She woke to find herself being shaken gently by the female officer who had sat with her earlier. She still couldn't remember her name. Somehow they'd made it back to civilisation and safety.
"Hey, don't wake her! It's been ages since she last slept. The interviews can wait. John Wakefield isn't going anywhere," Henry hissed from next to her. Inwardly she was very glad that he was here, even if his chivalry wasn't necessary.
"It's okay, Henry," she said, touching his arm gently and hoping it would make him feel fractionally better about their situation.
"Ms. Mills," the woman led her off down the corridor of what must have been a police station. It should have felt like relief – she was alive and safe in the protection of a lot of armed men and women. And John Wakefield was dead. But she still felt lost. The station was a lot bigger and far busier than the one her father had run and these people - the woman and the man who was holding the door open for them – were taking her away from her only remaining friend.
I should never have accepted the invite. I should never have come home. John Wakefield was waiting for me to return all those years.
The man introduced himself as Carson and to her relief pointed out that the woman was Terry. They offered her coffee, which she gratefully accepted, and Terry disappeared to get it. Abby sat in an awkward silence with Carson, waiting for him to say something and half hoping he never would.
They're going to tell me Jimmy's gone. I spend seven years in what may as well have been a coma and as soon as things start to get better John Wakefield destroys everything again. Jimmy can't be dead. That's not how things are supposed to go. He's supposed to live and forgive me for leaving and be with me now. I was going to stay with him! He can't –
She looked at the dark plastic of the table as she willed herself not to cry. As Officer Terry returned, an unneeded box of tissues was placed in front of her, followed by a steaming mug of milky coffee. She thanked the woman quietly, wondering how much of a wreck she looked. There was a long mirror across one wall of the room but it was obviously one-sided and not one for cleaning up in. She breathed deeply, clearing her mind, and asked the question whose answer she needed to know.
"He's gone, isn't he?"
"Who?" Carson asked, looking up from shuffling papers.
"Jimmy. Wakefield murdered him."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Mills," Terry said quietly. "He died before the teams arrived. Aside from a few locals who bunkered down, you and the other four are the only outsiders to survive."
Her mind kept wandering, imagining Jimmy's last seconds and what must have been going through his mind. Fighting an insane and almost-unstoppable serial killer, being shot and, if that didn't kill him, suffocating in the fire. And desperately trying to think of something else because the idea was crushing.The fire. He burned to death in the wreckage. Oh God, Jimmy, no. I never heard him scream but I can see him...
She became aware that they were saying something to her that she wasn't hearing. She stared hard at their lips but it didn't help. "Say that again?"
"Can you tell us what happened on the island? Shea Allen has told us a lot but we need the story from each of you. We need to piece everything together to understand what went on over the last week or so," Terry said, now audible. She seemed sympathetic but thankfully didn't smile. Abby's grandmother had made her see a therapist when she first arrived in Los Angeles but Abby quickly hated the woman, who would never understand what she had seen and, above all, smiled too much.
"What do you want to know?" she whispered.Where do I start?
"Tell it however you want. There's no hurry."
She stopped and started a lot as she explained Henry's wedding to Trish and how long it was since she'd been home. They both nodded solemnly when she spoke about John Wakefield's first rampage and she guessed that they both knew everything about that already. But Carson's eyebrows shot up when she mentioned Kelly seeing Wakefield alive on the island and how no one had believed her and how he must have hanged her for that. JD and Shane's squabbles seemed trivial now both men were dead.
"It all started, for all of us, when Mr. Wellington died, on the Friday during the wedding rehearsal. There was a trap in the church. It was rigged to drop a head-spade on anyone standing under the chandelier when the lights were turned off. There was a floor plan so Wakefield knew Mr. Wellington was going to be standing there. It was me. I was the one who turned off the lights and triggered it. And then dad came back because he'd found Reverend Fain. He didn't realise someone else had died. Reverend Fain was supposed to be there at the rehearsal but Wakefield murdered him too. And afterwards JD took me to show me where he'd found Uncle Marty – Henry's uncle – hanging from a tree in the woods like – like – like my mom."
Knowing she'd cry if she spoke again, Abby drew out a tissue and covered her face while she tried to calm down.I need to do this. They need to know what happened. It's their job. She swallowed a mouthful of coffee, which burned as it went down, and tried not to choke.
