I stare at the contents of the cupboard, perplexed, then notice my face cream has fallen down onto the floor beside the toilet. I bend and search for the sleeping pills and find a pot of nail oil and a lip balm that have fallen down here, too, but no pill bottle.
As I rise, Blue meows behind me with what I can only assume is guilt at having caused all this mess last night while I was out.
I grab my Tylenol and I hurry back downstairs, Blue hot on my heels. He watches as I down them with a glass of water, then, my hands jangling with nervous tension I open the back door and let him out. I need to calm down.
When my phone alarm sounds at 2:50, I am ready. I straighten my hair in the hall mirror, plaster on a smile, and swing open my front door.
Chapter 43
Finding Anna
Matt’s hallway is cool afterthe afternoon sun, as he hefts the padlock and chain off and opens the partition door.
I go to walk through, but his hand stops me. My heart is thumping fast and high in my chest in spite of my relatively cool demeanor.
I smile, keeping everything under control, everything breezy and fun.
“Not so fast,” he says, blocking my way with a boyish smile, as he did the night before, though now everything he does seems tinged with menace. “You haven’t paid the entrance fee yet,” he adds.
I draw my eyes even with his—there’s still a chance he has nothing to do with this. “How much we talking?” I ask playfully.
“I don’t know,” he says wryly. “Empty your pockets.”
My blood runs cold. My pockets are full of anti-attack paraphernalia. If it isn’t him, that’s bad, and if it is him, then it is worse.
My fingers brush against the rape alarm—I could just press it now if I needed to. If I set it off right here in the un-soundproofed hallway, I know it would be heard, but deeper into the house, I’m not so sure.
“Sorry, Matt, I justreallyneed to find the earring,” I say calmly.
He studies me, unreadable for a moment, before answering. I’m beginning to doubt he buys my story now at all.
“Yeah, sorry,” he says finally, a little surprised, then he smiles, breaking the tension. He takes my free hand and leads me into the dust-filled house, closing the door firmly behind us.
“I’ll show you the rest of the house, too, if you like?” he adds.
I balk internally at this, at the idea he might walk me right into a room just like Anna’s and I’ll have walked in of my own free will. But I remind myself that Aoife will be here in less than nine minutes.
“I think maybe I just lost it in the basement when I used the bathroom,” I suggest, finally looking up at him.
He studies me for a moment. “Yeah. Maybe you did,” he concedes, amused. “Why don’t we both go down and check the basement.”
My blood runs cold at his words, or perhaps the way he says them, with such kindness and vulnerability. Something has changed in the air between us but I don’t know in what way.
He leads me downstairs, then stops at the kitchen door, gesturing me to carry on downstairs alone while he goes through into the kitchen.
“I get the feeling you’d rather take a look down therealone, wouldn’t you?” he tells me. “I’ll be in here if you need me.”
I want to turn and run straight out of this house into the street and keep running. I force a frown, as if I have no idea what he is talking about.
He smiles, then leans in and kisses the end of my nose. “Go on,” he tells me, “go explore—basement, garden, my bedroom—knock yourself out. I’ll pour us some wine.”
I look past him into the kitchen; on the counter an open bottle of wine waits to be poured.
“Okay.” I smile and turn away from him, against every instinct in my body, and head down to the basement.
I know Anna’s room isn’t down there, I know that, and yet, I don’t know that. The blue dot says she is here. Fear bubbles up, unbidden, as I descend. I feel his eyes on me as I disappear from view.
It occurs to me that he might lock me down here, even if it isn’t the room; that might be his plan.
