But that wasn’t all that constricted her breathing. No, that came from the absolute certainty that she recognized him. Keeping her eyes trained on his movements, she skimmed through her memory files as she tried to place where she’d seen him or how she knew him. Had he been at one of the numerous barbecues her father liked to host? Had she spotted him at one of the rare parties she and Em had crashed, the ones where college-aged boys were a dime a dozen? Her chest constricted as a wave of dizziness sent all her nerve endings rushing to the surface, heating her skin. What if her face gave her away? She’d read enough true crime books to know that being able to identify one’s assailant was the surest way to a death sentence.

Instinctively, she shrank back when he suddenly bolted up and began pacing, mumbling something about ‘Always acting without thinking it through,’ followed by knocking his knuckles against his head as if trying to jar loose some kind of solution. It took her several seconds to convince herself he hadn’t guessed what she’d been thinking.

Abruptly, he came to a halt, and his head snapped around, concentrating on something behind them before moving in that direction. There was a skin-tingling creak as a door with squeaky hinges opened. Addis couldn’t see, but she heard rustling and scraping. When he was finally back in her line of sight, he held a wickedly long knife and a length of dirty rope which he sawed in half. Mumbling and grunting, he leaned over and pressed her arms down before coiling the length of one section around her arms, securing them to her sides. Then, without any warning, the knife snaked between her wrists and ankles, slicing the tape away so he could tear it off, along with several fine hairs, before wadding it up and tossing it behind him. After repeating the process with Emerson, he stepped back, eyeing his handiwork. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and produced a clear sandwich bag containing four white pills and a half-empty bottle of water.

Squatting down so he was slightly above eye level with them, he made a simple demand. ‘Open.’

Tears blurring her vision, body quaking, Addis obeyed, gagging when the powdery pills hit her tongue.

‘Swallow.’

Addis swallowed.

Moving over to Emerson, he simply stared until her mouth fell open enough for him to place the drug inside.

Then, before Addis could process what was happening, he pulled her to her feet, slapping his hand over her mouth when she cried out. ‘Don’t,’ he warned as he nudged her forward until she stood in front of a three-by-three-foot door, behind which loomed a dark crawl space that caused cold fingers of dread to prickle along her skin.