"When did you find out John Wakefield was still alive?" Carson prompted. "According to our records, Sheriff Charlie Mills killed him seven years, recovered his body and had him buried on the island. Now it seems he made the whole thing up. Do you –"
"I don't know why dad did that!" Abby interrupted angrily. "But he must have had a good reason. My dad was a good man."They're not going to pin this on dad. They're not going to think 'We can't prosecute the real murderer so we'll slander a dead man who can't defend himself'. I won't let them – and Henry will back me up. Collecting herself, she decided to start from Madison's kidnapping, as everything leading up to her father's death seemed to stem from that point. She took several deep breaths and began to explain.
"Wakefield kidnapped Madison on Saturday. We don't know how. That's why we didn't all leave on the boat. Shea was running round looking for her and we all helped. Later she phoned me on my cell – this was just before Wakefield destroyed the cell tower – and told us that if anyone left the island he'd kill her. And we started finding bodies. Richard Allen. Shea thought he'd taken Madison and left but Wakefield got him.
"You know about JD's arrest, right?" she asked, pausing for nods. "My dad had gone to speak to Cole Harkin in the woods about JD. Wakefield shot Harkin and burned the cabin but dad just had a leg injury. Cal treated him at the clinic on Saturday night after we found JD. He was at the marina. He'd escaped from the cells and Wakefield had caught him instead. There was nothing I could do to save him."
So many things I can't talk about. The journal, the wretched journal. And Jimmy. If I mention Jimmy, I'll break down completely. If I say his name. They won't understand. No one ever understood. Not even Dad. He just didn't want to see me at all. And he's gone too now. All I have is Henry.
She skipped over a lot of the details of the fight at the Candlewick. She didn't want to talk about the journal and the way everyone had looked at her before she'd left. They thought I was John Wakefield's daughter. And so did I. She spent the time on Beth vanishing and crawling around in the dark, looping tunnel system.
"We found Madison and she was safe. We took her back to the Candlewick and she said that it was my dad who took her. That it was a game. She was lying! John Wakefield took her and made her lie to us. But dad was gone when we got to the clinic and we found maps of the tunnels in dad's attic. He's got a lot of information on John Wakefield up there. I know he didn't tell the truth seven years ago about killing him but he kept working on it. He didn't give up. He was a good man.
"We went to the Marina to try and escape on a boat. Then it exploded. Wakefield blew up all the boats, and J-J-Jimmy was there and I thought he was dead because he was on the boat – it was his boat – and I didn't have a chance to say goodbye," she whispered, gasping for breath as she remembered Henry having to hold her back from running out into the flames. She realised she'd shredded the tissue and took another to take the tears that she could feel pricking at the back of her eyes and throat. "Wakefield starting shooting at us and we all ran back to the Cannery. Nikki was there and Shane said that two police officers had arrived but they were dead and in the water too. Why didn't you send anyone after them?"
They both had the decency to look ashamed.
"At the time, we thought it was only one death. That of Thomas Wellington by JD Dunn and, the last we heard, he was in custody. We didn't know then that John Wakefield was alive and that there had been a string of deaths. Kelly Seaver's was initially recorded as a suicide. When Officers Coulter and Riggins didn't contact the station, we just assumed they were getting on with the investigation," Carson explained. It didn't make Abby feel any better.
"Madison kept lying about my dad. Everyone thought he was doing this. But he wasn't," Abby said. She told them of Katherine at the Candlewick, Maggie Krell hanging from the roof of the Cannery, Cal and Sully going after the sailboat and Shea not letting anyone speak to Madison. "After Cal and Sully left, Wakefield brought Jimmy's body to the Cannery on one of the police vehicles and everyone thought it was my dad. Jimmy was alive. My key – my hotel room key was taped to his hand. I had to go. I had to see. I still thought it was my dad then. Because Madison lied.
"He – he – he was there, standing up against the window. My dad. He looked so scared. He – it – Wakefield had rigged him. It was a trap. He was listening in over a radio. Dad said Wakefield was still alive and that he'd been responsible for all the murders and that I was the only one who could stop him."And that Wakefield definitely wasn't my father."He'd tra-traded his life for Jimmy's. Because Jimmy loved me!"
