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Chapter Nineteen

S CARLETT

Then

Maybe sixty days in the basement

There were ninety-eight hash marks on the wall, and the radio DJ was talking about back to school.

As I deepened a hash mark with my little stone, Della smoothed her hand over my hip, patted my bottom in an almost affectionate way. “He sees the marks. He knows what they mean.”

I stared at the cracked wall and my white scratches. How many hours had I studied the growing number of marks? “I need to remember. I need evidence.”

“Who’s ever going to see it?”

“The cops might walk these rooms one day. I want them to see.”

She edged toward me, trying to smile as if we were buddies. “He’s wired the house to explode. There’s dynamite in clusters all over the house.”

I rolled on my side toward Della and stared into her resolute expression. “When did he do this?”

“He’s been working on it since the Other Girl left.”

“Why?”

“He’d rather we all die together. He doesn’t want to go to prison and worries about it more and more.”

I turned back to the wall and deepened the hash mark. Maybe some of this would survive. They found things that dated back ten thousand years. Why couldn’t some of my marks withstand an explosion?

Della laid her hand gently on my arm. “You want this to be remembered, and all I want to do is forget it and move on.”

“He’s not going to let either one of us move on. One day we’ll be gone, too,” I said, more to myself. “If he did it to the Other Girl, he’ll do it to us.” In my gut, I’d known that day was coming. There were even moments when I welcomed it.

“I’m getting out of here alive.”

“He likes you,” I said. “I can tell. If anyone can escape, it’ll be you.”

“Make him like you and we’ll escape together.”

I burrowed deeper into the hash mark. “I’ll try.”

“I knew you were smart.”