Page 73 of The Trap by Catherine
“Or the other girls,” he said. “Sorry—women. Because I’m the only person who can tell you what happened to them. I’m the only person who knows where they are. And you know why that is, don’t you?”
“Who are you?” she asked in a whisper.
But he was right.
She did know.
It washim.
“And if you’re thinking,” he went on, “?Well, we don’t need him; now that we know who he is, we can find them,” you’d be wrong. Dead wrong. No one will ever find them. I mean, nobody has so far, have they? And if you think I’m being overconfident, or delusional or whatever, well, fine. But do you really want to take that risk?”
“Whoareyou?” she asked again, louder now.
“What do you want, Lucy? A name? An address? A family history? Youknowwho I am. I just told you. But you knew who I was the moment you saw me here.”
Had she? Is that why she’d instantly felt so afraid? Was it about something more than a man hidden in the shadows, waiting for her out here in the dark?
“I don’t believe you,” she said, unsure if that was even true.
He sighed. “I do understand your predicament, Lucy. I do. You did just go on national television and invite every lunatic in the land to come and say hi to you. And I’m sure the nation’s utterly unhinged will be here soon. The creeps. The psychics. Maybe I’m one of them. Maybe I just got here first.Or maybe your plan worked. Maybe I’ve done exactly what you asked me to do.”
“So tell me where she is. Where they all are.”
“I want to do better than that,” he said, pointing to the passenger seat again. “I want to take you to them.”
Lucy shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Now, he looked bemused. “Is that your final answer?”
Her grip was so tight around her phone that her fingers ached and the screen was slick with her sweat. She was afraid she was about to drop it. She let go of the keys and pulled her other hand out of her pocket, so she could hold the phone with two.
“Don’t you want it all to be over, Lucy?” he said. “To finally know every last detail? Get all those answers you so desperately seek? What happened that night. If it was that night, or the next day, or later. How our paths crossed. Why I chose her.” He paused. “Where she is now. Because, you know, yousaidyou did. In that interview. I was watching. And I know it’s the truth. Obsession must be a terrible thing. Has it happened yet, Lucy? Have you started caring more about finding outwhat happenedto your sister than you doabouther?”
“Fuck off,” Lucy said through clenched teeth, hot with a sudden flare of rage.
“I will if you want me to. But we both know that that’s not what you want at all.”
What she wanted was not to be here. What she wished for was that a morning would come when she would wake up and none of this would ever have happened. What she needed was toknow,so she could start digging her way out of this hole and make her way back to the life she had been living before all of this, so she could at least start pretending that none of it had happened.
But she couldn’t do this. No.
It didn’t matter what she’d said in the interview.
She couldn’t get in this random guy’s car just because he said he’d take her to Nicki.
Couldshe?
“You want me to get in your car,” she said, taking a step away from the door, “so, what? You can take me to where you killed her and dumped her so that you can kill me and dumpmethere too? Do you seriously think I’m going to do that? Do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I’mcrazy?”
“No,” he said softly. “But I do think you’re desperate. I think you’ve hung on for as long as you possibly could, but you can’t do it any more. You can’t spend another night lying awake wondering where your sister is. If she’s alive. If she’s dead. If she suffered. If she called out for you in the last moment. If she’s buried, or dumped, or cut up into pieces. Or if she’s locked away somewhere, in the dark, waiting for you to come and save her. And I’m telling you, Lucy, you don’t need to spend one more night like that. It can all be over. You can find out. Right now.”
“Is she OK?”
He smiled briefly. “So you believe me?”
“Is she OK?”
He looked at the ground for a long moment, considering something, then exhaled hard. “Spoiler alert, Lucy: I didn’t kill your sister. But her time is running out.”
