Exposed (Rosato & DiNunzio #5)(87)

Mary was remembering more and more. Bennie had helped her. They had worked together. They had figured out it was a conspiracy to kill Todd because he knew something. The men were going to kill her and Bennie because they had found them out. That was all she could remember. But it was enough.

Mary had to figure out a way to get out of here. She didn’t know where they had Bennie. She had to see if she could save herself and Bennie. She couldn’t just lie here and wait for them to kill her.

“You know what they’re going to smell like in two months, over summer? You know what they’re going to look like? Ernie, you up for that? I’m not.”

Mary heard his name. Ernie. Not-Ray was Ernie. Ray, Ernie, Mo. She wasn’t going to let them kill her or Bennie. She had to get out of here. She tried to move but it hurt too much. She had to think of another way.

“It’s a better plan, Ray. It’s easier. It’s no-risk.”

“Tell you what. We’ll talk to Mo about it when he comes.”

“Why wait? Call him off. Leave and tell him not to come up.”

“I’m not gonna do it without Mo. I’m not gonna change the plan without talking to him.”

“It’s not a change in the plan. It’s makin’ the plan. We made the plan on the fly.”

“Ernie, it’s not you and me that make the plan. It’s me and Mo that make the plan.”

“Oh really?

“Yes, really.”

“Then you’re goin’ to take her photo.”

“Fine. Give me your phone. It takes better pictures than mine.”

Mary heard footsteps coming to the door, then the door opened but there was no locking sound. So they hadn’t locked her in. Maybe there wasn’t a lock on it. It must’ve been a bedroom door. The footsteps walked right to her side, vibrating the wooden floor, and she stayed very still, terrified. These men were capable of murder. It scared her to be this close to him. She reminded herself he was only going to take her picture.

Ray pulled up her blindfold, but the blood made it stick to her eyelids. “Ugh,” he said, recoiling.

“I can’t see,” Mary said, weakly. She kept her eyes closed. She didn’t even try to open them. She was starting to get an idea. “I can’t see anything. I can’t open my eyes. Can you just wipe them? There’s so much stuff. I can’t see anything.”

“Shut up, you dumb bitch! I’m not touching you again!”

Mary heard the click of a smartphone camera, then the tread of footsteps as Ray walked to the door and shut it behind him. She blinked her eyes again and again, shifting onto her side so the blood would run out. It hurt her eyeballs to move her lids but she kept it up. She cleared her eyes enough to look around the room.

Everything was fuzzy but she could make out the outlines. There was a bed and nightstand with a lamp and an old landline phone. If she could get to the phone, she might be able to call 911.

Mary started to move.





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?”