I clutch my knees, my heart pounding in my chest. He means it. He’s never going to let me out of here. Ever.
Oh God…
He lifts a large brown paper shopping bag into the air and drops it into the hole. It falls beside me, making a loud enough impact that I flinch and let out a yelp.
“That’s food and drink,” he says. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back here, so you better make it last.”
And then the light goes out.
“Wait!” I cry. “Wait!”
His voice again, cutting through the blackness: “What?”
I swallow, hoping I can appeal to his sympathy one last time because threats obviously don’t do the trick. “Can you leave me the flashlight? Please?”
He’s quiet for a moment, as if considering it. Dare I hope he might say yes? I would give anything for that flashlight.
“It’s so dark down here,” I say softly, “and it’s so hard to tell what everything is. It’s driving me crazy. If you could leave me the flashlight—”
“No,” he says.
And then the trap door above my head creaks shut. And I hear the sound of the lock being turned, trapping me down here once again. I bury my face in my knees and let out a sob.
I don’t want to die down here. There’s got to be a way out.
Chapter 34
Erika
I considered keeping the kids home from school, but both of them wanted to go, and Jason said we should try to keep things as normal as we could. But Jason did stay home from work. He locked himself in the spare bedroom to work from home, even though I know he’s in the middle of an important project and has a ton of meetings. He’s trying to do all his meetings on the phone.
“You can go to work,” I tried to tell him. “Liam will be okay.”
“I think it’s better I stay home,” he insisted.
I didn’t want to admit how grateful I was that he stayed. Nothing else happened after the police stopped by last night, but the whole night I kept jerking awake after having nightmares. I couldn’t remember any of them when I woke up in the morning, but my body was covered in sweat.
I try to get my own work done, but it’s difficult. I’m supposed to be writing an article about the best local playgrounds, but my head isn’t in the game. Besides, Hannah and Liam have been too old to go to playground for years. I’d like to be nostalgic about the simpler times, but I can’t. Ever since Liam was four years old, he was a ticking time bomb.
I hope they find Olivia. That’s all I can think about. I hope she ran away. I hope they find her in some motel, tearful and wanting to come home.
What little concentration I have is broken by the doorbell ringing. When I see Jason coming down the stairs, I realize that the doorbell has been ringing for several minutes. I don’t know what’s wrong with me if I don’t notice a doorbell ringing ten feet away from me.
Jason reaches the door before me. He squints through the peephole, and his face turns pale. “Shit. It’s the police.”
Jason squares his shoulders and cracks opens the door. It’s Rivera and Murphy again. But there are more people behind them. This doesn’t seem like a good sign. When the police come with a squad of people behind them, you know you’re in trouble.
“Hello, Mr. Cass.” Rivera doesn’t bother smiling this time. “We have a warrant to search your home and your wife’s Toyota.”
I step forward. “Liam is at school.”
“We don’t need Liam right now,” she says. “But we do have a warrant for his phone.”
God only knows what’s on his phone. I don’t want to think about it. “Can you come by later for the phone?”
Jason is busy inspecting the warrant, but I’m not sure why he’s bothering. These are police officers. If they need to inspect our house, we’re not going to stop them. I only hope Liam was smart enough not to leave something behind.
My own phone starts ringing within my pocket. I pull it out and see the name of the high school. My stomach sinks. “Detective, can I take this call? It’s the school.”
She nods curtly and I swipe to answer. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Cass? It’s Principal McMillan. I’m afraid we have a situation.”
She has a situation? She should see what’s going on in my house. “What’s wrong?”
“I need you to come here as soon as possible. Liam and another student were involved in a fistfight in the hallway. They’re both in my office.”