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 wasfacing 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.”
