Page 48 of Holy Sinner

Everyone lines up like Grant instructed and loops arms. There’s twenty of us from what I count. I don’t join them. I stay off to the side with Grant and watch.

“Everyone partnered up?” Grant calls out and someone answers him from the dark.

“We’re all good!”

Grant nods and flips his flashlight on. He shines it in the woods and steps forward with me at his side. “Let’s move out. Keep your eyes on the ground, anything that looks wrong, blow your whistle.”

I know why Grant knows exactly what to do. He knows because this is what happens when someone looks for the fuckers we dispose of. We’ve both been there in the mix when the search happens for one of our marks. It’s exhilarating, almost better than the kill. That’s why I know the murderer is here.

A search party is irresistable. It’s the ability to watch the chaos created from the best seats in the house. What Jane did to attract the eye of a killer is beyond me. She was quiet, that’s all I remember about Holly’s assistant. I never noticed her, not really. Kit liked her but Kit likes everyone.

We walk into the woods and I raise my voice to call out Jane’s name, but it’s done on autopilot. I’m looking for Kit. I don’t give two fucks about Jane but if I wasn’t here, there would be bigger questions to answer.

Grant sweeps his flashlight out in front of him and his warm breath puffs up against it. “This isn’t good,” he tells me quietly before he shouts Jane’s name.

“No fucking shit.”

“We have to find her.”

The her he’s talking about isn’t Jane. It’s Kit. I nod and swallow past the lump in my throat. “We will.”

The other’s voices sound off in the dark but there’s no answer. There’s only the sound of our feet snapping twigs and people pushing past tree limbs as they stumble along and look for a dead girl. Because that’s the truth of it. Jane’s dead. There’s no scenario in this story where she’s alive, but they’ll learn that on their own. I work the day backwards, trying to understand where Kit might be, where she might have gone tonight. We walk into a clearing and I almost trip because there in the moonlight is Kit.

Her back is to us but I would know Kit from any angle. Her long dark hair flows in the wind and relief settles into me because she’s standing. She’s not twisted and broken in the dirt the way my gut is telling me Jane is. Then Kit moves. She stumbles back, a scream ripping from her throat and she throws her arms out.

“No!” That word is shrill and high. Terrified. I drop my flashlight and sprint towards my woman as she falls back onto the ground with a shriek. “No, no, no!” I hear Grant a step behind me and the raised voices of the rest of the search party that see what we see.

When I reach her I see the bottom of her nightgown and feet are covered in blood. The dark stain of it turns the ground and the material of Kit’s nightgown black, because she’s fallen right into it. I scan the area, expecting to see Jane’s broken body but there’s nothing.

“See if Jane’s here,” I bark at Grant and he nods, flashlight already scanning the ground for signs of the missing assistant.

“Oh god, oh no,” Kit sobs and lifts her hands up in front of her. Her palms are stained black with blood and I grab her shoulders.

“Look at me,” I order her and her eyes snap to me. I can smell the champagne on her. The smell of stale alcohol is cloying off of her and when I drop to my knees the ground is damp. Pine needles stick to my knees. I know from the feel that it’s not water, it’s too thick to be water. It’s blood.

“Rafe?” Kit blinks and stares up at me like she’s just waking up. She shakes her head and her hands fall down to her sides. “Where am I?”

I stare at her and brush her hair back from her eyes because I can see it plain as day, she’s just woken up. The familiar unfocused look I recognize from waking up beside her morning after morning is there.

“How did you get out here?” I ask her and Kit’s eyes come into focus.

Her bottom lip trembles and she looks down. “Why is the ground wet? W-what’s on–oh my god,” her voice ends in a whisper and she grabs at her nightgown with both hands. “What am I doing out here? Oh god, Rafe. Rafe, I’m scared.” Her voice cracks and that’s when I reach for her.

I hold her tight and urge her to stand up with me. Flashlight beams bounce and dance across the clearing behind us and the search party is close. There’s not much time to make her understand. Kit trembles and I know if I wasn’t holding her up, she probably wouldn’t be able to stand.

“Say that you went for a walk and tripped. That’s it.” I squeeze her and Kit shakes in my arms. “You went out for some air. Do you understand me?” I whisper to her. “You woke up and Grant and I were gone, so you went out for air because we don’t let you do shit like that. That’s all that happened. Tell me you understand. Now.”

“I understand,” Kit answers me. She’s confused and I know the shouts and people running towards us aren't helping but I know she’s going to follow instructions like my good girl.

“Oh my god, did you find Jane?” Holly’s the first to get to us, and I know she had nothing to do with Jane’s disappearance from the way shock overtakes the relief in her eyes. She’s just as surprised that we’ve found anyone out here, let alone us finding Kit.

“I-what? Rafe what’s going on?” Kit whispers, grabbing onto my arm. I’m not wearing a shirt and the blood on her hands smears across my chest and bicep. It’s only then that the blood registers on her face.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Holly’s voice rises into a scream because she sees what Kit is now seeing. “The blood–oh-why is there so much blood?!” Holly’s flashlight moves over my chest before it goes back to Kit.

“What are you doing here, Kit?” Holly’s voice is still screaming and I sweep Kit behind me. “What did you do?!”

“Back up,” I snap at Holly and that stops her from coming any closer. But it’s Grant’s shout from the other side of the clearing that has her flashlight dropping away from Kit.

---