“Fuck,” she whispered, scanning the numbers. The word OFF was written in small print under the 1 button. She pressed in the code again, then added a 1.
The keypad gave one final, long beep.
The red button turned green.
Leigh put her hand to her heart, but she was still waiting for the phone to ring. Her ears strained in the silence. All she heard was the door closing in the other room, then the turn of the lock, then heavy footsteps as Walter dragged Reggie down the hallway.
The lights came on. Leigh dropped her purse on the couch. She went to the window to close the blinds. The same two questions chased each other around her brain: What were they going to do? How was this going to end?
Walter shoved Reggie into one of the chairs. She was shocked when Walter pulled out the roll of duct tape from the back of his pants. He’d brought it from the trunk of her car, which meant that he had thought this through. Worse, he had a plan, and Leigh was the one who’d put it in his mind.
Strip him down, chain him to a chair, rip out his fingernails, pull out his teeth.
“Walter,” she said, her voice pleading with him to rethink this.
“Is that where the server is?” Walter pointed to the metal door on the back wall. The hasp lock was held closed by a black padlock that looked like something out of a military catalogue.
Leigh said, “Yes, but—”
“Get it open.” Walter wrapped tape around Reggie’s chest, binding him to the chair. He checked that the man’s wrists were still held together before going down on one knee to tape his ankles to the chair legs.
Leigh had no words. It was like watching her husband fall into madness. There was no way to stop him. All she could do was go along until he found his senses. She pulled on the padlock. The hasp held fast. The screws in the metal door and frame were Phillips head. She had a screwdriver in her emergency roadside kit. She had teased Walter when he’d put it in her trunk but now she wanted to go back in time and leave it in the garage in her building because it would be only a matter of time before he told her to go downstairs and get it.
Leigh knew if she left the two men alone in the room, she would only find one of them alive when she returned.
Walter looped more tape around Reggie’s wrists, saying, “You’re going to talk to me, motherfucker.”
Leigh checked Reggie ’s key ring. Nothing looked right. The key would be short with chunky teeth. She started to try them anyway.
Walter dragged the other chair across the room. He sat down opposite Reggie. He was so close that their knees touched. The gun was in his lap. His finger rested along the side.
He asked Reggie, “Why were you at my daughter’s school?”
Reggie said nothing. He was watching Leigh at the closet.
“Don’t look at my wife. Look at me.” Walter waited for Reggie to comply before he repeated the question. “Why were you at my daughter’s school?”
Reggie still didn’t answer.
With one hand, Walter tossed the gun into the air and caught it by the muzzle. He backhanded Reggie with the plastic handle. The blow was so hard that Reggie’s chair nearly toppled.
Leigh had clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. Blood had splattered onto her shoes. She saw bits of teeth in the carpet.
Reggie’s shoulders convulsed. He vomited down the front of his shirt. His head rolled around his neck. His face was swollen. His left eye had disappeared. His mouth hung so loose that he couldn’t keep his tongue inside.
Kidnapping. Aggravated assault. Torture.
Walter asked Leigh, “Can you get the padlock open?”
She shook her head. “Walter—”
“Hey.” Walter slapped Reggie’s head with his open palm. “Where is it, asshole? Where’s the key?”
Reggie’s eyes were rolling again. Leigh could smell the stench of his vomit.
Leigh told Walter, “He’s concussed. If you hit him again, he’ll pass out. Or worse.”
Walter looked at her, and she was shocked to find the same cold deadness that she had seen in Andrew’s eyes so many times before.
She begged, “Walter, please. Think about what we’re doing. What we’ve already done.”
Walter wouldn’t look at her again. He could only see the threat to Maddy. He raised the Glock, pointing it at Reggie’s face. “Where’s the key, asshole?”
“Walter,” Leigh said, her voice shaking. “We can back out the screws, okay? All we have to do is back out the screws. Please, baby. Just put the gun down, okay?”