The Assassin Game Read online

  “And your head?” I gasp, shining my flashlight at the matted blood at his hairline.

  “I didn’t think he was going to hit me,” Vaughan groans, pulling himself up on the ladder, carefully.

  “He hit you?” I help him to stand. “What with?”

  “A plank? I dunno. It was kind of quick, so bloody quick I didn’t see it coming,” he groans. “So much for my plan to lure him out here and trap the sucker.” He puts a hand on my arm. “But, Cate, it wasn’t Daniel.”

  “What?” I search his eyes. “But he was sending me the messages. He was Skulk—the sticker on his violin case, the fox. He must have gone off the rails when he saw that we were, you know, together. Emily embarrassed him by posting the video, so he wanted to hurt her with that spider. I’m not sure he intended to actually kill anyone but probably just to lash out, humiliate!”

  Vaughan lets me finish. “You’re wonderful, Cate. But you’re a rubbish detective. It wasn’t Daniel that hit me over the head, and it wasn’t Daniel who was Skulk, and it wasn’t Daniel who tried to kill Emily and Rick.” He looks behind me. “Oh no.”

  “What is it?” I twist around. There’s a car moving toward us, down the causeway, spraying up the shallow water that is gathering on the road. It doesn’t have its headlights on, and the front of it looks very strange, very beaten up. And very familiar. “Vaughan, it’s Mr. Flynn. You know that car accident I mentioned?” I clutch at his arm. “I got locked in his garage, engine on, keys locked in the car. Nearly suffocated. Had to bash my way out. Thought I’d written off the car, but…apparently not.”

  “He’s…here?” Vaughan sags against me.

  “Is it Mr. Flynn?” I stare at Vaughan suddenly. “The killer?”

  Vaughan blinks at me like he’s going to faint as the car draws up to us. The one remaining headlight flicks on, dazzling. The door opens, and we watch as someone steps out.

  “Hello, Alex,” says Vaughan. His eyes roll back in his head, and he sways dangerously.

  Alex stands there, in his Grand Master’s cape, hood pulled up.

  “Alex!” I feel a rush of relief run through me as I stagger, trying to support Vaughan’s weight. I lose the battle and fall to my knees, the water soaking my legs, and Vaughan lolls on top of me. “Thank God you’re here! Vaughan is tied up and he’s injured. You’ve got to help us!”

  Vaughan leans against me, his head flopping back. He’s looking up at me, a strange expression on his face. “Alex.”

  “Yes, he’s going to help us. It’s going to be all right!” I reassure him.

  “Cate.” He looks at me, and suddenly we’re eight again and he’s breaking it to me gently that he dropped my Barbie doll down the gutter. “It’s Alex.”

  I look up at Alex. We both look up at Alex. Alex moves an arm out from under his cloak; he’s holding something.

  “Hmm,” Vaughan says. “And I was right. It was a plank.”

  Alex walks toward us slowly, through the shallow water, swinging the plank. A chill, more vicious than the freezing sea, moves through me. I stagger to my feet, pulling Vaughan up and half depositing him against the ladder, stepping between him and Alex.

  Alex smiles at me. “Very sweet, Cate, very protective.” He stops just in front of me. “But oh, nasty face you’ve got there. You could be ruined for life.”

  “What’s going on, Alex?” I say, my eyes watering with the dazzle of the headlight.

  “Come on, Cate.” He takes a step toward me. “You know what’s going on. Vaughan did an excellent job, luring you here. I think he wanted to use you as bait for me, but I turned it around a little and used him to bait you. That’s the beauty of the Game.” He holds one end of the plank and points it at me, dragging the other end down my body. I knock it away with my hand.

  “Get off me!”

  “Paging Dr. Freud,” Vaughan mutters.

  “You, quiet!” Alex points the plank at Vaughan.

  “Oh, Alex,” Vaughan says. “What an appropriate choice of weapon. You’re such a plank.”

  “Alex.” Fear drenches my body as I walk between the two of them again. “What are you doing? Is it you? Are you Skulk? Did you do those things?”

  “God!” Vaughan groans at me. “Finally!”

  “Cate, you’re really into denial, aren’t you?” Alex laughs nastily. “Denying what’s right in front of your face. Denying you’re anything other than nouveau riche trash. Denying what happened between us.”

