Page 36 of Essence of Fear

And the screams …

He wouldn’t soon forget those.

“Someone let him out of the shackles,” Pav said, cocking his head to the side as he eyed the chains and metal cuffs resting forgotten on the cement floor. They didn’t look broken or ruined at all. They simply looked as though someone had undone them. “The man watching him and the rest of them, yes?”

Konstantin cleared his throat. “Likely. Would you have released him from his confines for any reason?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I know better. Abused dogs never forget where they come from. They can pretend, and act like they’re broken and incapable, but once they’re free …” Pav trailed off with a quiet noise and shook his head. “You turn your back once, give them that chance, and I promise, they will take it every time.”

“This was only the man’s second time watching the cells.”

Pav was aware. The man was intended to watch the lower part of the Compound—Pav’s duty, normally—when Pav took his leave from the grounds. It was all a part of Konstantin’s great plan to get Pav away from these four walls and back into some semblance of a normal life. This was also why it was pointless. No one was Pav. No one but him could possibly understand how dangerous it was to watch the people being held in these cells.

“Where’s the body of the man killed?”

“Being taken to the furnace.”

“Where was he found?”

“Just outside the cell, along with a cell phone that had been used to make a call.”

Pav’s brow furrowed. “Whose phone?”

“The dead man’s.”

“Do you think he made a call—”

“I think unless he choked himself out, and then laid the phone on the back of his head after it had been said and done, then it’s probably safe to say it was the one that escaped who used the phone.”

“Do you know the number—”

“As far as we know, the call went through to a burner. We have no other information.”

Pav took a moment then to look over the cell again, and with new eyes this time. A little bit of information could go a long way. It could change one’s perspective, and the way they approached a situation.

The shackles …

The dead man just outside the cell …

A phone call …

“He planned this,” Pav said. “This was something he was waiting for, and when he finally got his chance, he took it.”

“Looks like it.”

“But why?”

That was the better question.

Konstantin shifted on his feet. Pav couldn’t see him do it, being that the man was behind him, but he could hear it. He heard everything. One’s senses were their best defense against something that might attack when a person wasn’t expecting it. Pav had become accustomed to using all his senses to protect himself, and not just one or two.

“You’re either uncomfortable, or thinking about lying,” Pav said when the silence continued on from Konstantin. “Which tells me you know something about the man I was keeping in this cell, and why he might do this. I would like to know what those things are.”

“It’s not as simple as—”