Vicious Memories

Chapter 86

My veins turned to ice.

The pounding headache that had followed me everywhere since I woke up finally cleared. There was a peace that came from knowing this was it. No more choices, no more forks, no more second-guessing. However it had happened, I was here. There was no changing that now.

Alice's eyes flitted wildly from side to side. I noticed that her hands on top of her head had been tied with a thin rope. The blood and dirt on her face begged to be cleaned. A white cloth was pulled tightly between her lips and teeth before circling the back of her head - after she'd finally started to open up it seemed horrendously cruel for her to be gagged and forced into silence.

The wind picked up speed and tossed my hair with clutching fingers, bringing with it the scent of the oncoming storm. The sun edged an inch to the west.

"I knew it was you I'd find here," I said, fixing my gaze on the person standing over Alice's shoulder. "I'll admit that it took me too long to figure it out. But I found you, eventually."

The rhythmic crash of ocean on rock punctuated my sentences. I warily eyed the gun pressed lovingly to one side of Alice's head, slowly taking in the way the ground abruptly ended just a few yards behind her. I wasn't close enough to see the sheer rock of the cliffs, but I could see the seething water beyond them.

"It all fell into place yesterday," I continued, keeping up a steady stream of chatter while my mind cycled through the options. "How close you were with Felix, how you gave each other alibis for Jessica and Sirus's murders. I honestly can't believe I didn't see it. Your walks, your access to Felix at the trial to give him the razor, your hesitation at the end when you were usually so calm."

If only a look could kill, my stare would have ended this here and now.

"Then there was Lukas, who seemed like he wanted to tell us something. But you were always around. I wonder what hold you have over him and the other Strangers." I shook my head and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. "But he helped us in the end, did you know that? He stared at you so seriously in the jungle yesterday, widening his eyes over and over, begging me to look your way. That's what started the dominoes falling. 'Et voilá', as Mads would say. Here we are."

The first crush of thunder hit the island like an earthquake, shaking the ground beneath my feet. I watched as the hand not holding Alice's gun reached up to pull a tightly pleated braid from one shoulder to the other.

The sharp smile of its owner was another weapon.

"You were always so clever, Ollie," Bev said. "From the day I met you as My Doctor, I liked that about you. I'm going to miss it."