Beneath Her Skin by Gregg Olsen (ebook reader for manga txt) 📗

hard at Colton, annoyed that she had to deal with anyone other than the twins. She took a breath and held out her phone. “Savannah’s tape might be gone. That is, if you were stupid enough to burn it. Doesn’t matter to me. I made a copy. Not the best quality, but good enough.”

“I don’t believe you,” Hayley said. “Show me.”

Moira looked down at her phone and pressed a button to start the video. The image was minuscule, but it was good enough to see the pasta message. “Then you’ll talk to me?” she asked.

“If you have the video, what choice do we have?” Taylor asked. Taylor was stringing Moira along, of course. She would never talk to her. Never.

Moira brightened a little, glad that things were going her way. “None. None that I can see. By the way, do you know what I’m thinking now?”

Hayley wanted to say something about how there were no synapses firing in Moira’s head, but she actually did know what she was thinking.

So did Taylor.

“You need to leave us alone,” Hayley said.

Shania tapped the horn, and the teens looked over at the car. Moira turned too, but the clouds blocked the moon and it was hard to see in the dim light.

A dog started barking, or rather, yapping. It was a very familiar bark-yap.

Hedda!

Taylor lost it right then. “You’re the one who took our dog? You took our effing dog?”

She pushed past Moira, nearly shoving her to the ground, and rushed up to the porch. Her eyes were darts of anger. Colton was at her heels.

Stunned by being strong-armed, Moira steadied herself. “It wasn’t like that. I found her. I was going to bring her back to your place tomorrow.”

“You are such a big liar,” Hayley said.

Moira started to sputter. “I promise. I was. I was going to bring her back. I saw on your Facebook wall that she was missing.”

Taylor opened the door, bent down and picked up the dog—the laziest, fattest, ugliest doxie in the history of the world was in her arms. At that moment, no one could have taken that dog from her.

“What a liar!” Taylor repeated. “We’re getting out of here.”

Hayley tugged at her sister. “Wait! What about the recording?”

“I don’t care,” Taylor said. “I don’t deal with people like that.”

“I’m sitting on the story of stories,” Moira said. “And I’m going to tell the world about you. About what you two can do.”

“Just shut up, you psycho dog-stealer!” It was Colton. “Shut it!”

“Wait! We can work something out!” Moira said. Her voice was pleading, desperate. She didn’t want to lose this opportunity. She needed to talk to those girls. “You can trust me to do a good job!”

“This isn’t about a news story, and you know it,” Taylor said.

Moira was frantic, spinning around and trying to figure out a way to get them to stay. Her bright eyes flashed with fear. Everything she needed, wanted, had to have, was slipping away.

“Don’t leave! You’ll be sorry if you do.”

What came out of her mouth then were the words of truth. Whatever she wanted, it was important enough to threaten them.

You’ll be sorry if you do.

Just then, the headlights were adjusted to the bright setting and the Camry’s engine revved. Hayley, Colton and Taylor turned to face the car.

It started across the driveway, gaining speed.

Moira opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. It was just that quick. She was over the hood, then down on the ground and finally, over the embankment to the water below.

What had Shania done?

“Mom!” Colton said, nearly crying at the shock of what had happened. “Mom, what did you do?”

“Get her phone and get her laptop out of the house. Don’t touch anything else.”

Colton locked eyes with his mother and nodded.

Shania had just done the unthinkable, but it was apparent that she had, in fact, thought of everything.

It took only a second and Colton found the laptop on the dining table amid a nest of empty sparkling water bottles and a half-empty bottle of wine. He snatched up the computer, yanking it from its power cord as he hurried back to the car. While Colton was inside, Hayley recovered Moira’s phone in the gravel of the parking area. She shoved it into her pocket.

Instinct told her to look for Moira, but when she scanned the water below the bulkhead, she saw nothing—not even a shore bird. Just the ripples of the tide. Moira was dead and gone, and Hayley, scared and worried, felt relief.

And that bothered her. Deeply.

It happened so fast. Like gas poured on a bonfire. Whoosh! In less than a minute after Moira was pitched into the black waters of Paradise Bay, the stunned teenagers had piled into the backseat of the car. Hedda was safely in Taylor’s arms, already asleep despite the horrific turn of events that had just occurred. Hayley leaned into Colton, breathing hard, scared and unsure. He took her hand and gripped it.

Shania looked in the mirror, her sad, dark eyes assessing each of the kids.

“Take a deep breath,” she said. “All of you. It had to be done.” Her voice was full of emotion. “I had no choice. I protected what had to be protected. There are things she should not know… or repeat to anyone. I made a promise to Valerie all those years ago…”

The teenagers looked at each other, unable—or unwilling—to speak. Each knew what the other was feeling inside. They were breathing hard, their eyes wide with shock. All three were scared to death over what they’d done, but deep down they were glad that Moira was gone. As Shania James had said, there was no choice.

It had to be done.

Postmortem

After the flurry of police activity that had marked the weeks following the winter holidays had finally died down, Port Gamble began to return to its more sedate (at least on the surface) and familiar mode. To outsiders, it once more appeared to be the pretty town on the water with the