I shifted a little in my seat. “Where were you? I got back to the lodge and you weren’t there.”
She shivered. “No—I got scared and ran away.”
“What scared you, honey? Where did you go to?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Nick. Can’t we drive on now?”
I took her in my arms and pulled her round so she faced me. “I’m sorry, baby, but this is serious,” I said. “When I got back to the lodge I found you gone and Blondie dead.”
I felt her body stiffen. “Dead? You mean someone killed her?”
I said, “Yes… someone killed her.”
Mardi began to cry softly. “Oh, Nick, and she came to warn me. She came and told me that they were coming for me. I was so scared that I ran out of the place into the woods and left her there. She said that Katz had told her that Spencer wanted us out of the way. He thought we knew too much and Katz was on his way to the lodge.”
I said, “But Spencer didn’t know we were at the lodge.”
She hid her head. “He knows everything—I tell you he knows everything.”