“What about Mo’s hunting buddies? They own the cabin jointly. They’re coming up when black powder season starts.”
“That’s not ’til fall.”
“So?”
“So here’s my plan. We leave now. Then we wait a month or two, then we come up and clean up the mess. Then it’s all over with. By then, Simon will get convicted. We didn’t have to kill anybody else.”
Mary was remembering more and more. Bennie had helped her. They had worked together. They had figured out it was a conspiracy to kill Todd because he knew something. The men were going to kill her and Bennie because they had found them out. That was all she could remember. But it was enough.
Mary had to figure out a way to get out of here. She didn’t know where they had Bennie. She had to see if she could save herself and Bennie. She couldn’t just lie here and wait for them to kill her.
“You know what they’re going to smell like in two months, over summer? You know what they’re going to look like? Ernie, you up for that? I’m not.”
Mary heard his name. Ernie. Not-Ray was Ernie. Ray, Ernie, Mo. She wasn’t going to let them kill her or Bennie. She had to get out of here. She tried to move but it hurt too much. She had to think of another way.
“It’s a better plan, Ray. It’s easier. It’s no-risk.”
“Tell you what. We’ll talk to Mo about it when he comes.”
“Why wait? Call him off. Leave and tell him not to come up.”
“I’m not gonna do it without Mo. I’m not gonna change the plan without talking to him.”
“It’s not a change in the plan. It’s makin’ the plan. We made the plan on the fly.”
“Ernie, it’s not you and me that make the plan. It’s me and Mo that make the plan.”
“Oh really?
“Yes, really.”
“Then you’re goin’ to take her photo.”
“Fine. Give me your phone. It takes better pictures than mine.”
Mary heard footsteps coming to the door, then the door opened but there was no locking sound. So they hadn’t locked her in. Maybe there wasn’t a lock on it. It must’ve been a bedroom door. The footsteps walked right to her side, vibrating the wooden floor, and she stayed very still, terrified. These men were capable of murder. It scared her to be this close to him. She reminded herself he was only going to take her picture.
Ray pulled up her blindfold, but the blood made it stick to her eyelids. “Ugh,” he said, recoiling.
“I can’t see,” Mary said, weakly. She kept her eyes closed. She didn’t even try to open them. She was starting to get an idea. “I can’t see anything. I can’t open my eyes. Can you just wipe them? There’s so much stuff. I can’t see anything.”
“Shut up, you dumb bitch! I’m not touching you again!”
Mary heard the click of a smartphone camera, then the tread of footsteps as Ray walked to the door and shut it behind him. She blinked her eyes again and again, shifting onto her side so the blood would run out. It hurt her eyeballs to move her lids but she kept it up. She cleared her eyes enough to look around the room.
Everything was fuzzy but she could make out the outlines. There was a bed and nightstand with a lamp and an old landline phone. If she could get to the phone, she might be able to call 911.
Mary started to move.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Bennie heard a rustling outside the smokehouse door and keys jangling, so she rolled back in place as fast as possible. Every movement hurt her ribs. She had just found the door with her feet but she had to stop. She knew it took three rolls to get back to her original position. The rustling sounded closer and closer. She prayed this wasn’t the end, that someone wasn’t coming to kill her. If it was Ernie, she had a new approach she was going to try. A last resort to save her life and Mary’s.
Bennie completed the third roll, getting herself back in place, trying to suppress the aches. It even hurt her ribs to breathe. Her front was turned away from the door. She lay in dread in the darkness, listening to the key in the lock. She was running out of options.
She’d made her way around to see if there were any other ways out, but there weren’t. The smokehouse was an eight-by-eight square, because it took about five rolls to get from either side. She’d kicked along the wall on her back and tried to suss out any weakness, but the wall felt like fieldstone under her shoes. The only weak spot was the door, which sounded like wood, but she had just started exploring it when she heard the keys jingling.
