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“I’m working on it,” I said, as I pivoted my arms over my head. Our interaction with Nathan had sparked a wave of adrenaline, and I was determined to do it even if I had to dislocate my shoulder. When I’d managed to get my arms in front of me, I lay on my back and raised my arms above my head, just like Adrian had shown me, but without the chair.
Snap.
The cable tie flew off, and I hobbled up, holding the wall for support, found the cord and pulled it, turning the light back on. I jumped to the bench, looking for something sharp, and found a rusty pair of scissors. After a few unsuccessful hacks, I managed to slice through the cable tie that bound my ankles. Then I rushed to Cora to cut through her binds, too.
“There has to be another exit,” I said, and gazed frantically around the room.
Cora shook her head.
“There are no windows and no doors except that one.” She pointed up the wooden staircase. “It’s the only exit.”
Those stairs led to Nathan, and I wasn’t keen to see him again, but if Cora was right, and it was our only option for escape, what else could we do?
The sound of footsteps made me grab Cora and pull her back down to the concrete, landing just in time to hear the door open.
My heart thumped as the door closed and heavy footsteps approached again. We weren’t in exactly the same places we were before, but we lay still, doing our best to look like we were still tied up.
Nathan paused halfway down the staircase.
“Your boyfriends are here,” he said. “So I’d better do this quickly.”
He flicked the cigarette lighter and held it to the wooden banister. The wood was rough and unfinished, and the flame took hold of a splinter, quickly spreading to the rest of the timber.
“Goodbye, Emma,” he said as I sprung up, leaping up the stairs too late. He disappeared through the door, closing and bolting it from the outside.
47
ADRIAN
“What’s taking so long?” Xavier hissed as I worked on getting Nathan’s mom’s back door open.
“I’m out of practice,” I said, and paused so I didn’t damage my lock picking kit. “Stop rushing me.” I took a deep breath, trying to prevent my hands from shaking. This was precise work, and I needed to get it right. If I damaged my equipment or the lock mechanism itself, our only remaining option would be to break a window, which would definitely draw attention to our presence.
As it was, I didn’t think we’d been detected. We’d parked Xavier’s car around the corner, and the yard was so overgrown that it was unlikely any of the neighbors could see us through the foliage. The dirt-crusted windows gave us no visibility of the inside of the house, so all we could do was pray that nobody had noticed we were here.
Judging by the lack of sound or movement, I didn’t think anyone had.
I heard the click I’d been looking for, and the doorknob turned easily in my hand.
“Success,” I whispered, and opened the door to the messiest house I had ever seen.
And the wordmessywas an understatement.
The kitchen looked and smelled like a garbage tip. Furniture, toys, clothes, and newspapers were piled up everywhere I looked: on counters, on the floor, in doorways. There were filthy dishes heaped in the kitchen sink and so much rubbish on the counters they couldn’t be used. There was a narrow path through the mess where the floorboards had worn down from being the only part of the floor stepped on for so long.
“What the fuck?” Xavier breathed, as he picked up a hairless doll that only had one eye.
“This person’s a hoarder,” Jackson whispered. “This stuff looks old.” He picked up a weathered copy of the Yellow Pages from 1987. Beneath it was the edition from 1986.
“Do you think Emma’s here?” I asked. “Nathan wouldn’t have even been alive in 1987 — maybe he didn’t kidnap her at all?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Xavier said, and we kept moving through the rubbish in single file, the only way we could fit. There was a baseball bat in the carnage, and Jackson picked it up.
“Just in case,” he said, when I shot him a dirty look.
“No violence,” I reminded him. “We find Emma, get her out of here, and leave.”
Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t realistic. Anyone who lived in a house like this was bound to be unhinged. Which fit Nathan’s profile perfectly, based on what we knew, but as we moved through to the hallway, I began to share Jackson’s suspicion that we weren’t looking for Nathan at all. Among the piles of random household knick-knacks, I saw old makeup compacts and a stack of battered copies of theAustralian Women’s Weeklymagazine.
