Page 124 of See How They Hide

“My mother gave me a revolver. She put one bullet in it. She told me the shot had better be a good one or Biscuit would suffer, because I wasn’t going to get another bullet. And if I missed? She would cut off the next seven fingers.”

Catherine wanted to pull this poor girl into her arms and console her as the tears fell.

“I...I had been with my grandmother once when she had to put down an old horse who was sick. I knew what to do. But Biscuit wasn’t sick, and he wasn’t hurt, and I wanted to put the bullet in my mother’s head instead of the horse’s. But I didn’t. I killed him. And I know that the people in Havenwood put their hands out for my mother to mutilate, but blamed me for what she did. It will happen again.”

Riley stood, then said, “I’m going. She will hurt Agent Costa and others if I don’t.”

“Just—hold it. We have a plan. It’s a good plan, we need to stick to it. She gave us a time. Three hours. We have three hours to save Matt.”

“You think he’s still alive?” Riley said. “I hope he is, but he’s an outsider.”

Catherine called Dean Montero and told him what she’d learned. She glanced up when Riley walked across the cabin and went into the bathroom, wiping the tears from her face.

Catherine feared Riley was right. She said, “I don’t know if we can wait, Dean. They’re not going to give Matt back. Calliope is sociopathic and manipulative, a narcissist. If we don’t turn Riley over in three hours, they will kill him if he’s not already dead.”

“We’re in position, we’ll be going in shortly.”

“Be safe.” She ended the call.

Riley was still in the bathroom. Catherine said to Ryder, “You holding up?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You don’t have to be formal with me, Ryder.” She had noticed the way Kara had elicited respect from the team in how they communicated with each other. Ryder was formal with everyone, but not Kara. Originally, Catherine thought it was because he didn’t respect her. On the contrary, he liked her. They were friends, and Catherine didn’t think she would ever understand it. Kara was antithetical to the structure that Ryder thrived in.

When he only nodded, she said, “Alert George and the SWAT team that the plan is a go.” They had lookouts camouflaged at several key spots along the route from the Havenwood property line to the highway road. They would alert the team when anyone left.

She walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. “Riley, are you okay? Do you need anything?”

Silence.

She tried the door.

Locked.

For a second she feared Riley harmed herself. But before she forced the door open, she knew the truth.

Riley had left through the window.

46

Outside Havenwood

Riley liked Catherine and hadn’t wanted to deceive her, but Riley wanted no more deaths on her conscience.

She trusted that the FBI had a plan, but when Calliope was forced into a corner, she acted irrationally. That put Agent Costa in danger. How could she explain it to everyone?

There was only one way to end Calliope’s control over all those people. One way to stop more innocent people from dying. For her aunt, for her grandmother, for Jane and Robert and the others.

Riley had to kill her.

The realization had come to her slowly after she learned her mother had Agent Costa kidnapped and used her aunt’s dead body as the messenger. Maybe Calliope wanted a showdown. Maybe she wanted everyone to die defending Havenwood. But Havenwood wouldn’t be at risk and no one would be in danger if Calliope hadn’t turned what was beautiful and pure into an evil, ugly cult with her at the center.

For all the psychology classes she’d taken, and listening to Dean and Catherine talk, Riley still didn’t understand what motivated her mother. Yes, she understood her need to protect what was hers. What happened to Glen and Annie, losing the baby, the people who left and came back to do them harm. But her mother had been not completely right in the head even before that. She was beautiful and evil, hot and cold, cruel and sadistic.

But she would never leave Havenwood because at the heart of everything, Calliope was terrified. Whether because of watching the murder of her father or because she saw Havenwood as her only sanctuary, Calliope was terrified to leave.

Riley understood fear. And she would use it to her advantage.

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