Then she stopped feeling anything.
They held on to her a while longer to be sure she was gone. Two or three minutes. Then they exchanged a look of mutual, silent assent and let go of her. They watched the body float beneath the currents.
Julie scratched the side of her head with the gun sight. “I thought they were supposed to float.”
Missy shrugged. “Maybe the body has to get all bloated and gassy first.”
“Huh. I guess. Anyway, that was fun.”
“Yeah.” Missy lifted her face as a pleasant breeze rolled over them. She stared out at the ocean. The endless expanse of inky blackness seemed to beckon to her. “Nice night. It’s really beautiful out here.”
“I guess.”
“We should get back.”
“Okay.”
They slogged their way out of the water and began making their way back. The house they had invaded was some hundred yards or so distant. It was easy to distinguish because it was the only house with all its lights on. Missy had to give Zoe some credit. She’d given them a real run for their money. Had almost made it, in fact. Probably would have made it, if not for a little bit of dumb luck.
“Hey.”
Missy glanced at Julie. “Yeah?”
Julie smiled. “I liked it when she went limp. That was my favorite part.”
“Yeah.”
“I mean, you just knew she was gone. You could feel the life going out of her. It was fucking awesome.”
Missy smiled. “You’ll have to describe that for Chuck.”
Julie giggled. “I know! I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”
Missy’s smile faded as they neared the dune separating the beach from the house. That was when she heard the screams coming from inside.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
March 27
The guy had stabbed him three or four times, at least. Twice in the arm, once in the side, and another time in the leg. The wounds all hurt like hell, but none of them were too deep. No mortal blow had been struck yet. Rob came at him with the knife again, a wild look on his face as he slashed down toward Chuck’s chest. He looked almost as crazy as the girls now. Maybe he wasn’t a killer by nature, but he was on the verge of becoming one by necessity. Chuck rolled again and got out of the way just before the knife came down and thunked into the floor. He heard a sound of exertion. Instinct made Chuck roll back over before Rob could pry the knife out of the floor. He launched a fist that landed with sledgehammer force on the guy’s jaw and made him let go of the knife and go flying backward. Rob landed on his back and didn’t move. Maybe he was out cold. He’d hit the motherfucker hard enough. Chuck grabbed the knife and yanked it out of the floor.
He heard footsteps pounding up the staircase outside.
Shit!
He sliced through the last of the tape binding his left leg to the chair and got to his feet just as Missy and Julie came sprinting through the balcony door, dripping water and trailing wet sand behind them. Missy saw Rob unconscious on the floor and screamed.
“No! Rob!”
Julie pointed the gun at him. “Drop it.”
The adrenaline rush that had carried him this far began to ebb. He opened his hand and let the knife fall to the floor. He hated giving up his only weapon, but it was his only real option. Gun versus knife. No contest.
Missy dashed past him and dropped to her knees next to Rob.
Julie sneered. “Pick that chair up and sit the fuck down.”
Chuck snatched the chair up and slammed it down on the floor. He dropped into it and crossed his arms, glaring at Julie, the insolent curl of his mouth feeling like a silent dare. Go ahead, bitch, pull the trigger.
Julie smirked. “Hey, Chuck?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you wanna know where Zoe is?”
Chuck felt a cold weight settle inside him. He sat very still. A feeling of dread like nothing he’d ever known worked its way through his bones and turned his blood to ice. He didn’t want to hear this. He knew the truth in his guts, but he didn’t want to hear it. It made him feel hopeless. Like nothing at all mattered anymore.
“She’s in the ocean, Chuck.”
Julie watched the contortions of his facial muscles and laughed. Her grin conveyed pure joy. She was dripping. Her denim cutoffs and halter were soaked through. A fading sheen of water glimmered on her bare scalp.
“Yeah. She’s in the ocean. And she’s not out for a swim.”
Chuck stared at her slender throat. She was so young. Still a child, really. But he ached to get his hands around her lovely neck and crush the life from her body. The muscles in his arms and legs were clenched to the point of pain. He was a bomb ready to go off and the girl saw that.
She was still smiling. “She’s chum, Chuck. You know? Fish food?”
Chuck’s breathing came faster and faster through his clenched teeth.
“We drowned her.”
A sob surprised him. He was perched on the verge of an explosion of deadly violence, but his grief for Zoe was instantaneous and powerful. Another sob shuddered out of him, followed by another and another.
We drowned her.
He knew she wasn’t lying to mess with his head. Her eager leer spoke the truth as plainly as her words. She and Missy had killed Zoe. Had held her under the water and laughed while she died. Chuck could only too clearly imagine the helpless, hopeless, awful horror of it from Zoe’s perspective.
Tears spilled down his cheeks.
Julie giggled. “I’ve killed a bunch of people lately, but I think Zoe was the most fun. If I was a guy, I would’ve gotten my rocks off, big-time.”
Annalisa had been whimpering quietly for the last several minutes, but the news of her friend’s terrible death rallied her. “You evil cunt! You evil, twisted, sick piece of fucking filth! Zoe was better than all of you.” Her voice grew thick with emotion, but stayed strong instead of turning shrill. Chuck feared for her, but he was proud of her, too. This took serious guts. “You’re not fit to lick the shit off her shoes, you bald fucking skank.”
A fast-moving cloud passed across Julie’s face, a subtle darkening that was there and gone in the space of a second. Then she was smiling again. Keeping a wary eye on Chuck, she approached the line of chairs and placed the barrel of the gun against Sean Hewitt’s forehead.
A low, cracking whine escaped Annalisa’s throat.
“This one’s your boyfriend, right?”
Annalisa shook her head. “No. No.”
Chuck watched Julie’s finger curl around the trigger and knew he had to do something. Sean’s whole body was shaking. Bound up in all that tape, he looked like a convict strapped to an electric chair. His bottom lip trembled uncontrollably as he stared up at Julie’s unforgiving face and struggled to voice a plea. Chuck decided he’d take a lunge at her. Enough of this shit. It had to stop. One more big breath to prime himself and-
Julie’s slender finger squeezed the trigger.
The gun’s bang caught Chuck off guard. He toppled sideways off his chair and saw a rain of blood and brains fly out the back of Sean Hewitt’s head. Julie laughed and kicked the dead man’s chair over as Annalisa screamed and screamed. Julie laughed some more, but when Annalisa kept screaming, the sound coming from her own throat shifted to mock the sound. She leaned down in front of Annalisa and screamed in her face. The ever-escalating volume of the crazy girl’s screams easily eclipsed the noise Annalisa was making, and soon the bound woman’s screams gave way to more subdued whimpers and sobs.
“Sean…Sean…”
Julie giggled.
Chuck hated that sound. She did it a lot and it made her sound like the brattiest little girl on the schoolyard.
She whipped the butt of the.38 across Annalisa’s burned cheek, making her scream again.
Yet another of those perverse giggles. “Sean’s dead, baby.” Julie leaned close to Annalisa again, mouth almost up against her ear as her tone turned lilting and mocking. “Dead, dead, dead.”