Page 17 of Lana

She stilled, her pulse spiking. Zoe didn’t have visitors.

She heard a strangled cry and her heart seemed to stop beating. She went to move toward the door as someone banged a fist against it.

Zoe couldn’t breathe and her legs wouldn’t move. Should she call the police? Mitch? She suddenly wished she had a weapon, but she didn’t like guns and refused to keep one in the house. Redwater had the lowest crime-rate and car-accident statistics of any town in this region—it was why she’d chosen to move here.

“Help! Help me, please! Help!” The strangled cries belonged to a woman, of that she was sure.

Without thinking, or maybe thinking of Lana, she dashed toward the door—but she was not prepared for what she saw when she opened it.

The woman almost fell on top of her, taking her to the ground.

“Help me, please!” she said, panicked. Her high-pitched voice sounded like a wail. Zoe scrambled back, her heart in her throat as she looked at the woman, deciding whether she needed to run for her own life.

“Police! Police! Before he finds me!” she said, looking over her shoulder.

Zoe sprang to life, lurching for the door, locking it with fumbling hands. She rushed back to the woman, kneeling beside her.

“What happened? What is your name?” she asked.

The woman looked at her with wide, terrified eyes. When Zoe took a moment to really look at her, she was startled by how much she looked like Lana. She looked over her shoulder at the closed door and tried to slide herself away from it like she was crawling, seemingly unable to stand.

Zoe grabbed the woman’s arm, helping her up. As she did, she noticed a smear of blood on her floors. It took a second for her to realize that the woman’s shirt wasn’t just dirty, it was covered in blood.

The blood in her veins froze and she stilled.

Why had this woman come to her house?

Zoe backed away but the woman pleaded. “Please, help me.”

She looked so much like Lana. She stalled.

“Where are you hurt?” Zoe asked, rushing forward, almost stumbling as she helped the woman get to the armchair.

“Police,” she responded, wheezing. “Call the police.”

Zoe’s eyes darted to her phone. If she called Mitch, would he think it was yet another coincidence? Zoe didn’t need to see his report to know he’d thought that—she’d thought the same thing about her arrival in Redwater... the same town her sister had been found in.

Zoe swallowed hard. She decided she didn’t care. She was not going to let anything happen to this woman.

She ran to the living room, grabbed her phone, and ran back to the woman.

With fumbling hands, she dialed the last number she’d saved in her phone.

“Mitch, it’s Zoe. A woman just turned up at my house, banging on the front door. She’d bleeding and saying to call the police. I don’t know what to do,” she said quickly.

“I’m on my way,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll call an ambulance. Are you in danger? Is she armed?”

His controlled, focused voice calmed her a little. “No, I don’t think she’s armed. She’s bleeding—a lot.”

“Grab some towels, press them against the wounds if you can. Try and get her name,” he said and she nodded. She could do this.

“Okay, got it. And Mitch, she looks like Lana—I would’ve sworn it was her except I saw her at the morgue today,” she said.

A pause followed.

“Zoe, don’t answer the door until I get there—not for anyone. Understood?” he said, his voice more urgent.

“Hurry,” she said, before hanging up. She ran to the linen closet and grabbed an armful of towels and rushed back to the woman. Her wide eyes were still on the door like she expected him to break it down any second.

---