The door scraped open on the dirt floor, and there were footsteps behind her, right at her neck. She felt the cool air again at her back, which told her she was in the correct position. She curled into the fetal position involuntarily, a body memory of the beating earlier. She still ached in her ribs, which must have been broken. She tried to stay calm. “Ernie, that you?”
“I need to know your password.” It was Ernie.
“No, you don’t. I told you.” Bennie tried to regain her former bravado. It was harder since the beating.
“You asked how your partner was.”
“Yes, how is she? Tell me.” Bennie felt a bolt of fear that was impossible to suppress.
“I have somethin’ to show you.”
Bennie felt herself being rolled over, wincing with rib pain. Her blindfold was yanked up. She squinted against the sudden light from a smartphone. She could only see a shadow behind it, a hulking silhouette.
“This is how she’s doin’.” Ernie held up a smartphone photo, and Bennie gasped, horrified. Mary was lying down in a pool of her own blood, her face bloody. Her eyes were closed. She looked lifeless.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes, but she’s bleedin’ out.”
Bennie willed herself to stay calm. She told herself that head wounds could be bloody. Not all of them were fatal. Mary could survive this, but not much longer. There was so much blood on the floor. “Ernie, please, you need to get her to a doctor. You need to get her help. Can she talk? Is she sensate?”
“Sensate?”
“Can talk and think.”
“Don’t know about that.”
“Why are you showing me this?” Bennie struggled for emotional footing. She couldn’t bear to look at the picture any longer. She stole a peek at the door, directly behind him. She was facing it now. It only looked like one layer of wood and it was weathered.
“Tell me the password and I’ll get your partner to a doctor. The only chance she has is if you tell me the password.”
“How do I know you’ll do it?” Bennie glanced up at him, recognizing him now that her eyes had adjusted to the light. “So is this what you look like, Ernie?’”
Ernie pulled her blindfold down. “Tell me the password and I’ll save her life.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re going to let her die.”
“Tell me the password.”
“I’ll tell you the password, but I’m going to tell you something else first. Don’t you see what’s going on? I know Ray is here, but are you waiting for Mo? I bet you are. Let me tell you what’s going to happen when Mo gets here. They’re going to kill you.”
“Bullshit!” Ernie blurted out.
“Ernie, they’re using you. Mo is Ray’s brother-in-law. You’re the odd man out. What did they tell you is going to happen? What did they say the plan was? That you’re going to kill me and Mary, and then you’re all going to drive away? That’s not happening in a million years. You’re a loose end, just like Todd was a loose end. They’re going to kill you, Ernie.”
“You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“But before they leave, they’re going to stage the scene. They’re going to frame you for our murders the way they framed Simon for Todd’s murder. Don’t you see the pattern here?” Bennie kept talking because he didn’t stop her. “It’s Ray who makes the plan, isn’t it? He tells you what to do. He’s framing you for my murder and Mary’s. He made you take the photo of Mary, didn’t he?”
; “Wrong again. He took it.”
“Who’s camera is it? It’s your camera, isn’t it?”
Ernie didn’t answer.
“I’ll take that as a yes. The photo’s not on Snapchat, is it? Of course not. You can try to delete it but that doesn’t work. The cops will still find it. It’s in the ether now. It’s in the cloud. Nothing you delete from a cell phone is ever deleted. You know that. You’re in security.” Bennie sensed she was making headway. He hadn’t kicked her again. “Hell, it’s probably a company phone, isn’t it? Ray did that for a reason, Ernie. He’s framing you for my murder and for Mary’s. In fact, he’s tricking you into framing yourself. You’re going to be dead as soon as Mo gets here.”
“This is crazy,” Ernie said, chuckling again.
