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?”
“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.”
“What about hunters? Dogs? Somebody goes huntin’ or hikin’ with a dog in the woods and the dog finds the bodies. And before you know it, somebody calls the cops and there’s my bullet.”
“You’re worrying about nothing. This is what I’m telling you, you’re getting paranoid.”