Page 98 of With a Vengeance

Forty-Four

Anna knew.

Not all night.

Just recently.

When she realized Judd had been murdered, she suspected Seamus was behind it. Unlike Dante, he not only had the ability and opportunity to strangle Judd to death but also the motive. And when Seamus admitted his affliction, Anna realized the one thing he didn’t have was time.

If he wanted to see justice be served, it would have to be now.

But the fact that Anna assumed Seamus was the killer doesn’t keep her legs from feeling like they’re about to give out beneath her. Or maybe it’s the floor that’s collapsing. Or the train itself.

“Why?”

The word comes out more plaintive and despairing than Anna intends. She can’t help it, for even though she suspected it was Seamus, she is indeed in despair. Betrayal burns through her, so hot she’s shocked she’s still alive. She should be dead now, she thinks. Surely this will kill her.

Yet somehow, she remains stubbornly alive, swatting away Seamus’s hand and crab-crawling out of the room. In the corridor, sheleaps to her feet and attempts to run, but Seamus is quickly upon her, clamping a hand over her mouth and dragging her to the front of the car.

That he can do it so easily doesn’t surprise Anna. He’s strong. She’s always known that. Which is why she also realized that Seamus is the only person on this train strong enough to kill the others. Anna easily pictures him smothering the life out of Edith Gerhardt and slitting Herb Pulaski’s throat before squeezing out the window and climbing onto the roof to reach his own room.

She vividly remembers Seamus’s words after they first sorted through those boxes of proof.

All of them need to die. And I want to be the one to do it.

And so he had.

Now Anna expects him to do the same to her, especially as they continue through Car 11 toward the lounge. An appropriate place for her to die, she thinks. The car where this whole cursed journey began.

But once they’re inside, Seamus guides her into a chair and kneels before her, his hands on her legs. He slips one beneath her dress, the sudden violation making her inhale sharply. Seamus continues to slide his hand up her thigh until he reaches the knife.

“You won’t be needing this,” Seamus says as he yanks it from the sheath and tosses it across the lounge. “Even without it, I know you can flatten me to the ground. I assure you, there’s no need to try. I won’t fight back. I won’t ever hurt you, Anna.”

Too late for that, Anna thinks. Already he’s hurt her more than she could have imagined. A cut so deep she doubts it will ever heal. As a result, she has no energy to fight Seamus. Grief and disappointment have depleted her.

“You knew Judd wasn’t dead,” she says, her voice flat.

“I knew.”

“When?”

“The same time you found out.”

“But only you found his hiding spot.”

Seamus settles into the chair beside her. Anna, refusing to look at him, focuses on the view outside the lounge windows. The Phoenix has reached another river, running parallel to it, the snow on its banks blinding in the early-morning light.

“Yes,” Seamus says.

Anna doesn’t need him to explain what came next. How Seamus then strangled Judd. To make it seem like he had nothing to do with it, he led her and Dante to the scene of the crime.

“That’s not what we agreed to,” she says. “We wanted them all alive.”

“No, Anna.Youwanted that. I wanted vengeance, in whatever form it could come in. And if that meant all of them rotting in prison, I pretended to be okay with it, because it was better than nothing. But the truth is, I thought they deserved to die. Every last one of them.”

“Then why did you go along with my plan?”

“Because I love you,” Seamus says wearily, making it sound not like a declaration but a confession. A deep, dark secret he’s only now being forced to reveal. “I know you don’t feel the same way, and I’ve made peace with that. But I knew I’d never make peace with what they did, what they took from us. I needed to make at least one of them pay.”

---