  “Us?” I stare at him. “Is that what this is about?”

  Alex sighs. “And I thought you were special, Cate. Special like me. But it turns out you’re oh so very ordinary. Basic. Bland. Forgettable. And do you know what? Around here, that’s the biggest crime of all.”

  I just stare at him for a moment, the undulating waves in my peripheral vision making me feel seasick. Am I hearing this? Is this real, or are the fumes I inhaled in Mr. Flynn’s garage making me hallucinate? Alex is the one who hurt Emily. Alex is the one who nearly killed his best friend, and now he’s come to get Vaughan and me? It makes no sense.

  “Let me get this straight.” My voice sounds slurred, even to me. “I didn’t follow you around like a lovesick puppy after we got together,” I splutter, “so now you want to kill me?”

  “Nobody humiliates me that way, Cate.” Alex juts his head forward and sways slightly from side to side, like a vulture eyeing a dead animal. “How dare you ignore me, reduce me to nothing.” He spits. “No one says no to me, but you, you think you’re so much better than me. And then you jump on sad old Daniel?” He throws his head back and swears. “You shamed yourself and me too. You’re crazy!”

  “Yep,” Vaughan mutters. “She’s absolutely the one who’s crazy around here.”

  “Shut up!” Alex makes as if to swing the plank at Vaughan, then stops. He gathers himself, breathes, turns to me again. “Emily posted that video of you with Danny boy, twisting the knife in my side, so revolting I wanted to puke. Emily thought it was funny. Stupid girl; she actually came to me and apologized afterward. Thought that would be sufficient, but oh no. Not happening. Not during my Game.” He shakes his head. “So Emily got the honor of being my first victim.”

  “That spider was something,” Vaughan says. “Kudos to you—er, in spite of you being a sociopath, obviously—but there was some skill in making it.” He narrows his eyes at Alex. “Oh. You didn’t make it, did you? One of big brother’s cast-offs. The genius engineer?” He shakes his head, tutting. “You even needed his help for that, didn’t you?”

  Alex ignores him, but he grips the plank tighter, and the veins in his neck are bulging.

  “But you could have killed Emily,” I say. “Just for posting some video?”

  Alex shrugs. “I just set it up. What happens is not my fault. I don’t Kill. I’m the facilitator, the Grand Master of the Game. And anyway, she didn’t die. She just got punished.”

  “Like Rick?” I step up to him.

  “Don’t you dare say his name!” he yells, then forces himself to calm down again. “That was meant for you, and you know it. You were meant to eat the cake, suffer, puke your guts up. Or die, whatever. But you didn’t even get that right. You just don’t respect your Grand Master, do you, Cate? Don’t know a good thing when it smacks you in the face.” He lifts the plank and whomps it on to one of the legs of the hut three times. “In. The. Face.”

  “Put yer little stick away, Alex,” Vaughan says. “It’s embarrassing. Dead wood, just like you.”

  “No, you’re the one who’s dead!” Alex swings the plank over his head, aiming for Vaughan, who dodges, but the wood still catches his shoulder and he falls to the ground with a thud and a splash.

  “Leave him alone!” I hurl myself at Alex, but he stands strong and pushes me aside with his free hand. I stumble, the rising water sloshing around my ankles.

  “This is
my Game!” Alex yells. “My Game is going to be the most talked about Game in all of Umfraville history, it’s going to bury what came before! That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Leaving your mark, making them remember you.” He flourishes his cape. “No one tops my Game. I wrote this story, but you two, you helped me shape it, and you should be proud of that.” He kicks out at Vaughan, who brings his feet up and shields the blow. “Vaughan? Misunderstood genius, gone off the rails.” He winks at him. “I think the police must have found the belladonna powder in your room, Vaughan. Isn’t it amazing what you can buy on the Internet these days?” He swings the plank out, pointing at me again. “And Cate? Crazy bitch. The two of you played Killer by your own rules. You made up a charming character called Skulk, you went on an attempted murder spree to take out your friends, and you almost pulled it off too, but luckily I managed to save the day and stop you. Do you see? I’m the hero in all of this. Oh yes—you both died, but it’s collateral damage, and nothing that anyone will get too upset about once they know what you did.”

