Lights Out Tonight (31 page)

“All right, that’s a good girl. Now take your cell phone and call your stepmother and tell her to bring the script. Tell her you’ll meet her in the laundry room.”

Meg hated herself for revealing that she’d left the script in her tote bag and given it to Caroline. She wasn’t going to compound things by luring Caroline into a trap.

“No,” she said. “I’m not calling her.”

The killer laughed, snatching the cell phone. “All right, Meg. Have it your way.”

 C H A P T E R 
133

It was dark, but the outdoor lights provided illumination as Caroline watched the
Devil in the Details
audience leaving the theater. She studied the faces in the crowd, hoping that, by some chance, Meg’s would be among them. It wasn’t.

Caroline knew she should be on her way back to the inn for some sleep, but she also knew she wouldn’t be able to rest. Where was Meg?

She took out her cell phone and dialed Nick’s number. Disappointed at getting his recorded message, she left one of her own. “Nick, it’s Caroline. Will you please call me, honey? It’s important.”

Not relishing the idea of coming face-to-face with Langley again, but thinking it was worth one more trip to the dressing room, Caroline went back into the building. The halls were quiet, and she passed only an occasional person on the way out for the night.

Langley, her face scrubbed clean, was still in the dressing room.

“Did Meg show up?” asked Caroline.

“No,” said Langley, clearly annoyed. “And I hope she has a good excuse, otherwise, I’m going to be requesting someone more responsible to help me tomorrow.”

“I’m sure there is going to be reasonable explanation,” said Caroline. “This isn’t like Meg.”

“I better not find out that she’s been out there somewhere, stoned, at my expense,” said Langley.

Caroline didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, I know she smokes pot,” said Langley. “I recognize the signs. I’ve been there myself.”

“Well then, I hope you’ll give Meg a break,” said Caroline.

“She’s been through a lot recently.”
I should be on top of this,
thought Caroline.
Pay attention, get some professional advice on how to handle this with Meg, find out about getting her some help before the problem gets bigger.
She wanted to be there for her stepdaughter, and now, it seemed, Meg might finally be letting her in a little bit. But where was she?

Langley shrugged and rose from behind the dressing table, turning to leave the room. “Oh, I almost forgot.” She opened the drawer and took out the golden chain. “I found this outside the door. I’ve seen Meg wearing it. You can give it to her when she turns up.”

Caroline took the bracelet from Langley, thinking it must have fallen off Meg’s wrist just as it had at Belinda’s party. But as she studied it, Caroline realized that the faulty clasp was still holding the bracelet together. Instead, the chain had been severed in the middle, as if it had been yanked off.

Caroline called the police and explained her concerns. She felt her chest tighten, sensing she was being politely dismissed.

“Sorry, ma’am. We can’t go charging out looking for every college kid who’s been missing for a couple of hours.”

Trying not to panic, but with a feeling of dread, Caroline started to walk toward the inn. She was at the threshold of the building when her cell phone rang.

“Thank God, it’s you,” she said.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked Nick.

“It’s Meg. I’m worried something has happened to her.” Caroline explained how Meg hadn’t shown up for her play duties and told him about the torn bracelet.

“I don’t think we should get hysterical, Sunshine.”

“I’m not hysterical, Nick. I’m telling you. I really think something is wrong. I just feel it.”

The sound on the phone dropped out, and Caroline heard the familiar noise that signaled her battery was running low. Then the connection went dead.

Nick hung up the phone and paced the room. What if Caroline was right in her suspicions? What if Meg was in danger? Or worse yet, what if something had already happened?

If his daughter was really in trouble, he had a duty to do anything it took to protect her. Should he tell Caroline his secret and risk ruining their marriage?

This was what they meant, he thought, about being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Caroline turned on the television in her room and connected her cell phone to the charger. Not wanting to undress, she went into the bathroom to splash some water on her face. Then she heard her phone beep twice instead of ringing. Caroline held up
the screen, which confirmed she was getting a text message from Meg.

IM OK. NEED U @ COSTUME SHOP. BRING TOTE.

That’s doable,
thought Caroline with relief at finally hearing from her stepdaughter. She grabbed Meg’s tote bag and headed back to the theater.

As she walked briskly down the deserted sidewalk, she thought of calling Nick to tell him that Meg was all right, but she remembered she had left her phone in the charger. Besides, he hadn’t seemed all that concerned. That had annoyed Caroline, though now it appeared that he’d been right.

No, the call to Nick could wait until she and Meg were together. His daughter could call him herself.

“Please, don’t pull my stepmother into this,” Meg pleaded. “She’s no threat to you. She doesn’t suspect you of anything. There’s no reason to get her involved. You just want the script. You don’t want her.”

The killer considered the young woman’s words. Meg could be right. At this point, Caroline Enright wasn’t really a danger. And though, as a personal matter, it was inconsequential if Caroline lived or died, from a practical point of view, it would better to avoid another murder. There had been too many this week, none of them planned in advance. All of them were decided on in minutes;
all of them were executed with the instruments available. A car, a letter opener, a silk tie. The killer was proud of the ability to act on impulse and to do, decisively, what needed to be done.

Of course, Daniel’s death two years ago was a different matter altogether. That one had taken real deceit and manipulation. The exhilaration of getting away with that had lasted a long, long time.

But Meg must have realized that she herself was going to have to be eliminated because she knew too much. That meant she might try something desperate.

“Tell you what,” said the killer. “We’ll both go to meet Caroline. You get the script from her and then send her packing. I’m going to be right there listening to both of you. If you don’t do exactly as I tell you, Caroline is going to die.”

“Meg?” called Caroline as she came to the door of the darkened costume shop. She felt for the switch on the wall. The light revealed mannequins, professional irons, and cutting tables, but no Meg.

Caroline placed Meg’s tote bag on top of one of the tables. In the few moments she waited for her stepdaughter, she looked at the script again.

The killer stood at the back of the partially opened closet, holding a pair of scissors grabbed from the sewing supplies, listening to every word.

“There you are.” Caroline walked over to Meg and put her arms around her stepdaughter as she entered the room. “Where have you been?”