The New Husband(104)

At the end of the hall was the door that led to the basement. Nina had never wandered through the house when she was there with Simon, but once he had shown her his cellar. Remarkably clean and ordered, it had stayed in her memory. She noted now how the door was tightly sealed at the top, bottom, and sides. A thought prickled at her. Daisy could be down there.

You’d have heard her barking, Nina told herself.

Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe the door is sealed so sound can’t escape. Or maybe she’s down there dead. Maybe he killed my dog.

Every fiber in her body told her to leave, to get out of that house right away, but she couldn’t go, not without checking first. She didn’t want to stay in this house a second longer, but she had to know.

Setting her hand on the brass doorknob, Nina gave it a twist. It turned in her grasp. She pulled hard to open the door. It was stiff at first, but the seal eventually gave way. She looked down the hall toward the front door, scared that Simon might appear. But the house was as empty and still as when she’d arrived.

The open cellar door revealed a steep stairwell. The room below was impenetrably dark. Not a trace of light anywhere.

She peered into the blackness, heart hammering in her chest. She was feeling around the top of the stairs for a light switch when she heard a bark.





CHAPTER 58


“Daisy?”

Her call was answered with more barking.

Nina found the light switch. A naked bulb dangling from a cord illuminated a steep, slat staircase made of unfinished wood. Dizzy with fear, Nina descended the stairs slowly, one creaky step at a time, holding on to the wood railing for balance. Her heart knocked hard enough to mask the sound of her footsteps. The farther she descended, the louder the barking became.

Get my dog and get out … get my dog and get out, she repeated to herself.

“Daisy?” Nina called her dog’s name again as if she could answer; sure, so sure it was Daisy’s bark, the way a mother knows her child’s cry. Her breath came in shaky sputters, a whistle of fear pushing past her trembling lips as she continued her descent.

Nina stepped into a dark enclosure, the light from the lone bulb unable to penetrate the space below. She peered into the blackness. Daisy’s barking was loud and to her left, somewhere in that pitch dark.

She thought she heard a noise to her right, or was that in her head? Nina froze, petrified. Closing her eyes tight, she drew in a sharp inhale. Simon was down here. He had been down here, waiting for her in the dark. He was always one step ahead. Simon—Simon the patient hunter—had hidden himself in the basement. Knowing Nina as he did, like a subject he had studied in school, a topic he’d mastered, he knew she would come, and she did just as he’d predicted, marching right into his trap. What would he do to her if he caught her here? Kill her? Dump her body in the same grave where he may have buried Allison?

She waited for another sound but only heard the desperate barking of a dog—her dog. Nina pushed aside all grim thoughts to focus on finding light.

Her fingers brushed up against a support pole, where she found a second switch that powered on bright overhead fluorescents. She turned, half expecting to see Simon, a twisted smile on his face, but instead, encountered a wide-open, nearly empty basement, as neat and devoid of possessions as the rest of the house. Taking in the room, Nina noticed a television propped up against a wall on the other side of the stairs, its snaking black cord plugged into the nearby outlet. How strange to see a television in this empty space, she thought.

She turned her head in the opposite direction, toward the barking, and there she was—Daisy, her beloved dog, crated, looking healthy as could be. The crate was large enough to allow Daisy to move about freely, and so she did, her body clanging loudly against the metal barricade in wild, uncontained excitement. Daisy could see and smell Nina. She knew what home was, and home had come to her.

Nina’s heart leaped for joy. There did not appear to be a lock on the crate; escape should be easy.

Get my dog and get out.

Nina went to the crate. She crouched down to undo the latch, and managed to get the leash out of her coat pocket without dropping her phone. Daisy broke into a frenzy of barking.

Opening the crate a crack, Nina struggled to secure the leash to Daisy’s collar. Her dog was nonstop motion, barking, yipping excitedly, and kissing any part of Nina within reach of her tongue. The moment Nina stepped away from the door, Daisy shot bullet-like out of the crate. With a burst of startling strength and speed, she dragged Nina to a wall behind the stairs. Nina resisted by tugging hard on Daisy’s leash to pull her in the opposite direction.

“Come on! Come on!” she urged.

She didn’t want to go back through that house, but there was no other way out. Again, she jerked the leash hard, but Daisy continued to resist.

Eventually, Nina got to the stairs, and up she went, surprised she had to pull Daisy, and with some force, to get her to leave.

Out! Out! Get out! The voice in her head was screaming now.

At the top of the stairs, Daisy dug in and wouldn’t budge, so Nina gave the leash another hard tug. The house was quiet and still. To her left, she could see the front door. Escape was only feet away. Her heart lifted. It was mission accomplished. She’d go straight to the police and they’d arrest Simon for dognapping. She wondered if perhaps she should get the diary, thinking the authorities would search for Allison and reopen the investigation into Emma’s death, but now wasn’t the time. She had to leave. Every part of her was urging her to go.