Edna remained on the bed, slumped against the wall with the blanket wrapped around her. “There’s nothing we can do,” she said glumly.

Evelyn was tempted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. She had to rally and soon. “Don’t say that.”

One age-spotted hand reached out from the blanket to touch the hem on her pants as if she still couldn’t believe the stains she saw were blood. “It’s true.”

“Not necessarily. When your daughter can’t get hold of you, she’ll call the police.”

“It could be a day or two before she even tries. She’s so busy. It’s not like we talk every single day.”

Evelyn refused to be defeated. “They’ll come eventually. And when they do—”

Edna wouldn’t let her finish. “They’ll ask that … that monster who hit me if he’s seen me, and he’ll say no.”

“So?” Evelyn came right back at her, trying to rile her. “That won’t be the end of it. When you don’t turn up, they’ll come back, question him more fully and get a search warrant.”

“My father was a police officer. It could take a week or longer for it to escalate to that point. Meanwhile the man you call Lyman is already making plans to take us from here. We’ll be long gone by then.”

Evelyn didn’t argue; Edna happened to be right. It wasn’t as though a child had gone missing. Edna was a mature adult. For all anyone knew, she could’ve taken a long road trip to pull herself together after her husband’s death—or gone to visit extended family in the Lower 48.

What would there be to rule that out? They’d find no signs of foul play at her house; she’d come to the ranch voluntarily. Unless someone had spotted her in the area or her car was discovered close by, the police wouldn’t have any reason to suspect this location over any other. And that wasn’t the worst of it. Edna didn’t even have a cell phone the authorities could track. When Evelyn had revealed her shock at that discovery, she’d said she preferred landlines and didn’t see any reason to adapt at this late date. As far as she was concerned, it’d be just another bill to pay.

“Regardless of how many days it’ll take, we need to hold out as long as we can,” Evelyn said to avoid agreeing or disagreeing.

Edna pulled the blanket tighter. “We’ll be dead by the time they come.”

The depression she’d suffered since her husband passed away was swallowing her whole. The difficulty of sleeping in shifts or somehow managing with only one narrow cot, one pillow and one blanket between them, wasn’t helping. Neither was the lack of any kind of consistent meals. They were hungry or thirsty almost all the time.

After acting as though he was mad at Emmett for doing such a poor job of taking care of her, Lyman had done even worse. The food, when he brought it, tasted better. Evelyn had to give him that. But he was too preoccupied and freaked out by Edna’s creating a new wrinkle in his plan to make sure he fed them regularly.