Montana Sky

of the steps.
    She would think about that later.
    “Bess has already called the police.” Adam laid a hand on her arm, waiting until her eyes shifted to his. The voices around them were too loud, too frightened. “I should go out there with Ben, stay with—stay with her until the police come. Can you handle this?”
    “Yes.” She looked up in relief as Nate came rushing down the stairs. “Yes, go on. Outside,” she said, reaching for Nate’s hand. “Please, go out with Ben and Adam. There’s . . . there’s another.”
    She turned and started into the great room. Stu McKinnon had already shut off the music, was using his strong, soothing voice to calm the guests. Willa let him take charge for the moment, while she just stood there staring at her father’s portrait over the fireplace. Those cold blue eyes stared back at her. She could almost see him sneering at her, blaming her.
    Barefoot, her dress not quite zipped, Tess barreled down the steps just as Lily came rushing down the hall. “What happened? Someone was screaming.”
    “There’s been another murder.” Lily gripped Tess’s hand hard. “I didn’t see. Adam wouldn’t let me go out, but it’s a woman. No one seems to know who she is. She was just there. Just there in front of the house.”
    “Oh, my God.” Tess pressed her free hand to her mouth, forced herself to stay in control. “Happy fucking New Year. Okay.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s do whatever comes next.”
    They stepped up to Willa, instinctively flanking her. None of them was fully aware that they had linked hands.
    “I don’t know her,” Willa managed. “I don’t even know her.”
    “Don’t think about it now.” Tess tightened her grip on Willa’s hand. “Don’t think about it. Let’s just get through this.”
     
    H OURS LATER . JUST AS DAWN BROKE , SHE FELT A HAND on her shoulder. She’d fallen asleep, God knew how, infront of the living room fire. She jerked away, struggled away as Ben tried to lift her.
    “I’m taking you upstairs. You’re going to bed.”
    “No.” She got to her feet. Her head was eerily light, her body numb, but her heart was pounding again. “No, I can’t.” Dazed, she stared around the room. The remnants of the party were all there. Glasses and plates, food going stale, ashtrays overflowing. “Where—”
    “Everyone’s gone. The last of the police left ten minutes ago.”
    “They said they wanted to talk to me again.”
    Take me into the library again, she thought, question me again. Take me through the steps again. And again. All leading to that moment when she had rushed outside to see two terrified teenagers and a dead woman with pale blue skin.
    “What?” She pressed a hand to her head. Ben’s voice was like a buzz in the front of her brain.
    “I said I told them they could talk to you later.”
    “Oh. Coffee? Is there any coffee left?”
    He’d already had a good look at her, curled in the chair, her white face a hard contrast to the dark shadows under her eyes. She might be standing at the moment, but he knew it was only sheer will that kept her on her feet. And that was simple enough to deal with. He lifted her off them and into his arms.
    “You’re going to bed. Now.”
    “I can’t. I have . . . things to do.” She knew there were dozens of things to do but couldn’t seem to think of even one. “Where . . . my sisters?”
    His eyebrows lifted as he carried her up the steps. He figured she was too punchy to realize it was the first time she’d called Lily and Tess her sisters. “Tess went up an hour ago. Lily’s with Adam. Ham can handle whatever needs to be done today. Go to sleep, Will. That’s all you need to do.”
    “They asked so many questions.” She didn’t protest, couldn’t, when he laid her on her bed. “Everybody asking questions. And the police, taking people into the library, one at a time.”
    She looked at him then, into his eyes—cold green now, she thought. Cold and hard and unreadable. “I didn’t know her, Ben.”
    “No.” He slipped off her shoes, debated with himself briefly, then gritted his teeth and turned her over to unzip her dress. “They’ll check missing persons reports, check her prints.”
    “Hardly any blood,” she murmured, quiet as a child as he slid the dress down. “Not like before. She didn’t seem real, not like a person at all. Do you think he knew her? Did he know her when he did that to her?”
    “I don’t know, darling.”