  “How?” I say. “Just how do we die, Alex?” I step up to him. “You beat us to a bloodied pulp with that plank?” I shake my head. “Can’t see you getting your hands that dirty. So please, share with us this amazing final scene you’ve written, because I don’t remember you being able to write much more than your name. Unless you get Martin to do it for you.”

  His eyes flash with fury. “Oh, I’ll share.” He throws down the plank and drags me to the ladder. “Originally, Cate, it was going to be you tied and drowned by your boyfriend, Vaughan, who, filled with remorse at his brutality, climbs the ladder and makes the ultimate gesture of despair. Beautiful. But why don’t we have a switcheroo?” He grabs me by the scruff of my neck and brings me up close. “Seems you like to do that, don’t you?”

  “Screw you.”

  “You had your chance.” He spits at me.

  I reach into my parka…and my hand pulls out nothing.

  “Looking for this?” Alex holds up the modeling knife I’d dropped on the floor at Mr. Flynn’s house. How did he get that? Flynny put it on the sideboard. Oh God, Alex must have been inside the house. He chuckles, flourishing the knife at me, and pushes me toward the ladder. “Now, up!”

  “No!” I brace myself against the ladder, pushing back on him. Alex lets me go and leans down, holding the knife under Vaughan’s chin. Vaughan is slumped, barely conscious, his eyes fluttering. “Want me to slice him up a little, for the fish?”

  I scream, and Alex points with the knife, up at the ladder. Reluctantly, I start to climb, looking down at Vaughan.

  “Don’t worry, Cate,” Alex says. “Your boyfriend isn’t going anywhere. And I’ll be right behind you.”

  “You better not touch him!” I yell down at him.

  “Oh, I won’t,” Alex says. “I might catch something.”

  I reach the top of the ladder. There’s a small platform with a rail around it, and the tiny shed-like refuge. I hurry into the hut, searching the inside for anything I can use as a weapon. There’s little: a lifebelt tied to a rope, two life jackets, and a couple fusty-looking blankets on a bench.

  “It’s hopeless, Cate.” Alex fills the doorway behind me, his singsong voice low and almost calm, his cape blowing in the breeze. “Hopeless. That’s what you were thinking when you climbed up here.” He walks over to the lifebelt and starts to unwind the rope. “You’d left Vaughan down in the rising water, trussed up, knowing the tide was coming in, knowing he couldn’t swim, and it would just be a matter of time before the sea took him—for real this time.” He chuckles and winks at me. “Third time unlucky, eh?” He unties the rope from the ring and sets the ring aside on the bench. “You wait until the tide is coming in, and Vaughan is flopping around, facedown, very sad. You stand—here”—he steps outside to the platform—“and watch his body jerk, his death throes, his last-ditch effort to survive. But it’s futile.” He walks outside and begins to tie one end of the rope to the railing that runs the length of the platform, then twists the other end and ties it into a loop. “Then, you see me—I’ve driven out as far as I dare, and the car is stuck in the water. I’m standing on the roof, and I’m shouting at you—‘No, no, Cate! Don’t do it!’” He giggles and walks toward me slowly, the loop of rope in his hands. I back into the hut again. “But I’m too late, and as usual, you won’t listen to me. We know how stubborn you can be when you have your mind set.” He follows me, dangling the loop in front of me: a noose. “And you have your mind set.”

  “No!” I push him away, dodge around him and out onto the platform, but as I break for the ladder he catches me easily around the waist and holds me in a horrible embrace as I thrash against him.

  “Oh, Cate!” He laughs. “Give us a hug!”

  “Get your hands off me!” I scream at him. I lift a leg and scrape the inside of my foot down his shin as hard as I can. He cries out in surprise, and as he releases me I take the heel of my hand and ram it up the underside of his chin, knocking his head back and making him stumble. Thanks for those boring self-defense lessons last term, Mr. Churley.

  Something clatters onto the wooden floor. We both look down; Alex has dropped the modeling knife. We dive for it; I get there first, but the full weight of him falls on my head, making my ears ring. My hand is on the knife, but my arm is trapped under me, and I can’t get it out. Alex pulls at me, grunting, and as I roll, I grab the knife and find my feet, and I’m backing away, brandishing my weapon in front of me.

