Craig had left only to move the body?
Kaitlan stilled on the chair in the Jensons’ kitchen. Her grandfather’swords sank inside her like millstones. Her eyes cut to the sliding backdoor as if any second Craig might leap from the darkness. The house felt like a mausoleum. Huge and still and cold. Able to swallow her whole.
“Are you saying”—her voice sounded so small—“he’ll come back?”
But she already knew the answer. Of course he wouldn’t leave her alone all night. Everything he’d said had been designed to terrify her, keep her from running while he was gone.
“Listen to me,” her grandfather snapped. “You have to get out of there.”
“I don’t have a car!”
“We’ll come get you.”
“But he told me not to leave. He’ll chase me down, and if he can’t find me, he’ll plant drugs in my apartment.”
“That’s a chance we have to take. You have no choice now, things have gotten out of hand.”
Like they weren’t before.
And just what had her grandfather been doing all evening while she followed his advice and went to a party with a killer? “Have you figured out how we’re going to catch Craig?” she demanded.
Her grandfather’s hesitation screamed.
“Have you?”
“I need to refigure it. The situation’s different now.”
Kaitlan shoved to her feet. “You told me I could count on you! Now look at me. I never should have left your house!” Desperation choked her lungs. She bent over, dragging in air. Craig was coming back tonight—who knew whether to beat her up again or kill her?
She had to get out of here.
“Pull yourself together, Kaitlan,” her grandfather snapped. The fear vibrating through his anger heightened her own. “I’m handing the phone to Margaret. She needs directions.”
Muffled sounds came over the line as the receiver was passed from hand to hand. Margaret’s voice trembled into Kaitlan’s ears. She could barely think straight as she tried to spout directions. Twice she blanked on names of streets.
“Okay. Got it.” Margaret’s words spluttered. “Wait! Your grandfather wants to tell you something.”
Kaitlan’s fingers cramped around the phone. She grabbed the counter and scanned the void of the Jensons’ backyard. Through the line came the sound of her grandfather’s rattled breathing.
“You stay in that house now, hear me? Stay down where you can’t be seen through the windows. Don’t come out until you see us pull up front.”
Kaitlan’s heart beat in her ears. “Okay.”
The line clicked.
She hung up the phone with shaking hands.
The lamps. They would illumine her through any of the front windows. If she turned the living room one off and Craig came back, would he notice?
She couldn’t take the chance.
Bent over double, Kaitlan skulked out of the kitchen to find a darkened room to wait in.