Page 103 of The Lost Bones
Mackenzie saw it play out in her head. Once Kai’s humanity had been painfully decimated, the only way to survive was to let go of it completely, to stop trying to protect it so that it would stop hurting every time it was chipped away.
“Thenyouhappened.” Kai tilted her head, smiling at her lovingly.
Mackenzie had never felt terror like this. Not even when she was facing the barrel of a gun. Her insides knotted. Her blood was ice cold. Her soul shivered, trying to unhook itself from her body and float away.
“I saw you in that documentary and I saw everything that was right in this world.” Kai dropped the knife, cupping Mackenzie’s face in her hands. “Your honesty, your integrity, your innate goodness… it awakened something that was long dead inside me. I remembered. I remembered my mother’s voice. Maybe this world wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.”
Mackenzie was afraid to talk, afraid to even look away.
“You reminded me that there was something good left in life. And I… I just wanted to help you. I wanted to make you happy. Because you deserve it.” Tears welled in her eyes as she ran her hands gently over Mackenzie’s face like she was a child. “I decided to take care of you. To make your life easier.”
Mackenzie wanted to argue. But she saw Andrew shaking his head and warning her with his eyes. Kai was unhinged and dangerous.
“Why were you stalking Nick?”
“I saw your connection with him and got curious. What was it about him that you trusted him so much? That you loved so much? I didn’t hurt him, Mackenzie. I would never do that to you. I looked into your past and you’d been through so much.” Kai tutted softly. “A drunkard father who beat his wife. Shipped off to New York right after your father disappeared. I couldn’t do anything about that. But I found out about Courtney. How she made your life hell at school. She paid. Then there was Debbie. Talking shit about you in public out of jealousy.” Her nostrils flared. “She should have revered you. For what you are. For what you do. I still remember her screams.” She closed her eyes and swayed, relishing the memory, a look of delirious pleasure crossing her face. “It really scared the other girls.
“Then I discovered that cheating husband of yours.” Spit sprayed out of her mouth in anger. “It was easy to capture him. All I had to do was pretend to be a damsel in distress. Of course, he dropped his guard, and the minute he was close enough, I knocked him out with chloroform. How dare he hurt you like that. How dare he not realize how wonderful you are. He deserved to die too… and I almost did kill him, but I saw how sad it would make you.” She played with Mackenzie’s hair. “I love how red your hair is. I didn’t kill Sterling. I couldn’t. I spared his life.”
“What about Sophie? She’d done nothing to me.”
“That wasn’t me. That was Hamilton.” Saying the name snapped Kai out of her gentle state. She was detached and cruel again, swinging from one extreme emotion to another. “Sophie showed up demanding to see her sister. Some FBI agent let it slip that he suspected Hamilton was behind it all. You should have seen how much Hamilton panicked.” Her laugh was a dry rattle in Mackenzie’s ear. “We kept her with the girls, but she was being problematic. Too feisty. Wouldn’t bend like the rest.” She clicked her tongue. “He lost it. Decided she was better off dead. Took him so long to strangle her. He has essential tremor. His hands shake.”
The hesitation marks.
“He stored her body in one of the freezers usually reserved for fish. But you see, it was kismet, Mackenzie. I was meant to help you, to find you.”
“But you gave me that key you swiped from Hamilton. Why would you do that? And why did you find me?”
She looked conflicted. “I needed to be closer to you, Mackenzie. And Hamilton sent me to keep an eye on the investigation after he discovered that Sophie’s body had been found by the police. Of course, he had no idea that I put her body there. And he didn’t know that I didn’t really intend to hide his dirty secret.”
“Why not?”
“Because you could put an end to this.” Kai began massaging Mackenzie’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, you must be in pain, but I know you’ll run away from me.”
“Why do you want to put an end to it? You’re a part of it.”
“I was just making the best of a bad situation, Mackenzie. I couldn’t bring it all down without risking my life. But you could. You could do anything. And you did. With Hamilton and Jennings caught, the dominoes will fall one by one.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Mackenzie choked out. “Instead of slipping me a clue, you could have come clean to me about everything. You could have trusted me.”
“I trusted you, but I didn’t trust anyone around you. You have no idea how easily people have disappeared who have gone up against them. Just a snap of their fingers and evidence was manipulated, files were deleted, investigations were stalled… Sometimes people even went missing.”
Mackenzie remembered Fletcher’s haunted eyes when he spoke of his friend, and how that video evidence had been mysteriously wiped from their servers.
“So I had to be careful,” Kai continued. “Hamilton had given me some freedom, but I was still on a tight leash. Giving you that key was a huge risk. I was terrified he’d figure out that it was missing. Fortunately, it paid off.”
“Then why are we here, Kai? Why all this?”
Mackenzie had seen plenty in her career. She had seen first-hand what the human mind was capable of when stretched and bent and distorted by circumstances. From entitlement and misunderstanding to vigilantism and revenge. But this was something else. Kai was born out of tragedy. Her actions were born out of her twisted definition of love.
“You and I are destined to be together.” Kai spoke calmly. “Andrew is here to take the fall for it all. That’s why I left Sterling and those photos in his cabin. And I purchased the gun in his name. Once the police find our bodies, they’ll assume that Andrew killed both of us.”
Andrew started crying and protesting, rattling in his chair, making it scrape against the floor.
“I don’t want to die, Kai,” Mackenzie stated firmly, yanking fruitlessly on the ropes. “Please. I’m sure we can figure something out.”
Kai was forlorn but resolute. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mackenzie. This is how it ends. The only way I can be with you is in death. This world wouldn’t allow me otherwise. That’s why I chose your old house. It’s poetic. I’m going to go and make some arrangements now. It will be all over in a few minutes.” She trailed a cold finger across Mackenzie’s cheek. “Thank you.”
