Scared To Death (Live to Tell #2)(59)

“Do you think she’s playing hide-and-seek?”

Maman is hardly the playful type, but…“You never know,” Elsa tells Renny as she knocks on the door. No reply.

“Ready or not, here we come!” She opens the door.

The bathroom, too, is empty. Renny jerks back the shower curtain to make sure.

Visibly disappointed, she says, “I thought she was going to jump out and yell surprise.”

“I know, sweetie, but I just don’t—”

Suddenly, Renny clutches her arm. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

“Shh, I just heard something in the other room.”

They stand absolutely still.

After a moment, Elsa whispers, “I don’t hear any—”

And then she does. She hears…something. A faint thumping sound.

“See? She’s here!” Renny takes off running through the bedroom to the hallway, calling, “Mémé!”

Elsa follows, relieved.

But not for long.

There’s no sign of her mother. Elsa trails Renny from room to room until they end up in the empty foyer again.

“I really thought I heard something.”

“I heard it too,” Elsa assures Renny, “but this is an old building. It makes noises. Or maybe it was someone walking around in the apartment upstairs.”

“I thought it was soundproof.”

Yeah. So did I.

Elsa glances again at the door. If no one was here, then why was it ajar when they got back?

And why, she wonders in alarm as she takes a closer look, is it no longer dead-bolted from the inside now?



Jake is just as good-looking as Caroline remembered. Maybe better-looking, with his hair all damp and kind of spiky from the rain, as if he ran his fingers through it. Caroline wouldn’t mind doing just that, she decides, watching him walk toward her again, this time carrying the cup of coffee he just bought.

His rain jacket is already draped over the chair opposite her, and his backpack is resting on the floor at her feet where he left it, after saying, “Be right back.”

Now he sits down, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

“Why can’t you believe it? I told you I come here sometimes,” she reminds him, hoping she doesn’t look as stale and wilted as she feels. Too bad she didn’t think to put on some lip gloss when she last visited the ladies’ room, about twenty minutes ago. By then, she’d all but given up hope that he’d show up.

But he’s here! He’s here!

He shrugs. “After what happened to you yesterday, I can’t believe you’d ever come back.”

“You did.”

“I’m not the one it happened to.”

“Whatever. It was random. I’m fine.”

Yeah, sure. Fine. Totally laid back about a rat crawling out of her purse.

But his being here really does make it seem all better.

“You know”—Jake sips the coffee, and makes a face like it’s too hot—“I tried to wait around for you for a little bit after they took you into the back room, but then I thought that might seem weird, so I left.”

“Why would it seem weird?”

“You don’t think it would have?”

“No.” She smiles at him. “I think it would have been sweet.”

“Oh…too bad I didn’t do it, then. Because I really am a sweet guy.”

“Yeah?” She gives him a flirty little smile.

He smiles back, and for the first time, Caroline notices his eyes.

With his blond hair, you’d expect them to be blue, or maybe brown.

But they’re dark—as dark, perhaps, as her own.



The door was dead-bolted. Elsa is sure of it.

Now it isn’t. She’s sure of that, too.

Numb with fear, she calls out to her mother, hearing the doubt in her own voice. There will be no reply, because Maman isn’t here.

But maybe she was here, and she unlocked the door on her way out just now…

No. If Maman had been here, she’d have heard them calling her. She’d have answered.

But if she wasn’t here…then who came into the apartment while they were gone, left the door ajar, and now unlocked it?

“Mommy, what are you doing?”

Opening her mouth to answer Renny’s question, she can’t seem to find her voice.

Okay, don’t panic. Just stay calm and think this through. There must be an explanation.

Elsa rests a hand on Renny’s shoulder, as much to steady herself as to reassure her daughter.

Think. Think.

Tom said he saw Maman. Was he imagining things? Or lying? But why would he lie?

Who is Tom, anyway? A doorman. A stranger. He wasn’t even in the lobby, she realizes, when they came and went. He was standing outside. He could have been anyone.

Oh God. I can’t trust him. I can’t trust anyone.

Someone knows she and Renny are in Maman’s apartment. Someone was waiting for them just now.

Yet she’s positive they weren’t followed here from Connecticut, or even from Penn Station.

And she didn’t even decide they were coming to New York until this afternoon. She hasn’t discussed it with anyone but Brett. They didn’t even buy tickets until right before they boarded the train.