The Burying Place

them. 'Imagine not knowing.'

Micki cursed under her breath. 'If I tell you, then I go, OK?' 'OK.'

Micki's eyes followed the light, and she pointed into the trees. 'There's a cluster of four birches there. Twenty feet north, there's an old pine by itself with a thick trunk. I carved a cross in the trunk. I thought she deserved that, you know.'

'Where did you find the toy?'

'The pine's on the edge of a clearing. Not big. I found it right in the middle. Like someone put it there special, not by accident.'

Stride whistled for Craig Hickey, who returned with Cujo on the leash. 'Follow me,' he said.

He led the way forward with Hickey following in his footsteps. Micki stayed where she was, letting them go. The four birch trees ahead of them grew from a single trunk, bending in different directions, and he knew that north lay straight ahead, based on the location of the cemetery. He went slowly. With each step, he swept the ground with the flashlight. The soft pine bed didn't keep footprints. He saw a black pile of animal scat, dried pine cones, and a rusted coffee can.

The tree was exactly where Migdalia had said, standing lonely where it had grown for years. Thick, spiny bushes hugged the pine and made a wall. As he came closer, he squatted and studied the trunk and found a tiny cross, three inches by three inches, carved into the bark with a pocket knife.

'There,' he said, pointing into the brush.

Hickey let Cujo go. The dog shot into the bushes and disappeared. Stride heard the noise of its frantic paws.

'How will we know?' he asked.

'You'll know,' Hickey said.

Stride stood next to the pine, where he could see over the crown of the brush into a small, open patch of flat land. His light captured Cujo, nose to the ground, snuffling through the litter of pine needles. The dog looked busy and excited. It ran back and forth around the clearing in a blur of brown and white fur, always making its way back to the very center and pawing at the earth. Whatever smell was coming from under the soil, the dog buried its face down to get more of it.

'Wait for it,' Hickey said.

Cujo stopped all of his movements abruptly. He sat on his haunches in the middle of the clearing and sneezed. His snout pointed toward the sky. Then, as mournfully as a wolf baying for a lost pack, the dog began to howl.

Chapter Forty-two

Kasey packed a box in the basement, where the air was damp. She wore wool socks, but she could feel the chill of the concrete floor under her feet. As she pulled books off the metal shelves, she eyed a patch of black mold that had grown into the shape of a spider on the wall. She hadn't noticed it before, and she wondered in horror if spores had been floating through the ductwork all year, infesting their lungs. She stared at the giant patch as if she expected it to mutate in front of her eyes.

When her phone vibrated in her pocket, she jumped in surprise. She answered but heard only a long stretch of silence. Then, finally, a voice whispered to her.

'Hello, Kasey.'

Her hands tightened into fists. She knew the voice. It was him.

'Did you get my message?' he said.

Instinctively, her eyes darted around the basement, but she was alone. The only movement she saw was a mouse that scampered along the ledge of the foundation and vanished into a burrow-hole in the pink insulation. She shivered.

'What do you want?' she said.

He took a long time to reply. 'You're leaving.'

'That's right.'

'But our game isn't over, Kasey.'

'Yes, it is. I'm ending it. I'm not playing any more.'

The silence stretched out. She stared at the rust stains under the wash basin and prayed he had hung up.

'It's over when I say it's over, Kasey.'

'Fuck you,' she hissed, slapping the phone shut. She knew her bravery was hollow. Seconds later, the phone buzzed again in her palm, like the whine of an insect. She wanted to let it ring, but she couldn't.

'Leave me alone,' she insisted.

'We're way beyond that. You know it. I know it. This is about you now, not me.'

'What do you want?' she repeated.

'I want you to meet me.'

'You're crazy.'

'You're talking like you have a choice, Kasey. But you don't. We both know you don't.'

She squeezed her eyes shut. Tears pushed their way under her eyelids. 'We're leaving. Tonight. We're driving away. You'll never find us.'

'I will find you. I'll find your husband, too. And your child.'

'Leave them alone!' Her voice was a strangled scream, choked and heavy.

'I'd like to. This is between you and me. But if you leave, then I have no choice. I'll have to make sure you pay, and then your family pays, until there's nothing left. You don't want that.'

'Oh, my God, why are you doing this?'

'You're the one who put yourself in the middle of my game.'

'It was an accident. I never meant for it to happen like this. I never wanted anything to do with you.' Her cheeks flushed red as she cried. 'Please.'

'You're going to meet me. Now. Fifteen minutes.'

'I won't do it.'

'Yes, you will. You'll do anything to save your family. I know you.'

Kasey said nothing. Her brain raced, and she looked for a way out, and she saw nothing but the walls.

'Fifteen minutes,' he repeated. 'Meet me where it started between us. Alone.'

'No.'

'If you're not there, I'll kill them, Kasey. In awful ways. You know I'll do it. If you're late, or I smell a cop, you can expect to come back home and find them both gone. You better hurry.'

He hung up.

Kasey put her hand flat on her chest as she hyperventilated. She saw a rusted hunter's knife on the shelf and thought about killing herself, cutting open her wrists and bleeding to death on the concrete floor. But it wouldn't save them. If she was gone, he'd still come after them. She knew it. She knew his game. Instead, she grabbed the knife and shoved it in her back pocket.

Fifteen minutes. She didn't have much time. She wiped her face and steeled her nerves. If he wanted a fight, she would give him a fight. Only one of them would end up alive, and it would be her, not him. He was right about one thing. She would do anything to save her family.

Kasey climbed the stairs out of the basement. Bruce was in the kitchen, watching her strangely.

'Did I hear you talking?' he asked.

'It was Guppo. He needs me at the crime scene out at the old dairy.'

'Why?'

She shrugged. 'He can't figure something out, and he needs my help. He knows we're leaving in the