‘I tried using a scrap of material to open the bolt from the inside, like he and Erin claimed the girl did.’
‘And?’
‘It worked.’
‘So?’
‘It took a while, and I had to use a piece of wood to pull the cloth in and form a loop, just as Erin Dixon did when I put her in the basement and asked her to demonstrate how the girl might have escaped. She told me she’d found the wood on the floor, and that the girl must have broken it off the bed. She showed me the bed, and there was a long splinter of wood missing that matched the piece in Erin’s hand.’
‘I’m waiting for a “but”.’
‘But there was blood on the floor by the bed when I let Erin out, and it was fresh.’
‘Could it have been the girl’s? She couldn’t have been gone for but an hour by then.’
‘If it was, the blood would have congealed.’
‘If it was Erin’s blood, maybe she cut herself when she was examining the wood.’
‘Maybe.’
Hayley set her shortbread down by her mug. She seemed to have lost her taste for sweetness.
‘Why would they have let her go?’
‘I don’t know. There are rumors about Harry’s business.’
‘I’ve heard. I’ve been concerned since they took that loan.’
‘The paint on his house needs a new coat, and that old truck of his might just be the only vehicle in Prosperous that’s in worse shape than yours. I didn’t have time to take a good look around his kitchen when I visited, but I saw that some groceries had been unpacked and hadn’t yet been put away. They’re buying cheap bread, generic pasta, a couple of packs of chicken joints that were about to expire but would be okay if you froze them, that kind of thing.’
‘They could have been for the girl. They weren’t going to be feeding her filet mignon.’
‘It just doesn’t sit right with me.’ He regarded her closely. ‘It sounds to me like you’re trying to defend them.’
‘I’m not defending anyone,’ said Hayley. ‘I’m trying to understand. If what you’re suggesting is true, we have a major problem on our hands. We’ll have to act, and that could cause unrest in the town. We don’t turn on our own.’
‘Not unless our own start turning on us.’
‘I still can’t figure out why they’d want to release her.’
‘Pity? Guilt?’
‘It’s not like we were asking them to kill her,’ said Hayley. ‘They just had to take care of her until we were ready. She was too thin. All this might have been avoided if Walter and Beatrix hadn’t brought us a junkie.’
‘It’s been a long time since we’ve had to find someone,’ said Morland. ‘It’s harder now. The safest way is to take the vulnerable, the lost, the ones that nobody will miss. If that means junkies and whores, then so be it.’
‘Junkies and whores may not be good enough.’
‘It’s been many years, Hayley. Some people are wondering if it might not be necessary at all.’
She fared up.
‘Who? Tell me!’ Her eyes grew sly. ‘The same ones who are whispering about my “commitment” to the town?’
He should have stepped more carefully. She heard everything, turning the details over in her mind and examining them the way a jeweler might consider gemstones before deciding which to keep and which to discard.
‘I know there are some who are starting to doubt me,’ she said.
Hayley stared at Morland, as though willing him to confess that he himself had been guilty of such thoughts, but he did not. She leaned over the table and grasped his hand. Her skin was cold, and its look and feel reminded him of the cheap chicken cuts at the Dixon house.
‘That’s why this is so important,’ she said. ‘If I’m to go, I want to leave knowing the town is secure. I want to be sure that I’ve done all that I can for it.’
She released her grip on him. She had left marks on the back on his hand, as if to remind him that she was still strong and should not be underestimated.
‘What do you suggest?’ he said.
‘We talk to the Dixons. We tell them to find us another girl, fast. And no junkie either: we want someone clean and healthy. If they come through for us, we’ll see what more the town can do to help them out if they’re in trouble.’
‘And if they don’t?’
Hayley stood and started clearing the table. She was tired of talking with him. The discussion was over.
‘Then they’re a threat to the security of the town. There’s still money in the discretionary fund, thanks to the decision not to disappear the hobo.
‘And,’ she added, ‘our friends will be grateful for the work.’