Chapter 8
I jumped up.
"She's out there!" I yelled.
The police officers were already moving. They ran outside, flashlights cutting through the darkness.
David woke Emma up and pulled her close, shielding her with his body.
Sarah and Clara stood back-to-back, scanning the room.
The officers came back ten minutes later.
They shook their heads.
"No one," the older officer said. "Footprints in the flower bed. But she's gone."
I showed them the text message.
The officer's face darkened.
"We'll get more patrols out here," he said. "We'll set up a perimeter. She won't get within a hundred yards of this house."
But I knew better.
Linda was smart. She was careful. She'd been playing this game for years.
She wouldn't stop.
Not until she got what she wanted.
Or until someone stopped her.
The next morning, Sarah got a call.
The court hearing for the restraining order and custody was still scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
"Linda's lawyers are still going forward," Sarah said, hanging up the phone. "They say they have no idea where she is. But they're going to argue that she's the victim here. That we've harassed her into hiding."
"Can they do that?" David said.
"They can try," Sarah said. "But with the evidence we have—"
"Evidence that Linda will say is fake," I said. "She'll say Clara made it up. That we forged the letters and the recording. She's good at lying, remember?"
Sarah sighed. "We need her. Alive. In custody. In court. We need to confront her with all of this. Watch her lie her way out of it in front of a judge."
"But she's gone," Clara said. "She could be anywhere by now."
"She won't go far," I said.
Everyone looked at me.
"She wants Emma," I said. "And she wants revenge. She won't leave town without either getting what she wants or making us pay."
I thought about it.
"She's watching us," I said. "She's been watching this whole time. Waiting for her moment."
"So what do we do?" David said.
"We give her a moment," I said.
Sarah's eyes lit up. "A trap."
"Exactly," I said. "We make her think we're vulnerable. That we've let our guard down. And we catch her when she makes her move."
"It's dangerous," Clara said.
"It's more dangerous to let her run free," I said. "She's not going to stop. Not ever."
David looked at Emma, who was eating cereal at the kitchen table, completely unaware of our conversation.
"Okay," he said quietly. "What do we need to do?"
We spent the day planning.
With Officer Hale's help, we set up a trap.
The plan was simple.
We'd announce that Clara was moving away. That she was leaving town that night. David and Emma would take her to the bus station.
The house would be empty.
Except for me.
And the police, hidden everywhere.
Linda would see her chance. She'd come for Emma's things. Or she'd wait for us to come back.
And we'd catch her.
That night, we put the plan into action.
David, Emma, and Clara drove away in David's car, waving goodbye.
Sarah went with them, to make sure they were safe.
I stayed behind.
The police were hidden in the bushes. In the neighbor's house. In a van down the street.
Officer Hale gave me a panic button.
"Press it at the first sign of trouble," he said. "We'll be in here in seconds."
He left.
I was alone in the big, quiet house.
I sat in the living room, the lights off, watching out the window.
My heart was pounding.
An hour passed.
Nothing.
Two hours.
Nothing.
I started to think it wouldn't work. That Linda was too smart. That she'd seen through our trap.
And then.
I heard a sound.
A window sliding open in the back of the house.
My breath caught.
I pressed the panic button.
I stood up slowly.
I heard footsteps.
Quiet. Careful.
Coming down the hallway.
A figure stepped into the living room.
It was Linda.
She was wearing dark clothes. Her hair was pulled back. She held a knife in her hand.
She looked at me.
May you like
And she smiled.
"I knew you'd be here," she said.
