I don’t know what to say to that. “Thanks,” I mumble.
“And I hear you’ve trained as a surgeon,” he adds. “Quite impressive. I always knew you had it in you.”
Despite everything that’s happened in the last several days, I feel a burst of pride.My father is proud of me.I know he’s a monster and I know I shouldn’t give a shit what he thinks, but everyone wants their parents to be proud of them. Even if that parent happens to have murdered thirty people.
And he knows it. He’s manipulating me, just like he manipulated those girls he killed. I can’t let him do it to me. Otherwise, I’m going to end up right with him in prison.
“I’m so glad you finally decided to visit,” he says. “I’ve been waiting to see you. I thought you’d forgotten all about your old dad.”
“I could never forget.” My lips are nearly touching thephone receiver. I don’t want the guard to hear me. “I read your letter.”
“Did you?” He has an amused look on his face. “It only took about five-hundred of them.”
I inhale sharply. “Who put that letter under my door, Aaron?”
“Aaron?” He laughs. I forgot how my father’s laugh sounded. I never thought much of it when I was a child, but now the sound of it strikes me as particularly hollow and soulless. “Is that what you’re going to call me? You used to call me Daddy.”
I feel a vein throbbing in my right temple. “Who put that letter under my door?”
“The mailman, of course. Who else?”
“It was under mybackdoor. And there was no postmark.”
“Please don’t hold me accountable for your mailman’s shenanigans, Nora.”
I take a shaky breath, trying to get my temper under control. Aaron Nierling has become an old man, but he is still the same person he always was. If they ever let him out of here, he would do the exact same thing. He’s still pure evil—a monster.
I stare into his dark eyes, refusing to blink. “Who killed those girls, Aaron?”
“You know, Nora…” He toys with the receiver in his hand. “I was so sad that you never came to visit me all these years. I mean, I’m yourfather. It’s because of me that you’re even alive in the first place. And what are the thanks I get?”
“Who killed those girls?”
“I could understand when you were a child and that witch who was my mother-in-law wouldn’t let you.” His left eye twitches. “But after that, you could’ve come. Just once. Out ofrespectfor the man who gave you your life.”
My right hand—the one not holding the phone—balls into a fist. I feel like I could punch through the glass and right through his face. “Who killed those girls?Tell me.”
My father blinks his dark eyes at me. “It was you. You killed them.” He raises his eyebrows. “Didn’t you?”
Chapter 33
26 Years Earlier
I look down at my watch again. Two minutes. Her time is up.
Ready or not, here I come, Marjorie.
I clutch the penknife in my right hand as I walk down the path that Marjorie followed a minute earlier. I can still hear her footsteps ahead of me.Thump thump thump.They seem to be timed with the beating of my heart.
This would be more fun to do at night, with a flashlight. Or with infrared vision. If only I had one of those pairs of infrared glasses. But I have to work with what I’ve got. This will have to be good enough.
I follow the sound of her footsteps for another couple of minutes. But then they end all of a sudden with a loudthud.
Hmm.
I walk more briskly in the direction of the loud noise, my sneakers crunching on branches and leaves. My heart isracing. After another few seconds, I find her.
Marjorie is on the ground, clutching her left ankle. There’s dirt on the legs of her pants and on her palms, likely from her fall. Her round face is bright red and she has tears in her eyes that are pouring down her cheeks.
