Page 77 of Hide And Seek

“No,” Sutton said sharply. “You’re lying.”

Garrett looked at her, head wearily shaking. “Why the hell would we lie about something like this?”

“Because it’s not possible!” Sutton shot back. “She texted me, remember?Aftershe left with Ian and went to Saranac Lake. So how could she have been lying dead in a cellar this entire time?”

“Sutton…” Maren moved a little closer to her. “The killer could’ve taken her phone and sent you that message. That way we wouldn’t realize she was missing.”

Sutton’s head was shaking wildly now. “No, you don’t get it! It was her. It soundedexactlylike her!”

“He probably read through her other messages so he could mimic the way she talked,” Cole said.

Garrett nodded. “Yeah. We aren’t lying about this. We wouldn’t. She’s really dead, Sutton. I’m sorry.”

Grace was letting out strange wheezing noises from somewhere to my left. At first I thought she was crying again, but then I realized she was actually laughing. It didn’t seem like amused laughter, though. It was sharp and fractured, like something inside her had finally snapped.

“What the fuck?” Sutton whirled on her. “You’relaughingright now?”

“You all acted like I was crazy last night,” Grace said breathlessly, head shaking. Her voice had risen to a fever pitch. “But I was right all along, wasn’t I? There’s no one coming for us. Piper’s dead. Brad and Olivia are dead. We’re all fuckingdead.”

As she spoke, a dark realization settled over the room in a slow, suffocating wave.

For hours, we’d clung to the hope that Brad and Olivia were just delayed, that help was on its way, that this nightmare had an end point just within reach. But it was past seven o’clock in the evening now, with no sign of them or the police, and that hope had finally collapsed into certainty.

They weren’t coming back… because they were probably dead. Taken down somewhere out of sight, just like Piper.

And that meant Grace was right. No help was coming.

We were completely alone out here.

17

The darker-than-ever moodthat had settled over dinner didn't lift so much as solidify into something quieter and more resigned. Most people stayed at the tables after they’d eaten, talking in low voices. A few others left, presumably for showers or simply because they were tired, but no one went alone.

I was halfway through a cup of herbal tea, staring at nothing in particular, when the dining hall doors banged open again.

Garrett came in first, then Levi and Cole right behind him, and one look at their faces was enough to kill every conversation in the room.

“What’s happened now?” Jesse asked, rising to his feet.

“The bodies are gone,” Garrett said.

For a few seconds, nobody reacted. The words just hung in the air, too strange to absorb.

“What?” Caitlin said at last.

“The bodies are gone,” Garrett repeated, his voice tight. “We went back to the cellar to move Piper up to the woodshed before it got dark. Figured it made sense to keep them all together nowthat we don’t know when the cops are coming.” He shook his head. “She’s not there anymore.”

“We went and checked the woodshed after that,” Levi said. “Delia and Rhys are gone too.”

“What about Sloane and Reid?” Wren asked, eyes widening. “Did you check that building?”

Garrett's jaw flexed. “They’re gone too.”

“Butwhy?” Maren said, looking around the room like someone might actually have an answer ready. “Why would the killer move them? What's the point?”

I turned the question over in my mind, trying to find the logic in it. This killer had been careful and methodical from the start. Always a step ahead. So he wouldn’t just move the bodies for no reason.

“Evidence, maybe?” I finally ventured.