“You must have a gun. You probably have a carry permit. I bet the only gun Ray wants to use is yours. Mark my words. Even if he has a gun or Mo does, they’re not gonna use theirs to kill me or Mary. Even if there’s a hunting rifle around, they’re not gonna use that either.” Bennie ignored her rib pain. It even hurt to talk. “But your handgun, yes. So they’re going to make up some story that makes it look like we killed you trying to get away. It’s gonna be three dead bodies up here, and you’re one of them. End of story.”
“Tell me your password if you want to save your partner’s life.”
“Ernie, what I’m saying is true.” Bennie bore down, terrified at the thought of losing Mary. “They’re family. Brothers-in-law. They trust each other. They’re not gonna take a risk that you’ll break ranks. Framing you and killing you solves everything. You’re going to be dead as soon as Mo—”
“Tell me your password or I’ll go down there right now and kill your partner.”
“You said you would take her to a doctor.”
“All right, I’ll take her to a doctor.”
Bennie knew he was lying. He wasn’t going to take Mary to a doctor, but she couldn’t take the chance. She told him her password, which was BEARLY12, after her first golden retriever. “But Ernie, be smart. Take Mary to a doctor. If you get her out of here, you can save yourself. Use her as an excuse. Take her and go.”
“Just like that. What a joke.”
“It could work,” Bennie said, desperate. “Tell Ray she needs to get to a doctor, then drop her off at the nearest hospital and keep going. You’ll be free. She’ll see a doctor.”
“Why would Ray agree to that?”
“Because it fits the facts better for a staged scene.” Bennie was making it up as she went along. She hadn’t figured out that part. “If she dies wherever she is, they can’t arrange the body or move it without someone knowing. Blood spatter. Blood evidence. You know how forensics works.”
Bennie heard the sound of his footsteps, walking away. Panic rose in her throat. She couldn’t let Mary die, so horribly.
“Ernie, please! It’s the smartest move. It’s your only chance. It’s her only chance. You said you would. Ernie. Ernie!”
Bennie heard Ernie close the door and lock it, leaving her in the darkness. Tears welled in her eyes but she let the blindfold soak them up. She told herself to get her head back in the game. She couldn’t save Mary lying here.
She tried to wrench her hands apart for the umpteenth time, ignoring her aches, but the duct tape wouldn’t give. But now she knew where the door was and what it looked like. It was an old door with a bar across the middle. The lock hadn’t been embedded into the door, so it must have been a padlock outside. Not hard to break open, and her legs were strong. The noise might be a problem, but she had to try. She might be able to kick out the bottom. It would hurt like hell but adrenaline flooded her system.
She started rolling toward the door.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Mary finally caught a lucky break. She had been inching her way along the floor, fighting the pain in her head, but she’d been afraid to make noise. She’d had to stop every inch or so to make sure Ray couldn’t hear her, in the room outside the bedroom. But the last time she stopped, she noticed the sound of snoring coming from the other side of the door.
Ray had fallen asleep. The snoring was loud and deep. She started moving faster, wriggling along the floor like a snake toward the phone. Her hands were still wrapped in duct tape behind her back, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t wrench them apart. Her ankles were duct-taped too, and she couldn’t get them apart.
She writhed along the wood floor, closer and closer to the phone. There was no rug on the floor, and she inched farther and farther, slipping along. It struck her suddenly that she was sliding in her own blood.
The thought shook her to her very foundation, but she couldn’t stop. She didn’t know how long Ray would be asleep, she had to get to the phone. She might be able to knock it from the table without waking him up.
Suddenly she heard a sound outside the room and she froze, only three feet from the night table. There were footsteps on the floorboards in the other room, and she guessed Ernie had come back. She had missed her chance. She didn’t know if she’d get another one. She didn’t want to die here. She didn’t want Bennie to die here.
“Ray, get up! We need to talk.”
“Okay, relax,” Ray said, grumpy. “Did you get the password?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“What is it?”
“BEARLY12.”
“Good job. Did you have to beat it out of her?”
“No, I did what you said. I showed her the picture and told her I’d kill her partner if she didn’t tell me. It worked.”