  Alex is on his feet too, panting, bent low, his arms holding out his cloak. He laughs.

  “Thanks for putting your fingerprints all over that knife again, Cate.” He takes a step toward me. “I’d wiped it clean after using it on Ms. Lasillo. Now if they find it, they’ll know it was you who jumped her.”

  I gasp.

  He takes another step. “Oh, you should have seen her, Cate. I was hiding in the wardrobe, can you believe it?” He chuckles. “Always check the cupboard for monsters! She never saw what hit her.”

  I feel sick. “Is she dead?”

  He beams at me. “I would think. Your dear Mr. Flynn certainly sounded like he thought so.”

  I step backward, steadying myself against the railing behind me. “You killed him too?”

  For the first time, he seems a little crestfallen. “No. I didn’t have time. Other places to be, you know?” He shakes his head. “Besides, I owed him one. He locked you in the garage, didn’t he, with his dodgy motor? Priceless! Nearly finished you off for me.”

  Below, I can hear waves. That’s not a good sign. Vaughan moans, and my eyes dart downward.

  “Oh dear,” Alex says. “The water is getting deeper.” He grabs one of the life vests that has rolled out onto the platform and puts it on under his cloak. “I didn’t want to have to make a swim for it, but I’m sure the police will be with us soon enough, thanks to Mr. Flynn.” He picks up the noose again and smiles at me. “You’ll excuse me if we get this over with, Cate?”

  “You forget that I’m the one holding the knife!” I shout at him.

  He laughs, shakes his head, whips off his cloak in a flourish, and holds it out in front of him, rushing at me with a roar. I dodge, holding the knife out to the side, trying to evade the cloak, but he is too quick for me, and he smothers it with the thick velvet, bundling it out of my hand and over the side of the platform. The momentum smashes him against the railing, and I spin around and try to push him over.

  “Nah-ah-ah!” He ducks out of my way, waggling a finger in my face. “Don’t you think I’ve seen that move a thousand times?” He laughs at me, reaches out a hand, and grabs my throat, pulling me in close. “You have a date, Cate.” He puts the noose over my head, tightening it and holding my arms against me. I struggle, but he holds me fast, leaning in close and whispering in my ear. “Your last one. With death.”

  I turn my face to his, my mind racing. �
��It doesn’t have to be this way, Alex.” My cheek is against his, eyelashes gently fluttering against his skin. “Rewrite this. You save me, from Vaughan. It was all him, all along. I was the damsel in distress in the tower, and you came to my rescue. We wait until he drowns, we cut him free, push him out into the waves—they’ll never know.” I breathe into his ear. “Isn’t that a better ending? That way you’re really the hero.” I laugh softly. “And bonus: this way, you don’t have to get wet. We cuddle up together here until the police arrive.”

  He draws back from me, incredulous, chuckling. “I’m impressed. You really are the total package, Cate. Too bad I didn’t realize that before the Game began. We could have worked together from the start.” He leans in again. “Only one problem. I don’t trust you.”

  “No.” I see the movement from the corner of my eye. “No. You shouldn’t.”

  Alex pulls back from me, crying out in pain, his hand moving down to his ankle, where the modeling knife has found a new home.

  Vaughan lets go of the knife and hauls himself over the top of the ladder, his hands and feet free. “Push him!”

  I don’t need to be told. I hurl myself at Alex, who falls toward the gap in the railing where the ladder is and where Vaughan is trying to get out of his way. As I pick myself up, they tangle—Alex on top, Vaughan trying to shake him off. I aim a superhero kick at Alex’s head, but even though I connect, his head snaps back, and he clings on still. It’s enough for Vaughan to free an arm, and he swings a punch to the throat. Alex sits bolt upright, on top of him, a look of hurt surprise on his face.

  “Go to hell!” I push him again, and this time he goes, falling backward down the ladder. But the fall is cut short. His legs get caught in the rungs, and he manages to throw out an arm and cling on.

  I pull Vaughan back from the edge, and he hops up onto his good foot.

  “Look!” he says, his eyes turned toward Skola. There on the island, lights are flashing. Headlights—two, three pairs. And a horn is beeping, cutting through the sound of the waves and the cry of the seabirds.