She walked a few more steps, then pushed her feet into the boots that were still sitting next to the desk. She grabbed her backpack then unlocked the door and let Vivienne inside.
“Oh, dear god,” Vivienne said, reaching up to touch Theo’s bloody chin. “What in the hell is going on over here? Are you okay?”
Theo shook her head. She wasn’t okay. “He’s locked in my office,” she gasped. “He says he’s the one who killed Mina … he got Ashley, too.” She shoved her keys into Vivienne’s hand. “Call Ames. Tell him we need people here, and we need them up at the cabins. I think that’s where he took her. Send an ambulance up there. Please hurry …”
The man was pounding on the door and yelling at the top of his lungs. Theo wasn’t worried that he might get out. The only thing that worried her was what she would find when she got to the cabin.
She heard Vivienne’s voice as she ran down the hall to the kitchen. She already had someone on the phone before Theo had pushed herself through the back door and into the cold, winter night.
16. CABIN NUMBER FOUR
Mina had been found in cabin four, so that’s where Theo headed. There were no lights on this side of the lake, and the back roads were treacherous because of the recent snowfall.
Theo touched the screen on the dash and listened to the phone ring when her call connected.
“Hey, T.J.,” Jordan said.
“Ashley’s in trouble,” Theo told him.
“What? I can barely hear you.”
Theo swallowed and tried again. “Ashley,” she said. “She’s in trouble.”
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
“Jordan, the guy who killed Mina … he showed up at my office tonight …”
“What are you talking about? Are you okay?”
That was the second time she’d been asked that in the last five minutes. “No,” she answered out loud this time. “I’m at the cabin. Viv’s already called Ames, but I need your help. Please come …”
The Jeep rocked and bounced over the snow and Theo gripped the wheel with both hands trying to make a path to the cabin.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yeah, but I’m not worried about me, Jordan. I’ve got to get to Ashley.”
“I’m coming, T.J. I’ll be right there.”
Theo slid to a stop in front of cabin four. She looked up to see a faint light burning through the window. She knew a camper had come to stay in this cabin, but when he’d gotten here, he’d found Mina’s body. There was no longer crime scene tape around the door, and Theo wondered if someone was camping there, or if the light had been left by the man she had trapped in her office.
She reached over and pulled the foot long flashlight Jordan had given her from the glove box. She had a love/hate relationship with this particular flashlight. It had been used to break her left leg a few months ago. When the police had released it and asked her if she wanted it back, she almost declined. Now she was glad that she hadn’t done so.
“Ashley!” She wasn’t sure anyone could hear her in the state her throat was in, but she tried again anyway. “Ashley, are you here?”
Theo tromped through the snow and moved around the cabin. She peered in the window. At first she couldn’t see anything, but in a few seconds her eyes adjusted. She thought she saw a boot. She squinted. She’d seen Ashley’s boots a lot in recent weeks, and she was sure what she was looking at did indeed belong to her secretary.
“Ashley,” she cried, scrambling to the door. When she tried to open it, the door wouldn’t budge. “Damn it,” she huffed, stomping back to the window.
She didn’t think about it before she used the end of the flashlight to break the glass. Shards fell and hit the floor inside the cabin. Theo threw one leg up and over the sill, dropping the flashlight gently inside so it wouldn’t break. She pulled herself through the window, a noise that sounded like an injured animal emanating from her tortured throat when a jagged piece of glass bit into her arm and sliced it open. She dropped down into the tiny, one room cabin. She scrambled to find the flashlight again, cutting herself once more as her fingers grasped the handle.
Her boots crunched on the glass as she moved forward toward the boot. When she got closer, she realized that Ashley’s foot was still inside.
“Oh, no,” she said, moving the light upward. “Oh, my god …”
A small camp lantern engulfed Ashley in a small circle of yellow light. Her jeans and panties had been pulled down to her shins, and both of her legs were twisted. She looked like a rag doll who had been flung across the room, her limbs landing in impossible angles. Her shirt had been torn, and her bra was ripped in half, leaving most of Ashley’s body uncovered. She wore no coat, and her lips were a frightening shade of blue.
“Ashley,” Theo cried, dropping to the ground. She pressed her fingers to the woman’s neck, feeling for a pulse. Her skin was cold to the touch, and Theo was almost certain Ashley was dead.
“Come on, Ash,” Theo said moving the woman’s long black hair away from her face. “This is not how your story ends, goddamn it. You’re not giving up, do you hear me? You’re going to fight. Come on,” she urged her friend. “You’re going to live.”
While in Boston, Theo had spent most of her free time taking a wide variety of classes. She learned how to write in calligraphy, she studied the art of self-defense. She took ballet and watercolor courses, and she learned basic first aid and CPR. She dug into her memory bank and tried to fish out the details of that particular class.
Theo lifted Ashley’s chin, then put her ear close to Ashley’s mouth and nose. She couldn’t hear the woman breathing. She placed the heel of her hand on the center of Ashley’s chest, then put the palm of her other hand on top of it. Theo thought back to what her instructor had taught her. He’d had them all sing the lyrics to “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gee’s, explaining that the beat of that song matched the rhythm of compressions needed per minute. She’d found the idea humorous back then, but now that she was faced with an actual emergency, singing the words gave her guidance she found helpful.
“Well,” she sang, “you can tell by the way I use my walk …”
She focused, counting in her head, then stopped and pinched Ashley’s nose with her fingers. She wiped her chin on the shoulder of her sweater, smearing the blood that hadn’t dried against the white fabric. She made a seal over Ashley’s mouth with her own and gave her a deep breath, watching the woman’s chest rise. She did it a second time, then went back to chest compressions. She counted as she sang. Thirty compressions, then two rescue breaths. It felt like she’d been there for an hour by the time she saw the flash of red and blue lights, although in reality, it was less than a few minutes.
Theo continued her compressions and listened to the rescue workers try to open the cabin door. She breathed into Ashley’s mouth and heard the loud crunch of wood as they broke through the cheap lock that must have been turned before Ashley’s attacker had closed the door behind him.
Ashley gasped and Theo stopped breathing for her. The girl started coughing, then reached up and fingered her throat. Theo picked up her flashlight again and saw the bruises Ashley wore around her neck like a garish necklace.
“Ashley, can you hear me?”
“Theo?” Ashley’s voice was weak and whispery.
