Page 81 of Please Remember

I scan the area, and I swallow the lump in my throat. "Seven years," I whisper. "She was stuck here for seven years."

"I know."

"There are no basement windows. This is what she walked through to get away. The fucking moon was the only light she had that night."

He reaches out and squeezes my bicep. "But she made it."

"She never should have gone through this in the first place. She was so fucking close, man. We just never knew."

"I can totally believe it," Benji says, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Believe what?" Drew asks as we walk back to the group.

Sage sighs as she sits beside Allie and wraps an arm around her shoulders. "That Laura could do this."

My stomach knots. "Honestly?" I ask. "I have my doubts. I mean, she's crazy and clearly obsessed. That's not in question, but this feels crazier than even she's capable of."

"Maybe being so intimate with her clouds your judgement, dude. We all believe she's capable of this," Benji says.

Drew and Sage turn and nod their heads in the light of the flashlights we've set up as beacons for the police to find us. Allie doesn't look in my direction, and I feel like I've betrayed her in the worst way. I know the idea of me being with Laura bothers her more as she's coming to terms with all of this.

"I guess maybe I'm just struggling to comprehend that someone I was almost, possibly, kind of considering marrying would have donesomething so heinous to the only woman I've ever truly loved. Just to have me. That's batshit crazy."

"People do crazy things for love all the time," Allie says, and I hate the tone of her voice. Defeated. Traumatized. Disgusted.

The cars pull up in front of us, and Parsons steps out with an expression that lets us all know he's even angrier than normal. Probably because it's close to two in the morning now.

"You came out here, alone?" Parsons barks at us.

I'm about to tell him to watch his tone, but Allie stands and squares her shoulders. "I came through the woods at night because I needed to retrace my steps. Last time, you were more than a little off-putting, no offense, and I had to find the house. And I did."

"It was stupid to walk through the woods at night without protection," he argues, his tone a bit softer.

"Yeah, but you guys didn't come this way to look for the house," Benji points out. "And would you have climbed out of bed at one in the morning to come walk with a group of people through the woods?"

Glaring, Parsons rubs his bald head. "No, I would've told you to wait until daylight."

"That's why I had to come at night. Everything looks different in the daylight. Plus, having limited visibility made me follow my intuition. We found my Jeep," Allie says.

His face changes from annoyed to intrigued. "You did?"

"It's in the garage next to another car. I don't know whose it is, though. There was never anyone besides me here. Me and the person who fed me."

"You never mentioned a garage," Detective Shields says as she joins us.

Allie leads them to the back door and points to the woods. "I ran that way. From this angle, I can't see it. It falls into the shadow of the house."

"But you remember this?"

She nods. "I remember the back door and these steps. I remember thinking I was going to get a splinter from the rotting wood, but I don't think I did. If I did, I didn't notice. I can't see inside, but I know there's nothing in the upper level but a couple of chairs and a small table. No one lives here. It was only me."

"Parsons!" one of the cops says. "You're going to want to check this out."

Shields waits for Parsons to leave, and she smiles at us. "I never said this," she says, her voice low, "but good job."

"I had to find it," Allie says. "I kind of wish I hadn't now, though."

"The house is owned by the uncle of Daniel Tomlin. He passed away a few years ago, so it obviously wasn't the uncle," Shields says, clicking through the tablet in her hands. "It was rented eight years ago by a Natalie Gill. Do you know her?"

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