Don't Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks #1)(71)

She walked quietly around to the back of the cottage where she could peer through the window, her hands cupped around her eyes and her nose pressed close to the glass. The moonlight put off enough light for her to see that nobody was inside. The bed was neatly made. No sign of Sawyer’s things. As she crept toward the door leading into the kitchen, she wondered whether or not Harper had made her way inside the house.

She stopped at the door to listen. Heard voices. She recognized Harper’s voice at once. The other voice belonged to a female, whom she assumed was Mom.

Dad must be in the bedroom, but wouldn’t he have heard the doorbell and gone out to see who Mom was talking to?

Her stomach quivered. Her instincts on high alert.

She made her way quietly around the house, peeking inside windows and jiggling them to see if she could get in that way. When she got to her dad’s old office, she was surprised when she jiggled the window and found it unlocked. The curtains were pulled tight, and there were no lamps or lights on inside the room. She shook the window, sliding it upward an inch at a time, until there was enough room to pull herself up and then use her feet to push her way through the opening. She rolled down onto the floor, hands first and then tucking her head under, without making much noise. The room smelled. Moldy and stale with neglect, and possibly something else she couldn’t place.

On her feet again, Aria took two steps before she knocked into something and came to a halt. She bent down to her knees and reached out, held back a scream. She pulled out her cell and used the flashlight on it to take a closer look.

Dad!

His back was up against the wall, his head tilting to the right, his face gray and covered with blood. A letter opener was sticking out of his chest.

She felt for a pulse. Nothing. He was dead, and after hearing what Harper had to say, she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

A noise coming from across the room prompted her to jump to her feet. She pointed the cell phone that way. The beam of light fell on a young woman in the corner of the room. Her ankles and wrists had been fastened with zip ties. Her mouth covered with duct tape.

What the hell was going on?

Aria worried about Harper as she went to the woman and knelt at her side. She needed to hurry. She took a corner of the duct tape covering the woman’s mouth and ripped it off without mercy.

The woman cursed under her breath and said, “If she hears us, she’ll kill us.”

“Who are you?”

“Melanie Quinn. I’m a friend of Sawyer’s. Who are you?”

“I’m Aria, Sawyer’s sister.”

“I know you,” she said. “I mean, I know of you.”

Aria rummaged around the desk for scissors as Melanie talked.

“Your mom knocked me over the head with a vase when I came looking for Sawyer earlier,” Melanie said. “When I was standing in the foyer, I heard Sawyer yelling for help. I’m not sure where she was. I swear it sounded as if her cries for help were coming up through the floorboards.”

“Under the house,” Aria said, her heart racing. “She’s in the crawl space.”

Aria cut the ties from around Melanie’s wrists and handed the scissors to her. “Here,” Aria said. “Call the police. I’ve got to go.” Where was Harper? Her mind was swirling with speculation. The thought of either of her sisters being harmed made her sick to her stomach. She needed to hurry.

The door squeaked as Aria pushed it open. She looked both ways before stepping into the hallway and making her way toward the front entry. Nobody was there. Aria pivoted on her feet and walked into the salon where Mom and Dad used to greet visitors. Harper was on the ground, her hand on her head, blood trickling down across her fingers.

Her heart felt as if it might leap out of her chest. “Let me find something to stop the bleeding.”

“No!” Harper said. “We’re sticking together. That woman is insane. Caught me completely off guard when she grabbed a bronzed statue from that table over there and swung hard, as if her life depended on it. If I hadn’t ducked, it would have been much more than a graze. I pretended to be unconscious.”

“She killed Dad and left him to rot in his office. Which way did Mom go?”

“I don’t know,” Harper said. “She walked away, muttering something about how she should have taken care of the problem from the start.”

“I think Sawyer is in the basement,” Aria said. “We need to get to her before Mom does.” Aria helped Harper to her feet, and together they rushed to the stairs leading to the basement. She flipped on the light and headed downward. Harper followed close behind.

Aria called Sawyer’s name.

A knock sounded from inside the crawl space.

Harper went to the door leading inside the crawl space and tried to unfasten the padlock. “We need a key.”

Aria stood at Harper’s side and knocked. “Sawyer, are you in there?” She put her ear flat against the door.

The answer came in the form of a faint cry for help, followed by three distant knocks.

“I’m going upstairs,” Harper said. “I think I know where she might keep the key.”

“We need to find the key to get you out of here,” Aria told Sawyer.

Another knock.

“This is perfect,” Mom said from the top of the stairs. “So much easier to have you both in the same room.” She took one stair at a time. Grasped within her right hand was a pistol aimed at Harper, who had gotten as far as the first step.