One Step Ahead, Audrey Walker [best book club books of all time TXT] 📗

her where his mother was. How would he have felt when he found out she was dead. She thought of Laura and her husband and her children. She thought of Bella, gone forever, her husband weeping over her. All her fault.

She looked up and saw the Butcher standing there, grinning at her.

“I will always be with you,” he said to her. “Always.”

Robin felt heavy and weak. Her head was throbbing with pain, and the voices around her seemed distant. Her vision started to blur, and she collapsed to her knees as she screamed and screamed and screamed into the endless pit of darkness.

Chapter Twelve

“Robin, are you okay?” Robin looked up, and James’ kind eyes looked back at her. “Hey, how’s the headache?”

She sat at her desk. The bulletin board in front of her was filled with pictures of the victims and the clues they had found.

“It's fine, thank you,” she said softly. It was a lie. The headache never got better. It was a constant reminder of all that had happened.

“I will get you some coffee,” he said, getting up.

“Robin,” Kyle said. “You need to get some rest. I am serious. Look at yourself. This case is really starting to affect you –”

“Sleep?” Robin whispered. “You think sleep will solve this? You think sleep will wash the blood off my hands?”

“There is no blood on you,” Kyle said softly. “This isn’t on you, Robin. Those reporters just want fame and ratings, and they don’t care what dirty things they say to get it.”

“It is on me,” Robin said. “If I had died all those years ago at the hands of the Butcher, this wouldn’t be happening. If it weren’t for me, everyone would be safe. Look me in the eye, Kyle, and tell me that if I never existed, all this would have still happened. I brought this monster into this town. I unleashed it on everyone. I did it.”

“Robin, if you never existed, the Butcher would have continued killing. Think of the bodies that would have turned up these past ten years. He stopped because you escaped him, and he couldn’t get away with it anymore. You were the only one even to get close to catching him. You saved a lot of lives.”

“And I condemned even more,” Robin whispered.

“The most recent victim was Kiera West, who was a single mother to a small child. She lived alone in a trailer at the edge of town, where she worked in the junkyard. Another child has lost her mother because of me,” she said.

“Robin, please. You need to –” Kyle tried to say, but Robin cut him off.

“Sleep?” Robin snapped at him. “How can I sleep? That child doesn’t have her mother, Kyle! How easy it is for you to ask me to sleep!”

She threw the files on the table, anger pulsating through her. Why didn’t anyone understand? Why didn’t anyone get what she was saying? She had to solve this. She had to stop him before the next murder, and she didn’t have any time.

“Maybe you should just let her be, Kyle,” James said, appearing behind her. He put a comforting arm around Robin, and for a second, the two glared at each other.

“As you wish,” Kyle finally snapped. As Kyle marched off, Robin buried her face into James’ chest, and he held her tight in his arms.

“Everything will be alright,” he said. “I am here for you.”

She looked at the note left with the last murder victim. It had only one word on it.

“Remember.”

__

“Who are you?” Robin whispered. She was once again staring into the darkness that lay at the bottom of the stairs. A hand extended out again, but this time she didn’t dare take it.

“Your friend,” the voice whispered back, but Robin wouldn’t take her hand.

“What friend?” she asked. “I don’t remember you.”

“Just a friend,” the voice whispered back. “Don’t you want to see what’s under the stairs? Don’t you want to remember what happened? Don’t you want your memories?”

The hand reached out for her, but Robin pulled back.

“Stay away!” she shouted.

The hand froze, and cold laughter started to echo around the basement.

“I am not the one who can’t stay away,” the voice said. “It’s you. You can’t resist. Look, Robin! Look!”

The hand retracted into the darkness, and Robin slowly started to crawl forward. She looked into the darkness and saw something glinting in the shadows. As she crawled forward, a face began to appear – a horrible, disfigured, monstrous face. Robin screamed, but the voice started to laugh. “Look closer!” It shouted. “Look closer!”

It took Robin a minute to realize that she was looking into a mirror, and the monstrous face that glared back at her was her own.

Robin’s eyes slowly opened, her mind numb to the nightmares by now. She saw them every time she closed her eyes. They weren’t even memories anymore. No, it was just one nightmare after the other. She had long given up on remembering. Her mind had mixed up the monsters of her subconscious with the monster of her memories; now, all her memories were tainted, not knowing what was a true memory or not.

Her phone rang, and Robin slowly picked it up.

“Hello?” She called out.

“Robin, it’s Abby!” Her sister’s voice echoed on the other side.

“Hi, Abby,” Robin said, suddenly feeling lighter. “How is the honeymoon going?”

“Oh, perfect! This island is so beautiful! It is so far away from civilization; it is just what I needed! Over here, it’s just you and nature! That’s it! Oh, I have to bring you here! How are you, Robin?”

‘Oh, just peachy,” Robin said, massaging her aching head.

“We don’t get the news here, so I don’t know what’s going on with you over there,” she said. “Are you really okay?”

“Of course, I am,” Robin said. “Don’t you worry about it? Just enjoy your honeymoon and give my love to Jim, okay?”

As Abby said her goodbyes, Robin looked at the map in front of her. Something in her memory suddenly sparked, and Robin