He is delusional, thinking she loves him. Thinking whatever it is they’ve shared will last beyond this morning. She will grow tired of him before the sun goes down.
And yet, it doesn’t matter.
He will take her anyway. But first, he will kill me.
Unless I can stop him.
36
Day sixteen
It was only a few minutes before the door opened again and Reyes appeared. He shrugged once more, then walked back to the car.
“The place looks abandoned. No heat. No water. I checked every room in case… but no sign that anyone’s been living there.”
Nic stared back up at the house.
“We have to find out what the story is with this place.”
“We will,” he said. Then he leaned over to kiss her again.
He started the car and pulled forward.
Nic looked back one last time, at the window with the wood and the metal.
“Did you see the room with the boarded window? There are metal slats on the outside.”
“Yeah,” Reyes said. “Strange, right? But the window inside was broken. Maybe they didn’t want to pay to replace the glass. I told you, no one’s lived there for a while.”
They drove through the gate. Reyes stopped. Got out.
“I’m just going to close it. Leave things the way we found them. Probably shouldn’t have come without a warrant.”
Nic didn’t turn around to watch him, though his image in the side mirror caught her eye.
He closed the gate.
But then he replaced the chain—which was not how they’d found it—wrapping it three times as though he knew that would be the right number. And then he did something else.
Something that made her gasp one breath of air.
He took a padlock from behind a post—as though he knew it would be there, just like he knew about the chains—and he put it through the loops of the chain, locking it shut.
37
Day sixteen
Iwatch the car drive away. I watch the man, the monster, drive away with my daughter.
Now, more clanking on my prison bars. Alice is there with her Sad Face.
“Come over here,” she says.
She wants to comfort me. The chaos of the morning, the violence, has made her hungry.
I don’t move. I can’t.
“Come here!” she demands, and I see Angry Face coming. She points to the camera in the corner of the room, reminding me that he is watching.
