Crimson Twilight (12 page)

“Phoebe, my Krewe will have figured it out by now, too. Killing me will get you nowhere. Nor is there anywhere for you to go. You’ll be arrested, and you’ll face murder charges. If you give yourself up right now, I can try to help you.”

Jane had moved away from the chapel a fair distance. Phoebe was leading her to the rear, a place where the graves began to ride down the slopes off the cliffs. She raised her head, trying to see in the near darkness. She thought she heard something—coming from behind her.

She was certain that Phoebe was before her!

Something thumped into the gravestone she’d ducked beneath.

An arrow.

She heard laughter from the fog-riddled graveyard before her, eerie in the strange dying light and the cool air.

“No one gets married here! They don’t marry here. They
die
here!” Phoebe called to her.

Jane thought she heard a snapping sound on the ground, coming closer. She rolled quickly and slunk on the ground, staying low. She was armed and she could aim. But she couldn’t make out a damned thing to shoot at.

“Brides die!” Phoebe cried, laughing.

The sound was both ahead and behind Jane.

In fact, it seemed to come from all around.

* * * *

Sloan was quickly on his feet, racing to the back of the house. At the rear exit from the kitchen, he thought that he felt someone behind him.

He turned.

And she was there. Elizabeth Roth.

She stared at him with a drawn face and worried eyes.

“I’ll find her!” he promised.

“The fog has fallen,” Elizabeth said.

“I’ll find her!” he said. “Come with me?”

“I can’t leave the house.”

“Try.”

She shook her head.

He couldn’t wait.

He bolted out of the castle and was instantly astounded by the pea soup of New England fog he found himself within. He could still see the spire of the chapel, so he headed toward it. He made his way through the gate, down the path, and threw the chapel door open.

Jane wasn’t there.

But he heard something.

Laughter.

Eerie in the strange fog. It seemed to come from the left, and then from the right.

“Jane!” he shouted. “Jane!”

He heard her reply.

And as he did, he realized that shouting had been a mistake. She was might be risking her life to shout out a warning to him.

“It’s Phoebe and someone else, Sloan! Someone else with a bow and arrow, hunting us down,” Jane shouted back to him.

He dropped to the ground just as something whizzed by his head. He tried to calculate the source of the arrow that had come his way. But whoever was shooting with a bow and arrow was now halfway around the church.

The laughter had come from the far rear.

On his hands and knees, he crawled around the graveyard.

* * * *

Jane tried to determine where she was, but with the distance they’d come she thought she might be in the back of the chapel, near the cliffs.

“I’m going to get you!” Phoebe said, her voice startlingly near.

She couldn’t see anything. So how could Phoebe?

She didn’t reply.

Then Phoebe began to chant.
“Good girls die, the bitches lie, the brides go straight to decay. This time round, the good girl dies and the bitch’s lies will let her win the day!”

“How do you see this as winning?” Jane cried out. “Emil is seriously in love with Scully. He’ll marry her and you’ll go to jail.”

“Not true. Scully is right here with me. And if you don’t show yourself now, she’s going over the cliff!” Phoebe cried.

“I don’t believe you. Scully was in the castle.”

“She’s here now. Wanna hear her scream?”

Jane heard a muffled cry.

Scully.

She winced, bracing against a gravestone.

“If you don’t come out, she goes over the cliff right now!”

Sloan was out there, too, she thought. He had to be.

She’d be all right.

Or would she?

* * * *

Sloan kept silent and crept along the earth.

Another arrow flew past. That one, he was sure, had been sent blindly. He crept for what seemed like a lifetime but, looking at his watch, he saw that two minutes had passed. Another arrow flew by. This time he saw the arch and pattern.

He crept in the right direction.

Slow and silent.

At last he found himself behind the archer.

He waited and watched, forcing himself to be patient.

When the archer went to string another arrow, he pounced.

And together, they started rolling downhill.

* * * *

Jane realized there was nothing to do but stand. Her Glock was tucked into the back of her jeans.

“I’m here,” she cried.

“Come out where I can see you!” Phoebe demanded.

“Where is that?”

“Come closer to my voice.”

She did as told and tripped once over a broken stone, but then she saw images appear before her. Phoebe had somehow taken Scully hostage. She stood with Scully, close to the edge of the cliff, and held a knife to her throat.

“Drop the gun,” Phoebe said.

“Let Scully go first,” she said.

“Drop the gun, or she goes over.”

“You’re going to die or go to prison,” Jane said.

Phoebe shook her head. “You’ll be dead. And the whole thing will look like the crazy Krewe of Hunters unit—the
ghost unit
—went off the deep end and killed everybody. Then Emil will come back to me. He’s young and sweet and pliable. He’ll love me again.”

“You were never anything but an affair to him, Phoebe. He loved Scully from the start.”

“Put the gun down. She’s already bleeding,” Phoebe warned.

Should she pretend to do as instructed, then shoot? She could aim for Phoebe’s head, but if either woman moved—

Someone lightly touched her.

And she heard a whisper that seemed part of the fog.

“Your love is behind you. Duck down. I’ll do what I can.”

Jane reached for her gun, dropped to the ground, and told Phoebe, “She’s coming for you.”

“Who?”

“The ghost of Elizabeth Roth. She’s disgusted with what you’re doing, trying to use the past to make a mockery of the present. She’s there. At your side. Can’t you feel her? She’s touching you now.”

