quinn!” Miranda said, and emerged from the woods.

Less than twenty feet away, the white truck was still up against a tree.

Olivia stayed back from the group, watching Quinn and Doug Cohn and three others emerge from the Jeep and start talking. Quinn gave Miranda a brief hug, and Zack explained what they’d learned and what they believed happened to Nina.

“Did you find anything useful at his house?” Zack asked Cohn.

“More than enough for a conviction,” Cohn said. “That case you found? Both the underwear and the hair was stored inside, among other things. Maps, old notebooks detailing his plans, fake identifications in dozens of names.”

“What about the stone in the garden? With angel in Morse code engraved on top.”

Cohn’s jaw tightened. “Buried two feet under the stone was a blood-soaked tarp and sheet. Considering the location, I’ll bet we’ll find the blood matches Jillian Reynolds. We also used Luminol in the bedroom and discovered traces of blood under Driscoll’s bed.”

Olivia put her hand to her mouth and walked away. Though the police had done a basic search of the island, they didn’t go into any homes because they thought they knew what happened to Jillian. She couldn’t swim, so they figured she must have drowned. Driscoll had kidnapped her, hidden her away until the search was called off. Then he killed her and dumped her far into the woods so no one would find her for a long time.

She walked off the side of the trail.

Then she saw it.

“Zack!” she called.

Zack, Quinn, and Miranda came running down the trail. “What happened?” Zack asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Look.”

Small footprints followed the edge of the trail, then disappeared down the slope opposite from where they’d emerged when they saw Quinn’s car.

“When we drove up, we must have passed her. But she didn’t know if it was safe to come out. She’s hiding here someplace. We have to find her.”

The four of them started jogging back down the trail, calling for Nina.

“Nina! The police are here. We’re all over the mountain. Please come out. Your mother is waiting.”

Over and over. Olivia called until she was hoarse.

They paused for a minute to drink water that Miranda had brought in her sack.

“Help!”

Olivia held her hand up to stop everyone from talking. Was it her imagination? Had she really heard a cry for help?

“Help! Help, please!”

“Nina?” Olivia called.

“I’m stuck! Please help me!”

“We’re coming!” Zack shouted, and started in the direction of the voice.

Nina had slid off the trail and fallen down a steep slope. They shined all their lights down to see where she was.

“Thank you! Thank you!” They heard her but couldn’t see her.

“Where are you? Nina?”

“My leg is stuck. I fell into this hole. I can’t get out. Please help me.”

“I have rope,” Miranda said, and opened her pack. “We can’t go down this way. We’ll fall down the slope as well.”

The sharp drop-off was obvious in the light, but Nina wouldn’t have been able to see it running in the dark. She was stuck in a crevice. Looking carefully, Olivia saw her head poking out.

“We’re going to lower down a rope,” Miranda called to the girl. “There’s a loop on one end. Pull it over your head and tighten it under your arms. Then hold on to it.”

“But my leg. I can’t move it.”

“I’ll go down and free her leg,” Zack said.

“You’re too big,” Quinn said. “I’m thinner.”

“You’re both too big,” Olivia said. “Look at that crevice. It’s too narrow for either of you. I’m going.”

“Olivia,” Miranda began, then stopped and nodded. “I agree. But we have to find another way down.”

They told Nina to stay put and someone would come down to help her. Olivia walked with Miranda several hundred feet down the trail until they found a safe place to rappel down the slope. “This is what we’ll do,” she told Olivia. “You free her leg and we’ll pull her up. Then, I’ll send the rope back for you. You cinch it under your arms, just like I told Nina, and we’ll pull you up.”

“Why can’t I just come back this way? It’s not as steep.”

“This ground isn’t stable. That crevice-I don’t trust it. I think it’s deeper than it looks from here. You need to step carefully. The earth could give way anywhere and you’ll be in the middle of a rock slide. The entire Cascade Mountain range isn’t stable. Remember, Mount St. Helens is part of it.”

“You’re not saying we’re sitting on a volcano.” Olivia tried to make light of it, but saw Miranda was serious.

“If you mean is the mountain going to explode tonight, no. But there’s continual seismic activity that’s too sensitive for us to feel. The constant minute shifts underground loosen the rocks and earth, making the ground itself dangerous in steep areas like this. The crevice Nina is stuck in is actually a split in the mountain caused by repeated earth movements.”

“Miranda, I have a Ph.D. and I barely understand you.”

“Okay, more than you wanted to know. But you have to be careful. As soon as I saw the terrain I knew we had a problem, but I didn’t want to scare Nina, and I doubt Quinn or Zack would allow you to do this. Seriously, Liv, their weight wouldn’t have held. You’re light enough; I think you’ll be okay. But please, please , be careful. Especially until you get that rope around you.”

“I promise.”

Miranda explained to Olivia the best way to navigate the slope and approach the crevice. The ground was much rockier here, and Olivia lost her foothold several times, sliding partway down until she flattened her body enough to scoot down like a crab. Finally, she reached the rocky crevice and slowly made her way back up the narrow opening to Nina.

Miranda was right. The space was deep. Olivia couldn’t touch the bottom, and had to use the sides of the crevice to balance and move forward.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” Nina cried when she saw Olivia. “I was so scared. First of him, then-I thought I’d die stuck here, no one would find me.”

Olivia hugged her, as much to soothe herself as the girl. “I am so proud of you, Nina. You beat him.”