Chapter 31

Just before dusk Henry drove through town one more time. He hadn't heard from Lily's mother, which meant that Lily hadn't been found, and even if she was somehow still alive, he didn't think she'd survive another night with Ethan Saltz or Robert Charnock, whatever name he was going by.

Still, he drove. There wasn't really any choice in the matter.

Earlier, after leaving the Covered Bridge Bar, he'd found the house where he thought he'd seen the car under the tarp, but maybe he'd remembered wrong, because there was only a Kia parked out front. Well, either he was wrong or someone was using the other car. It was getting dark, so he decided to take one more look at that particular house, slowing down along the street in front of the property. There were no streetlamps, but there was enough light left in the sky for Henry to see that there were now two vehicles out front. He parked, cutting the engine, then removed his snubnosed .38 revolver from the glove compartment. He got out of the car and slid the gun into his jacket pocket. When he got to the driveway he saw that one of the cars was definitely a vintage Jaguar. He removed the gun, told himself to breathe, and went to try the front door. He was scared, but the fear was more about the fate of Lily than the presence of Saltz. The door was locked.

He thought of ringing the bell or knocking but decided to look at the back of the house first. He went around the garage, along some crumbling paving stones. A motion-sensor light flicked on and Henry's heart seemed to stop for a moment. But he kept walking, turning the corner to see that one of the ground-floor windows was lit with interior light. He found the back door and tried the doorknob. It was unlocked.

Inside of the house he could hear nothing. He was in a back mudroom with open doors on either side. Peering through one door, he could make out what looked like a dining room. The other door led to a back hall. Henry took out his phone and hit the flashlight function. The first step he took down the now-illuminated hall produced a creak from the floorboard. He stopped moving, then heard a voice yell out, "Hello?"

"It's the police," he said in what he hoped was a confident voice.

"Down here," came the voice back, and he knew it was Lily.

He sped down the hallway. An open door led to a set of basement stairs, light coming from below. "Lily?" he shouted down.

"Henry, I'm down here. It's safe."

Still holding his gun in front of him, he descended into a finished basement flooded with harsh light. When he reached the bottom step, Lily said, "I'm over here."

He turned. She was sitting on a cot against the far wall. She was soaked in blood, half her face entirely coated. There was a man on the floor in front of her, also covered in blood, but he wasn't moving.

"Is he dead?" Henry said, still holding his gun.

"He is." Lily actually smiled. It looked ghoulish, that smile, something Henry would remember for the rest of his life.

He put the gun back in his jacket pocket and moved over to her, getting a better look at the man on the beige carpet. "Ethan Saltz?" he said.

"Yes. I can't believe you found us."

"He was going by the name of Robert Charnock," Henry said. "I think I found you too late."

"No," Lily said. "You were right on time." She kicked out her leg and he saw that she was chained at the ankle. "The key's not on him. I've checked. I thought I was going to starve to death down here while he rotted on the floor."

"Jesus," Henry said, more of an exhale than a word. And then he took the first real deep breath he'd taken since coming down the basement stairs, his nostrils filling with the smell of blood.

Lily, seeing Henry go pale, quickly said, "It's all okay now. Let's find the key to these cuffs and get out of here."