Page 83 of The Chain

“I tried to phone you. Do you recognize my voice?” Rachel asks.

“You’ve got Amelia,” Helen says and begins to cry.

“Where’s the kid? Henry Hogg?” Rachel asks.

“Basement.”

“With your husband?”

“We take turns to—”

Rachel glances at Pete. “Bring the husband up here. I’ll stay with this one.”

She switches on the bedroom light and points the .38 at Helen while Pete goes downstairs.

“What happened to your phone?” Rachel asks, seething. “Why isn’t it on? Why aren’t you sleeping with it under your pillow like a normal person would in this situation?”

“I, I, I don’t know. Isn’t it over there on the dresser?” Helen asks. Her face looks haggard, frightened. Her eyes are red and hollow. At least that’s something.

Rachel looks at the dresser. The phone’s dead. “You forgot to charge it,” she says.

“I—I didn’t know.”

“Sleeping while your daughter’s a hostage? What is your goddamned problem?”

“I, I was just taking a—” she begins when the bedroom door opens.

Mike Dunleavy walks in with his hands up. He doesn’t resemble his photos online or on Facebook. He looks much older, grayer, fatter, stupider. Isn’t he supposed to be some kind of smart guy with money? He looks like every dumb dad picking his kids up late from school because he forgot it was his day to get them. No wonder these clowns screwed it up. How did they ever kidnap anybody? Maybe they even lied about that.

“Is the kid in the basement?” Rachel asks Pete.

“Oh yes,” Pete says and he lets out a kind of half whistle as if to say it isn’t a pretty sight down there.

“You’re the ones that took Amelia?” Mike asks with just a trace of an English accent.

“We have her.”

“Is she OK?” Helen asks desperately.

“She’s fine. We’re looking after her.”

“Why are you here?” Mike says. “We’ve done everything you’ve asked.”

“No. You screwed up. We tried to call you, but your phone was dead and your computer was turned off,” Rachel says.

Helen is looking at her strangely now.If she says something like “I think I know who you are,” then, Jesus Christ, I’m going to have to shoot her on the spot,Rachel thinks.

“This is about the Hoggs, isn’t it?” Helen says. “They’ve done something.”

“It’s what they’re about to do,” Pete says.

“Oh God! What are they about to do?” Helen asks.

“Seamus has an uncle in the U.S. Marshals Service. And he’s going to go see him tomorrow in Stamford,” Rachel informs her.

“Wh—what does that mean?” Helen asks, appalled.

“In theory, it means you have to kill little Henry and start again or else we have to kill Amelia and start again. Simple as that. I’m not having The Chain come near me or my family. Is that understood?” Rachel snarls.