“Nice.”
Listening, Mary felt a wave of guilt that Bennie was worried right now about whether she was alive or dead. She couldn’t imagine how horrible that picture was of her, and it must have horrified Bennie no end. It killed Mary to think they were using her to hurt Bennie. It struck Mary then that Bennie was in her family too.
“Ray, we need to talk. I want to understand the plan you’re making.”
“Hold on, let me look in the laptop. I want to see if she sent that email.”
“Fine, we can talk while you’re lookin’. I want to understand how you expect me to kill these women, exactly.”
“What do you mean?” Ray asked, sounding preoccupied.
“I mean, what’s the plan? Exactly. Shoot them? Or stab them like Todd? How am I supposed to do this?”
“Hold on. Here we go, I’m into the computer. Now all I have to do is get to the email. Let’s see. She uses Thunderbird.”
“Ray, can’t you talk while you look through her email?”
“What’s your rush? Cool your jets. Here we go. I’m in her sent email.”
“So did she send it?”
“No!” Ray shouted, triumphant. “I told you! That bitch lied to you!”
“But we don’t have wireless. Maybe it didn’t get it? Or download it? Whatever?”
“It should have been there. She lied straight out. That’s why she didn’t want to give you the password. She was bluffing.”
“Okay, whatever. I want to talk about the plan.”
Listening, Mary was starting to remember more. The email they were looking for was about evidence. It was coming back to her now. A fire at one of Todd’s accounts, that they had found out about online. Mary had wanted to tell the police. She had hoped to get it to the detective before they arrested Simon. But she had been too late. She had asked Bennie to send it, but Bennie must have forgotten. She wasn’t sure why it mattered.
Mary kept her eye on the phone, not daring to move. She prayed they didn’t come into the bedroom right now. They would see exactly what she was up to, but they sounded busy. Ernie was more agitated than before. Mary didn’t know why.
“Ernie, what do you want to know about the plan?”
“How do you want me to kill them?”
“Well, the way I see it, we’re going to do what’s quick and easy. We’re going to shoot them.”
“And why is that?”
&n
bsp; “Why not? I’m not worried about the noise, like with Todd. There’s no reason to stab them. It’s more of a mess to clean up. No one is ever gonna find these bodies. So we don’t have to be careful.”
“So whose gun are we going to use? The only ones who have guns are me and Mo.”
“We use yours.”
Ernie hesitated. “Why mine?”
“Again, why not? What’s with all the questions? What difference does it make what gun we use?”
Mary wriggled closer to the phone stand, sliding in her own blood. She tried not to think about it. Her head still hurt so much. The shouting, the stress. Her skull pounded. Her body was so weak. She couldn’t breathe. Every motion was an effort. She was two feet away from the night table.
“If it doesn’t make a difference, let’s use Mo’s.”
Ray hesitated. “Come to think of it, we can’t use his. You’re the only one with a carry permit.”
“So what difference does that make?”
“I don’t know, I was gonna figure it out with Mo. We’re going to discuss it. I don’t have all the details down yet.” Ray sounded exasperated. “It makes sense to use your gun because yours is registered and licensed. You’re the director of Security, for God’s sake.”
“So what?” Ernie raised his voice. “I thought the plan was to shoot them, bury their bodies, and cover them with lye. What difference does it make if they get killed with a registered and licensed gun?”
“What’s the big deal? Why don’t you want to use your gun?”
“What if somebody finds the bodies in the woods? They could find my bullet. The bullet could be traced to my gun. The bodies are going to decompose but the bullet never will.”
Mary shuddered at the very notion. It made her sick to her stomach to think of hers and Bennie’s bodies decomposing. She couldn’t believe that their murder was being discussed like a game plan. She had to do something. She was running out of time. She looked up to see how far the phone was away from her. She estimated a foot.
“Mo says nobody’s gonna find these bodies. He knows exactly where to bury them. Nobody comes up here.”