Page 100 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

Which didn’t bode well for us ever being found.

“How did you get in? Is there a hidden door?”

“Yes, in the floor of the barn. If the authorities ever came by, Edgar used to cover it in straw and put a pig on the top.”

We were doomed. Even if Reed managed to locate the property, how would he ever find us in here? If we’d been right about Peter having diplomatic immunity, Wyatt wouldn’t even be able to get a search warrant to tear the place apart. Peter was the worst kind of monster—his veneer of charm and manners hid a clever, cunning madman. How long before victim number fourteen arrived? I hadn’t missed the way he stared longingly at the empty cell opposite mine.

“What happened to you?” I asked Josie, touching my hand to my neck. Peter never turned the lights off completely, just dimmed them, so I could still see Josie’s glistening wound.

“I sometimes helped out with the bottling when Edgar was shorthanded. Men would go sick. Pah! Sick. They drank too much of the goldarn product, more like. Anyhow, I was down here when Charles caught one of the no-good scoundrels stealing a barrel, and I got shot in the argument.”

“A guy shot you over a barrel of moonshine?”

“No, Charles shot me by accident. My own husband. Devastated, he was, but I forgave him before I passed. It wasn’t long after that this place got raided and shut down. Hearsay was that somebody in Edgar’s gang betrayed him.”

“Everyone got caught? What happened to Charles?”

“Oh no, they didn’t get caught. They all escaped when the men from the Bureau of Prohibition came.”

“Escaped how? Did they fight their way out?”

“No, they went through the tunnel in that room over there.” She nodded towards the door next to us, between the M and N cells. A new door with a shiny padlock, obviously installed by Peter.

“Wait. Wait! There’s a tunnel in there?” I almost sat up, but then I remembered I wasn’t supposed to be talking to a spirit. “There’s another way out?”

“Not anymore. They filled it in. I heard the shovels.”

“Dammit.”

“But they didn’t find the other ones.”

“What other ones?”

“Edgar may have been ruthless, but he wasn’t stupid. He built an escape route into each room.”

“You mean there’s a way out of here? Out of this room?”

She pointed past me, her expression glum. “In the ‘R’ cage. I suppose y’all will be leaving when Peter gets that far. Such a shame. I’ve enjoyed having company after all this time.”

I squinted into the gloom. “Are you sure? I can’t see anything but a concrete wall.”

“It’s in the bottom right-hand corner behind the commode. There’s a square that isn’t solid concrete, just a thin layer over a wood-and-cloth frame. One good kick from steel-toed boots and that thing’ll fall right out. My Charles built those hidden hatches, and they’ve stood up this whole time.”

At last, I had a faint glimmer of hope, but Peter kept the unused cells locked. What did he think we were gonna do? Break in and steal a Porta Potti?

“Wait—you said there was an escape route in every room. What about the bathroom at the other end?”

“There should be one, but I’m not sure where. That was where they kept the firewood, and I never went inside much.” She shuddered. “Spiders.”

My heart began to pound. How long until my turn to shower? Three days? Four? Each pair of girls got half an hour in there, but what if Peter decided to watch? Every night, he’d stared at me as I got ready for bed, and when I tried to change into my pyjamas under my quilt, he insisted I stand up. His creepy eyes roamed over every inch of my body. How could I ever have been attracted to him back in the Park Plaza Hotel? He obviously had money, but beneath his polished exterior, he was just a cesspool.

Never again would I judge someone by their appearance. I’d almost made that mistake with Reed, and he’d turned out to be a true gentleman, a man who cared about me and not my money or my father’s connections. What must he have thought when he got home and found me gone? First Emma, now Annie and me.

But I’d get back to him. Somehow, I’d get back to him.

CHAPTER 30 - REED

“‘WHILE THE AMBASSADOR is sorry to hear about the disappearances of three Maryland residents, he considers the evidence presented as to his staff’s involvement to be tenuous at best.’” Wyatt read from his phone screen. “‘The request for a list of embassy staff is regretfully declined, but all of us here at the embassy wish the Montgomery County Police Department the best of luck in their investigation.’ That last part’s just rubbing our faces in it.”

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