“You’re full of—” Phoebe began and broke off.

Elizabeth Roth was there, standing next to Phoebe, touching her hair.

Jane flew to her feet, sprinted forward, and caught Phoebe and Scully together, bringing them all down.

They landed hard, but Scully was free.

“Get up and run!” Jane ordered.

Thankfully, Scully had the sense to obey.

Phoebe still held her knife. She jumped to her feet in a fury, knife raised, ready to leap to where Jane had fallen.

But a shot rang out.

Phoebe paused midair. Then her body was propelled backward, disappearing into the fog. Jane heard her scream until a distant thud, flesh impacting rock, silenced everything.

An unearthly quiet returned.

Then shouts everywhere.

Logan and Kelsey. Forester and Flick. Chef and Harry and Devon and Lila and Sonia. All coming from the castle. Someone walked out of the fog toward her, gun in hand. Impossibly tall and broad and wonderful and always there for her. Her partner, in life, in work, and in breathing. Sloan didn’t speak as he drew her to her feet and into his arms.

He just held her.

And their hearts beat together.

* * * *

“But, Mr. Green?”

It was Emil who seemed the most shocked. He’d trusted the man, thought he’d had a champion in him.

It was nearly morning again.

And, as the survivors gathered in the Great Hall while Forester’s crew worked to find the bodies down the cliff, Sloan knew they were all grateful to know that there wouldn’t be another one at the foot of the stairs that morning.

“Why Mr. Green?” Emil repeated.

“I think he just became involved with Phoebe. When you stopped seeing her, she started planning her revenge. I think she was trying to find a way to make her past part of yours. Instead, she discovered that Scully is a distant relative,” Jane said.

“And,” Sloan explained, “once she’d come up with her plan, she knew she needed help. And poor Mr. Green, alone and lonely. He was no match for Phoebe. He did what she told him. I believe she had him convinced that she had to do what was right for you and if so, she’d be with him forever and ever.”

“But she wanted me,” Emil said, confused.

“She didn’t tell Green that part. She took care of the killing herself. But she needed him to help when it came to getting rid of you and Scully.”

“As if she’d have ever gotten away with it,” Logan muttered angrily. “The Krewe of Hunters doesn’t lose. We come on harder and harder until a case is solved.”

“We’ll never really know what was on Green’s mind, will we?” Kelsey asked.

Sloan lowered his head and shook it.

When he’d tackled Green, he’d subdued him and tied his hands. He’d never suspected, though, that the bound man would pitch himself over the cliff. But that’s exactly what had happened once Green realized Phoebe was gone. He looked up. Logan was watching him, knowing what he was feeling.

“We try to save the victims first and always,” he said.

“You saved Scully for me,” Emil said.

Sloan decided not to tell him that Jane had saved Scully. He’d saved his own love and his own life with a well-placed shot.

“What will happen now?” Jane asked. “With this place?”

“I think I’ll close it,” Emil said. “Funny, I always dreamed I’d be married here one day. I’m not huge on tradition, but my parents were married here.”

“I think you should be married here,” Jane told him. “Prove to the world that the castle isn’t evil. Only people can be evil. Make the castle a place of joy.”

“She’s right,” Scully said.

“We get to be bridesmaids!” Lila said.

“Oh, yes! Except, of course, we get to be in on picking the dresses,” Sonia added.

“You’ll need a best man,” Chef told Emil.

“And ushers,” Harry said.

Detective Forester stood. “I’ll at least expect an invitation. And one for Flick, too, of course.”

“You got it,” Emil promised. He looked at Jane. “But, you did plan to have your wedding here, you know?”

“But we’re not the lord and lady of the castle,” Jane said.

“I think we’ll be headed for an island in the Caribbean,” Sloan told him.

“You’ll always be welcome here,” Emil told them. “And anywhere I have holdings. And, I know that with Scully at my side, I’ll make good. And we’ll do good things. I swear it!”

“I believe you will,” Sloan assured him.

“Flick and I will be leaving now,” Forester said.

“I’ll walk you out,” Sloan offered.

Jane stood as he did. He smiled at her. They were both still muddy and grass-stained. They might not be married at the castle, but he did intend to make good use of the elaborate shower in the bridal suite as soon as he could.

They walked to the door and out onto the front lawn.

Emil was going to need a new caretaker, too.

But, as they waved good-bye to the detectives, Sloan was certain he’d never seen the place more beautiful.

Elizabeth Roth had realized that she could leave the castle. She stood with her beloved John down at the gates, oblivious to all else. She and John didn’t notice the car that drove by them. They were engaged in a long kiss. And as the car passed, the sun rose high above them, crimson rays of extraordinary light raining down, more like twilight than dawn.

Sloan lifted a hand to shield his eyes, blinking against the glare.

When the light shifted, they were gone.

“Do you think—?” Jane asked.

“I don’t know. But I do know they’re together.”

“Like we’ll always be,” she said.

“Shower,” he said. “And then—”

“We’ll fool around?”

“Isn’t that how all of this started?”

That it was, she thought.

“Then, off to the Caribbean,” he said. “Some place warm, with lots of blue water and sunshine. And we’ll fool around for a lifetime.”

She lifted her dirt-smudged face to his.

And he kissed the most beautiful lips he’d ever seen.

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