That was it. She sat sobbing unashamedly in front of Carson and Terry and anyone who might have been watching through the mirror, clutching her coffee mug and a wad of tissues and trying to hide her face behind them. Terry and Carson seemed to whisper to one another, conferring about something, but she couldn't hear what they were saying.
"A-and W-w-w-wakefield pulled him back thr-through the window and h-he was h-hanging. Wakefield m-murdered him l-like he murdered my mom. He came up behind me and I think he was g-going to kill me too b-but Henry and Danny appeared and he v-vanished. They came after me to make sure I was OK. Henry saved me."
"Can you continue?" Terry asked gently.
"Danny though Wakefield might stop then," she whispered, remembering how much she'd hoped he was right. She'd resolved to kill him regardless but it would have spared Nikki and Shane. It's not fair. "But he didn't. He killed Nikki and Shane at the Cannery. Danny broke down. It was awful."
She paused. "Is Danny dead? Madison said he fought Wakefield…" They nodded and her stomach twisted up in grief. She'd liked Danny. He didn't deserve this. None of them deserved this.
"John Wakefield rang the church bells and we all headed there thinking that someone else in our group was signalling," she explained. "Cal and Sully said the sail boat was gone and Trish and Chloe came too. He kidnapped Chloe right under our noses. We used the tunnels again – there was an entrance in the church and we thought that was where he'd taken her. Cal and Henry and I went down the tunnels. Everyone else blocked the other exits to keep Wakefield in. We had a map from dad's attic.
"He killed Cal. He stabbed him through with that boarding knife in front of Chloe. She threw herself off the bridge," she described numbly. In response to prompting, she continued. "Henry and I had tried to shoot him. Neither of us could hit the broad side of a barn. He did save me from falling off the cliffs though.
"Then Sully caught Wakefield," she smiled bitterly. It had been the point when things had started to go right, that it briefly looked like everyone left standing then would make it off the island. She only wished she'd been strong enough to kill him when given the chance, like her dad told her to. It might have all been over then. "We took him to the jail and locked him up in one of the cells. I went to get Shea and Madison from dad's attic and we sat around in the police station waiting for the others to come back."
What to tell them about what Wakefield had told her? She knew she ought to tell them the truth, the whole truth, but the truth was messy. She ought to tell them about the diary, definitely. And she ought to tell them what her dad had confessed to her about the first time Wakefield came to Harper's Island. Her dad framed a man for attempted murder of a police officer – a life sentence. Got him locked up for seventeen years for something he didn't do. And for what? Trying to get his girlfriend – was that even the right word? – to come back. They'd drag her dad's name through the mud for that, along with everyone else who'd been involved in the trial, and pin the blame on him entirely. But they had to know John Wakefield had dated her mother, however sick it made her feel to think about it now, and they had to know Wakefield had a son by her.
But surely, as long as they found out the last two facts, how Abby had known wouldn't matter? Why couldn't Wakefield have just told her everything then? It wasn't really lying to the police if she didn't hold back the crucial details and stuck to the truth as much as possible. She decided a white lie would do.
"Madison told me that Wakefield wanted to speak to me. He told me that, before mom met dad, he'd dated her and that she'd left when she – when she was carrying his child. He said she'd had his child but it wasn't me. The child was a boy. He came after her, followed her to Harper's Island. That's when he tried to kill Cole Harkin and dad sent him to prison. He killed her when he got out for taking his son away," she said quietly, looking at the table and hoping she wouldn't have to elaborate too much.
"Whoa, whoa, wait," Carson interjected. "Why didn't you tell us – wait, okay, you didn't think to tell us this before?"
"You said there was no hurry."
"Was he sure? I mean, would he have known if your mother had aborted the child or miscarried?"
"He said he found his son. I don't know when or where. We thought he might be someone on the island – an accomplice – but John Wakefield killed or at least tried to kill all the men in our group. Henry only survived because he stabbed Wakefield first and was lucky enough to block Wakefield's knife with his arm. Did you find another man in the tunnels?" she asked belatedly, directing the question to Terry, who seemed to accept that her explanations would be long-winded and rambling.
"No. Should there have been? Why would you think there was a second person in the tunnels?"
"Because Madison said she heard a second set of footsteps when she was down there."
There's a long silence as Abby looked at her hands and no one said anything. It was the woman who broke the silence eventually.
