Page 83 of The Girl in the Mist

“He’s around,” Holden shrugs. “He’s a lot more trouble than I was expecting. But he’s just like the rest ofthem.”

“The children of the people who made your family leave,” I say. “They’re the ones you killed. But theBarretts…”

“They could have helped end the first massacre. They lived there in 1964 and one of the counselors took a truck and drove to their house to try to call the police and get help. Sound familiar?” He grins, pleased with himself at his attention to detail. “Only, they wouldn’t let him in. They refused to let him use the phone. The neighborhood was new then and there weren’t as many houses as there are now. Most of the ones that were there were empty. The next neighbor was down the street. He gave up and went to town instead. They could have saved so much time and so manylives.”

“Holden, where is Jacob?” I demand.

“Emma, listen.”

The rain has lessened and for a second Garrison stands still and quiet beside me. Then I hear what he heard. A thud like something hitting wood and rough, frantic splashing.

“Shit,” Garrison mutters, ripping off his jacket and throwing it to the floor before handing me his gun and running to jump off the end of the dock.

“You sick son of a bitch,” I say as I realize what’s happening.

“Me?” he asks. “I’m the one who’s sick? Not the people who accused my father of horrific murders, rape, kidnapping, mutilation, everything they could think of without any evidence at all. Not the people who tormented us, attacked him, threatened my mother and me when I was just a baby? Not the police who were supposed to be protecting us but just let those people run us out of town? They killed my father. They killed my mother. Their death certificates say hanging and drug overdose, but that mob killedthem.”

I run to the edge of the dock to look for Garrison. I don’t see him, but I suddenly hear hisvoice.

“Knife!” hescreams.

“This is all very valiant,” Holden says. “But it’s really no use. He’s been under there for more than an hour now. And he got a pretty nasty knock on the head before he wentin.”

“He’s alive,” I say, going into the boathouse to look for a knife. Holden starts to move and I shove my gun toward his face. “Take another step and you’ll be a stain on that wall behindyou.”

He chuckles as he holds up his hands and doesn’t move.

“It doesn’t matter what you do. I already won. I’ve walked through hell, Agent Griffin. There’s nothing any of you can do to me that’s worse than what I’ve already gonethrough.”

I find a knife and bring it to the edge of the dock where Garrison is gripping a support, bobbing in the rough water. He takes it and disappears again. I’m watching the water, listening for the sound of the knife cutting through the rope, when I hear something else behind me.

I turn in time to see Holden coming toward me swinging a canoe paddle. I duck the blow and kick him hard in the stomach, sending him into the water. A second later, Miranda drops down from the loft overhead with a gun in her hand. My finger squeezes my trigger in the same instant the image registers and she hits the wood floor beneath her.

“Emma! Helpme!”

I shove my gun in my holster and remove the clip from Garrison’s, putting it in my pocket. I go to the edge of the dock and see a burlap bag come to the surface. I reach for it and use every ounce of my strength to help him haul it up onto the dock. When it’s up, I pull at the knots binding it closed, trying desperately to open it. Garrison pulls himself up and gestures for me to move out of theway.

“I’ve got it. Did I hear agunshot?”

“Miranda,” I say. “Do you see Holden? He fell in thewater.”

I look toward the shore and see Holden just getting out of the water. I expect him to run. Instead, he goes back into the boathouse. I run up to where Miranda is lying on the floor and he bursts through the door in the next second.

“You shother!”

“You sent her to a loft to keep her safe?” I ask. “I would expect more fromyou.”

Holden tears off his shirt and presses it to the wound in Miranda’s shoulder.

“You’re going to be alright,” he whispers to her. “I loveyou.”

She looks up at him with tears in her eyes. “I loveyou.”

I take the opportunity to stand over both with my gun in my hand, but I know they won’t run. “Which is why you couldn’t actually let her be without care while she was waiting to come out of the woods. She was hurt more than you thought she was going to be. You knew she had to have some injuries, but it was worse than you expected. You couldn’t risk them getting infected. So you did what anyone who loves someone does. You covered the injuries. You put medicine on them so they wouldn’t get infected and you bandaged them.

“And that was my first indication of something being wrong with what she was saying. When she was in the hospital, I noticed a rash on her arms near the injuries. It wasn’t an infection or something from the woods like poison ivy. It was an allergic reaction tolatex.”

“I’m going to need a bus out at Camp Hollow,” Garrison says into the radio he discarded with his jacket. “Urgent.”

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