Big Bismo was closing in from one side. The two detectives and the police were closing in from the other. Aniello was in the center of their group. He was handcuffed. When our eyes met, he said, “Correre, Rosalia.”
It was a hard command.Run.
It took me only a second to decide, especially when Big Bismo and his group started to walk faster toward me.
In the sad girl’s garden, tall bushes were on all sides, creating a little alcove. The fence was hidden behind it.
I slipped in between the bushes, feeling the branches claw at me as I felt for the wall. When I reached it, I frantically felt for the little square Aniello had shown me.
The man who had built Club Desolation, sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s, had been a millionaire and extremely eccentric. Nothing about the secret hideaways was electric. Everything moved when one small part was shifted. Like one domino crashing to cause a reaction from the rest.
Once I pushed against the flush square piece of the wall, one section of it moved so I could enter the inside of the gate. When I stepped inside, I had to push the square lever again to close the door.
The area was narrow and dark, but along the inside of the wall, a railing ran the length of the space. I kicked my heels off and followed it, moving slowly, because at the end of it, a staircase led deeper into the bowels of the earth.
I couldn’t remember how vast Aniello had told me it was, but it mimicked how the property was set above ground. It was a labyrinth. Some areas crisscrossed, and some ran parallel to each other. Aniello said he’d done more research than his boss, and unlike his boss, he could remember every twist and turn.
Unfortunately, like his boss, my mind was not a steel trap. Once I carefully took each step down, using the railing, I had to stop and try to remember what Aniello had told me. Each place we had discussed that I might have to run from had a certain path to take. I always imagined this happening from the Hamartia Garden, after they’d locked me in it.
To the right, I saw a flicker of a flame, the same murkiness in the darkness that reminded me of the torches lit above ground. I started toward that direction when I felt someone in the darkness with me.
As a flashlight clicked on, its glow highlighting a face from underneath, I pulled the gun from my thigh and pointed it.
“Burt,” I said.
He lifted his hands. “Assanti said I should tell you that he told me to tell you something no one else would know.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. His words almost ran together. I kept the gun pointed at him. “What is it?”
“That’s it,” he said. “He didn’t tell me anything. Only that you’d be expecting me to tell you something only the two of you knew. He didn’t want to give away any of your secrets. I don’t think.” He took one of the hands that were lifted and, directing me like he was directing traffic, moved it toward the murkiness. “This way.”
“You first,” I said, pointing the gun in the same direction.
He nodded, clicked the light off, and then moved. I followed behind him, my eyes narrowed, until we came to a line of gas lanterns flaming with heat. They hung on the wall, so many feet apart, and we followed those.
Our shadows rushed along the walls, like shadow puppets in a dungeon. The walls dripped with water that made the floors slick, and it smelled dank, though the temperature was warm. Tears ran down my cheeks and sweat soaked my dress as we hustled to get to wherever would lead me out.
We took a couple of turns, and then we both stopped when we heard echoing footsteps.
Burt put a finger to his mouth. I could tell he was listening. “I don’t know where the footsteps are coming from,” he mouthed at me. Then he pointed straight ahead. “Keep going until you can’t go anymore. Once you get upstairs, follow the railing until the end of the wall. Feel for the square and press it hard.”
“Are you coming?” I mouthed back.
He shook his head and then made a motion for me to go.
I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take me to get to the end, so I started to run. I started to run even faster when I heard gunshots from behind me. They echoed inside of the space, like a bullet rattling around inside of a skull.
It almost felt like a monster was chasing behind me, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it onto my bed before it took me by the legs and pulled me even deeper into this world.
Once I reached the railing, there were no more gas lanterns, and I was cloaked in darkness again. I held on tight to the bar as I tried to fly up the stairs, but my dress caught on a footfall and I went down, busting my knee open.
It was nothing compared to the panic I felt in my chest.
One snatch from the back, and I knew it was going to be a deadly fight. I refused to let them take me alive.
The need to flee forced me to keep moving, and using the bar to lift myself, I tried to take the steps two at a time, until I finally was on flat ground again. I followed the railing all the way to the end. Then my hand frantically searched for the square to push.
“Come on!” I whispered to myself. “Come on!”
