Page 54 of If Anything Happens To Me

I knew that Minerva had driven to get the map of the Miramar. When she returned and found both me and Iris gone, she and Daphne would take steps to find us. Rescue us from Fitch and Matt. Now was the time to call the police. But why was it taking her so long? What if the brochure wasn’t at the historical society after all? Maybe she had to go to the other places Daphne had mentioned.

Was that a look of hope on Hayley’s face? Or doubt? Most likely both.

“Do you promise my sister is alive?” Hayley asked.

“I do,” I said.

“Tell me everything about her,” Hayley said, her brown eyes wide. “What did she say, how did she look, did she talk about me?”

“She talked about you all the time. From the minute I found her, you were all she could think about. Every single thing she did was devoted to getting you out of here,” I said. “And she told me everything. About the Cat Castle. How you like to stay home and she likes to go out . . .”

“I can’t believe it,” Hayley said. “For the last two days, I was sure that I’d never . . .”

“I know, you thought you’d never see her again. But you will,” I said, even though the fact of Iris’s absence made me worry if that was true. “I have to know something. How many are there?”

“How many?”

“Yes,” I said. “Fitch and who else?”

“Fitch? Is that his name?” I nodded. “He’s the only one who comes in here. But . . .” Hayley frowned as if trying to bring something to mind. “I think there might be someone else. Because ‘Fitch,’ if that’s who he is . . .”

“I promise you, that’s who he is,” I said grimly. I wondered if Fitch had kept his name secret as a way to protect his identity. Or did he have enough of a conscience to keep a part of himself separate from what he was doing?

“Anyway, he always seems to know more than he should,” Hayley went on. “He stays overnight in one of the guest rooms, so he’s usually close by. There are cameras, but it’s got to be more than that.”

“Like what?”

“He can’t be watching the monitor every minute, can he?” she asked, looking up at the ceiling.

I couldn’t stop myself from looking up, too. There were two stuffed raptors—a snowy owl and a kestrel. “I wouldn’t think so.”

“It feels as if someone else is spying on us. Because there’s never any time between.”

“Time between what?” I asked.

“Between whatever happens in here and him arriving. Once, when he first brought us here, Iris and I rummaged through the drawers where he keeps his medical stuff, trying to find a weapon to attack him. There was no way he could have known that from downstairs, but just a couple minutes later he came through the door.”

“Couldn’t he have been watching the camera feed?” I asked.

She shrugged. “The cameras can’t cover the whole attic. There are blind spots.”

I was shaking. I remembered Iris telling me and Matt that someone had been spying on them in the attic. Matt had asked her questions about her imprisonment, seeming to care so much. But now I wondered—hadhebeen the spy? Had his concern been fake, just to throw us off?

“Did you ever hear Fitch say the name Matt?” I asked Hayley, afraid to hear the answer.

“Yes,” Hayley said. “It surprised me, since he never told me his own name. Why, how do you know that?”

“I just do,” I said, my heart falling. “Go on.”

“Fitch told us he was in a nature club, that he had friends who would help him if we ever gave him trouble. Their names were Matt and Chris, he said. They were always there for him.”

So it was definite—Matt was part of this. My heart felt like a stone. I closed my eyes and turned away. I couldn’t stand hearing anything more.

I felt incredibly thirsty. Drinking water would flush the rest of the sedatives out of my system sooner. I paced the perimeter of the attic and found the bathroom—about the size of a closet. I cupped my hands, filled them with water from the faucet, and drank.

There was a mirror above the sink; I stared into my own eyes and saw a different girl than I’d been before.

My sister had been murdered by our friend.

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