Page 81 of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
She hit rewind on the recording and watched the clock turn back. Literally. Figuratively. She saw herself walking the halls with Ethan in reverse and way too quickly. Night turned into day, then night again. She watched Sir Jasper enter the room, and part of her wanted to cry out, to stop him. But it was too late. You can never change the past.
She was so lost in thought that it tookher a moment to realize that she’d let it go too far, so she hit play and watched as she stood there on the first night, arguing with Ethan. She could almost feel his breath on the back of her neck and hear the whisper.I could always pick you out of a lineup.Her arms were covered with goose bumps by the time she watched herself walk away.
For a while, the hall stayed dark and empty. She could see the corner of the tray on the screen. It was right there. All alone until—
A shadow passed in front of the camera, too close and too fast to see clearly, and Maggie remembered that she’d never really liked scary movies. She knew she should wait for Ethan, but the shadow on the screen told her someone was leaning over the tray. They were barely out of sight. If only they’d move a foot or two. If only...
The knob turned. The door opened. And then there was Eleanor, backlit by the light and haloed in the glow. She was smiling and laughing and happy. And... there. Eleanor was still there, and Maggie hit pause. Not because she wanted to freeze the image. No. She wanted to freeze time.
Maggie had never known a world without an Eleanor, but now she was gone—she was gone and she might never come back and—
Maggie’s eyes turned hot and liquid—tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t even wipe them with her sleeve. She was too busy looking at the last known picture of Eleanor Ashley, trying to burn the image into her brain. The picture of her smiling and laughing and—
Maggie hit play.
Taking a tray from someone whose back was to the camera.
And then that person was shifting. And turning. And that time, when Maggie hit pause, it stopped on the smirking face of Ethan Wyatt.
It didn’t make sense. It had to be a mistake. She was determined to stand there until she could find some rational explanation because—
The floor creaked. A searing pain sliced through Maggie’s head, and in the next moment, she was falling. She was sleeping.
She was gone.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ethan
She was gone.
Ethan stood in the empty bedroom, getting ready to scold her for leaving the door open. He’d been about to ask her if she wanted mystery cheese and crackers or mystery chocolates—he’d brought all three because he wasn’t sure which would make her happiest, and he desperately wanted to make her happy. Probably because he got the feeling no one had ever tried. But...
She was gone.
He was leery as he inched toward the bathroom, calling, “Maggie? You forgot to lock the door, young lady. I may have to...” The bathroom door swung open with the slightest nudge. And it was empty.
She was gone.
Then Ethan felt his heart change rhythms. Training kicking in. Years of distrust and practice taking over. Because—
She was gone.
Fear was rising. Swelling. “Maggie!” And then it crested, carrying him out of the room and into the hall, flashlight sweeping through the dark as a feeling rose up inside of Ethan, a certainty that something was different—something was wrong—as he looked back at her room one last time.Theirroom.
And that was when he saw the pale green light that was blinking in the dark.
“Shit.” He raced back to the bed and woke the laptop with the tap of a key. A moment later, he was staring down at his own face, scowling and skulking in the shadows.
“Shit!” he shouted louder as he raced outthe door and down the hall.
His mind filled with a million thoughts and fears. She had to be hating him. Sheshouldbe hating him. He looked guilty as hell. Hefeltguilty as hell. And now she was somewhere in that dark mansion all alone.
He couldn’t decide what was scarier—that Maggie was running from him or who she might be running to, so Ethan stopped thinking and just ran harder, dashing toward Eleanor’s office, shouting, “Maggie!”
A door behind him opened and Rupert’s red face peeked out. “Keep it down out here!”
“Where’s Maggie?”