"We've had people down those tunnels since we picked you and Mr. Dunn up. Believe me, there was no one down there. And we've got people all over the island trying to get word from the locals. We haven't found anyone hiding in the woods or bunking down in someone's cellar," Terry told her.
"Are you sure the little girl was telling the truth?" Carson said to Abby's shock. "I mean, if she lied about your dad, could the footsteps be a lie too? It would have been a good one. Get us chasing after a ghost."
"No! I mean – I – I don't know. You can ask her. But we thought an accomplice must have helped him escape from the cell. None of us let him out."
Terry and Carson exchanged looks and Terry got to her feet, the chair squeaking a little on the polished floor. She left the room, apparently to tell the other cops the news that they should look for a possible accomplice.
"What happened after you spoke to John Wakefield?" Carson prompted her to continue.
"The others came back," she restarted, getting more comfortable at this now, especially if it meant he wasn't criticising her, "and they all thought Jimmy had been helping Wakefield. But he wasn't! When they were hiding in dad's attic, Shea and Madison found information on Jimmy. Dad had been investigating him. And some of the guys thought it was too suspicious that he'd survived the marina explosion and Wakefield hadn't killed him at the Cannery. We practically tore ourselves apart as a group. Jimmy came back saying that Trish had accidentally fallen over a cliff and Henry went mental. We had to pull him off Jimmy. Turns out he was telling the truth but he and Sully both nearly shot Jimmy on the beach when Trish wasn't there. She'd found the boat house with the radio. That's when we got in contact with the Coast Guard."
"The Monday. Yes, we have transcripts from the Coast Guard. Go on."
"J-Jimmy and I met Shea and Madison in the woods when we were walking back to the station. We'd left them there and Shea said Wakefield had escaped and killed Danny. We sent them back to the boat house to stay with Sully – Jimmy gave Shea our gun – and we went to find Henry and Trish to tell them the news. We found Trish. Wakefield had stabbed her. She was in her wedding dress! We thought Henry might have gone back to the boat house but no one was there. Jimmy spoke to the Coast Guard over the radio and they said Henry and Sully had spoken to them and were told to go to the Marina."
And that's it. That's the bit I don't understand. Were the Coast Guard mistaken? Was Henry lying? Was something lost in translation? Maybe they only spoke to Sully and Sully promised to tell Henry and then didn't? Would Carson know? He just said he'd seen transcripts.
"I'm a little – I don't know – the conversation between the Coast Guard and Sully and Henry. Was Henry definitely there? Because when I spoke to him later he asked me if I knew where we were meeting you. That was just before Wakefield tried to kill us both," she angled.
Carson raised an eyebrow and shuffled the files in front of him, before pulling out what looked like a script from where Abby was sitting.
"Hmmm... There was only one voice in the recording. Guess we'll have to see what Mr. Dunn says. OK, and after this conversation Mr. Mance had with us?" Carson waved a different script-sheet.
"Umm, we met Henry and told him about Trish. He said he hadn't seen Sully but he was so upset about Trish we didn't think to ask him. We took him to where she was but Wakefield had taken her to the church. Henry was convinced she might still be alive – me and Jimmy knew she wasn't – and ran off to look for her and we ran after him. He cried when we found her in the church. I haven't seen him cry since – oh, JD. He cried then. And then John Wakefield appeared.
"He attacked Jimmy," she whispered, the seconds replaying themselves slowly in her head. "Henry couldn't shoot without hitting Jimmy. And Jimmy told me to run. The helicopter. I had to get to the helicopter. And the gunshot. And Henry said he was gone. I didn't – uh, that's when he asked me if I knew where we were supposed to meet the Coast Guard. I nearly got him killed standing there instead of running! I didn't know what I was thinking and he took a knife out and just pushed me over. John Wakefield had been right behind me and Henry killed him. I never even heard him. He stabbed Henry but he was okay. He was dead. Finally."
"And that's when you turned up."
Carson nodded slowly. "Well done for surviving. You know the press are all out there. Biggest murder spree in the country since God knows when. You're gonna be quite a major story for a while."
Abby paled. All she wanted to do at that point was curl up a soft bed and sleep for days, knowing that it was all over.
The door banged as Terry barged back in, looking considerably less friendly than she'd been when she left five minutes earlier.
"A few more questions, Miss Mills. Something about a diary."
