They moved silently through the woods, Maggie using the cane for balance and to probe the snow in front of her. The last thing she needed was to fall on her ass. They stopped where the clearing began, maybe a hundred feet from the house. They could see Abby now, standing alone, with her back to them on the edge of the cliff. She was looking down at the rocks below, bare feet toeing the icy edge of a large overhanging rock that jutted out into open space. It made a nearly perfect diving platform. There was no sign of Richard Wolfe.

Abby was dressed in a floaty white summer dress. The kind of thing she might have worn for her high school graduation. Portland High. Class of ’99. Incongruous both for the season and the place. Her hands were down at her sides. It looked like she was holding something. Whatever it was was lost within the soft folds of fabric that swayed in rhythm with the wind that blew in from the sea. Abby’s reddish brown hair was pinned back, a garland of white flowers arranged in a band across the top of her head. No, it wasn’t her graduation, McCabe decided. Abby was dressed for a wedding. A bride awaiting her groom’s arrival. I long to embrace Death again. For the very first time. All that was missing was a bouquet and a veil. The wind was picking up now, and, January thaw or not, McCabe figured she had to be freezing. He wondered if just seeing them approach would be enough to cause her to jump.

‘Keep an eye on our friend,’ he said to Maggie. ‘I’m going to check out the cottage.’ He slipped his .45 from its holster and into the deep pocket of his coat and started toward the house. He moved across the open clearing as fast and silently as he could, Bill Fortier’s L.L. Bean boots giving him better, though not perfect, traction on the icy ledge.

He reached the cottage and pushed himself up against one wall. He peered through the window. The main room looked dark and empty. He pushed in through the front door. Nothing.

‘Richard? Are you here?’ He kept his voice friendly, collegial.

No answer. He quickly checked the other rooms. Nothing. Through the window he could see Abby still perched on her rock. Maggie had moved closer. She was now only about fifty feet away.

Suddenly there was movement at the end of the cliff, and Richard Wolfe’s head appeared above the rocks, followed by his shoulders. Wolfe was climbing up the rickety wooden steps that rose from the rocky beach below. He was still wearing the same dark hooded coat as before, but in the warmer air the hood was down. Wolfe walked toward Maggie. If he still had the .22 it wasn’t in his hand. McCabe drew the .45 from his pocket. He felt his cell phone vibrate. Caller ID said M. SAVAGE. He knew it wasn’t because Maggie wanted to talk to him. She was just telling him to stay put and listen in. He put the phone to his ear and watched through the window.

‘You must be Dr Wolfe?’ Maggie said when he was about five feet away.

‘Yes. Who are you, and what are you doing here?’

‘I’m with the police,’ she said. ‘Detective Margaret Savage, Portland PD.’ She held up her badge wallet. He glanced at it. ‘We’ve been looking for Abby.’

Maybe it was because she heard her name or perhaps because she simply sensed their presence behind her, but Abby turned and looked. First at Wolfe. Then at Maggie. McCabe could see her eyes, but in the failing light of a late January afternoon it was hard to tell if what he saw in them was madness or merely despair. Behind her, weather clouds were closing in. The wind was rising. Waves of white fabric rippled against a darkening sky. He still couldn’t see what was in her hand.

‘Abby, my name is Margaret Savage,’ Maggie called to her. ‘I’m a friend. I’m here to help you. I’d like you please to step away from the edge.’

Abby seemed nervous, distracted. McCabe wasn’t sure she had even heard Maggie’s calm request. Perhaps with the wind blowing she was too far away. Maggie probed the snow in front of her with her cane, making sure her next step, if she took one, would find firm footing. ‘I’m coming to talk to you,’ she called.

‘I wouldn’t go any closer,’ Wolfe said. ‘She’ll jump, you know. I’ve been trying to get her to step in from the edge for nearly an hour now. Without success. If you go any closer, I think she’ll go over.’

McCabe thought about pulling the window up a couple of inches and using the sill as a firing platform. A tough shot from this distance. Too easy to miss. Besides, the shot might cause Abby to jump. No, it wasn’t a good idea.

‘I can try talking her out of it,’ he heard Maggie say to Wolfe. She was keeping her voice too low for Abby to hear. She took another step toward Abby and then another. At the same time, she began moving sideways, crossing in front of Wolfe to his other side, forcing him to turn away from the cottage in order to watch her. Forcing him to keep his back to McCabe.

‘Where are you going?’ Wolfe asked. ‘What are you doing?’ There was anxiety in his voice now.

‘I need to get closer or she won’t hear me,’ said Maggie, her tone calm, matter-of-fact.

McCabe slipped out the cottage door as she spoke.

‘Talking her down won’t work if I have to shout,’ Maggie continued.

‘It won’t work anyway,’ said Wolfe. ‘I want you to go away. Abby doesn’t know you. She knows me. I’m her doctor. She trusts me. Just leave, and I’ll get her to come in.’

McCabe flipped the phone off and stuck it in his pocket. He was close enough now to hear without it.

‘Did you hypnotize her?’ Maggie asked.

‘Yes, I hypnotized her.’

‘How’d it work?’

Wolfe didn’t hear McCabe approaching. Now less than ten feet from Wolfe’s back. Too close to miss. Maggie didn’t alert Wolfe by glancing up.

‘She went under quite easily. In fact, she’s still in a hypnotic trance. She’ll do anything I ask.’

‘Really? Anything?’

‘Yes.’

‘Including asking her to walk in from the edge of that cliff?’ asked Maggie.

‘Yes,’ said Wolfe.

‘Well, why is it you’re not doing that?’ asked McCabe.

Wolfe turned. His eyes widened at the sight of the .45 leveled at his chest.

‘Is it because you want her to jump?’

‘What on earth are you talking about?’

‘There were hidden cameras in Goff’s apartment the night she told you about the pictures. You know, the dirty pictures. We have the whole conversation on video. We know it was you. You’re under arrest.’

If Wolfe was surprised he didn’t show it. A thin, ugly smile passed his lips. ‘There’s only one problem with that,’ he said. ‘You were right a minute ago. I do want her to jump. And all I have to do to make it happen is say one word . . . let’s call it the magic word . . . and, poof, over she goes.’

McCabe didn’t know whether Wolfe was bluffing. Maybe there was a magic word, maybe there wasn’t. He considered his options. One was simply pulling the trigger. That would end it – but the shot might also drive Abby over the edge. An unacceptable risk.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Abby turn back and look the other way, down at the rocks and at the sea below. Then she turned her gaze back to the three of them. Was she in a hypnotic trance? McCabe didn’t know. All he saw on her face was fear. Afraid to move forward to her death. Afraid to move back toward them.

‘I have a question for you, Richard,’ said McCabe. ‘If Detective Savage and I do what you ask and leave, what happens next? You take Abby with you as your hostage?’

‘That’s my plan, yes. Plan B, actually. My backup. My dinghy’s on the beach at the bottom of the stairs. My boat’s anchored nearby. You leave. Abby and I sail away. When I feel it’s safe, I’ll drop her off on the coast. If you or the Coast Guard or some down-market Galahad in a lobster boat follows me . . .’ Wolfe shrugged.

‘You’ll say your magic word, and she’ll jump overboard.’

Wolf smiled. ‘No, actually, at that point, I’ll just shoot her. I keep a small revolver on board. A Smith & Wesson Airweight .38.’