Page 118 of Spooked

THE ASSISTANT

Dinner was served via a revolving bucket built into the wall of the stable. The guard placed a pre-packaged sandwich and a bottle of water into the contraption, and when he closed it, the food appeared on my side. Presumably, that was how they used to feed the horses, which was understandable because who would want to enter an enclosed space with one of those creatures? Dogs were more my thing. I’d always wanted a puppy—a small one—but my parents hated animals, and after I moved out, I’d always been too busy working to care for a pet.

The guard clomped away, and I was left staring at my meagre rations. I felt sick, but I heard Brax’s voice in my head, telling me I needed to eat to keep up my strength. And he was right. I wasn’t certain how the rescue would work, but if I needed to run anywhere, I couldn’t afford to stumble. There was a chill in the air, and I wrapped the blanket around me before I settled onto the mattress in the corner. The only other thing in my makeshift prison was a porta-potty. At least I’d been given a toilet roll. They hadn’t taken that final shred of dignity away from me, although some antibacterial wipes would have been nice.

Reluctantly, I took a bite of the cheese sandwich. The bread was dry, but the cheese tasted surprisingly flavoursome.

“Hey.”

The whisper came from behind me, soft, almost too soft to hear. The guard was watching a video on his phone at the other end of the barn, his mind elsewhere. A sitcom? I could make out canned laughter, which meant it was safe to speak quietly.

I dropped the remains of the sandwich back into the package and inched the mattress away from the wall. There was a tiny hole in the old wood where a knot had fallen out, and when I squinted through it, I found a green eye staring back at me. I couldn’t see much of the girl’s face, but I didn’t recognise her from Amber Road.

“Hey.”

“I’m Elsa. Elsa McKinley Henderson. Please remember my name. Please.”

She spoke with an American accent, and her voice was tinged with desperation.

“Elsa McKinley Henderson. I won’t forget.”

“What’s your name?”

Hell, which one should I use? My real name with its bad memories? Or Indali Vale, the name I wished were mine? No, I had to stick with the cover story.

“Indira. Indira Adams.”

“Indira Adams,” she repeated back. “I need to give you the other names.”

“What other names?”

“The other girls. The ones who were here before. We don’t know where they go, but nobody’s rescued us, so they’re not being set free. We pass the names on so there’s a record…” Elsa gulped back tears. “In case… In case anyone ever manages to escape.”

If only I could tell her that rescue was coming.

“I’ll memorise them.”

“I think… I think some have been lost. There are so many.”

“I won’t forget. We’ll be okay, I promise.”

But what she said next sent my mind into a tailspin.

“How? How will we be okay? He’ll come for you soon. I…I didn’t know whether to warn you or not, but I wished someone would have told me.”

“Who? Who will come for me?”

“The boss. They call him Cass.”

“The man who was here earlier?”

“Yes.”

He’d said he would see me tonight. “Where will he take me? Do you know?”

And, more importantly, would Jerry’s team be able to follow? What if he locked me in a basement? Would they be able to pick up the tracker signal if I was underground?

“To the house. Don’t fight him. Just don’t fight him because if he snaps, you’ll be stuck here like me. Or maybe that’s a good thing?” She gave a hiccupping sob that quickly cut off as if she’d covered her mouth. “Nobody knows where they go afterward.”

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