She knew, or someone had told her—someone else who knew about her mother’s purse.

And what did that have to do with Abel Hill Lane?

Her father said they’d stopped searching when they reached that fence.

Maybe she should just get a drink. Maybe get a few. Calm her nerves. Settle her mind.

But she couldn’t stop.

She typed in Hastings and then history.

And then she started to read.

Chapter Twenty-one

Day fourteen

There is antifreeze in the cupboard. But this is not all that I assess in the kitchen with Alice. Alice and her Happy Face.

I assess many, many things. Thoughts and emotions, but mostly instincts which, as before in the woods, require the closest scrutiny.

Alice has unlocked the grate. She has set me free and it is a gift I cannot squander.

I could run for the front door, to my tools in the woods. But it’s dark and cold and I don’t know where Mick is. He could be outside in his truck, watching the camera feeds. He could be five minutes away. Ten minutes away. Days of work would be undone.

I could take this child hostage. Put a knife to her neck right in front of the camera. It is not beneath me. It is not out of my capabilities, and I don’t allow myself to think about the implications. It’s nothing personal, Alice.

There are other things, worse things. But nothing gets me the time I need to get through that fence.

I go back to what I have found here—to the antifreeze in the cupboard. I know about this from my other life when I was a science teacher. When I was a good mother. When John and I were still in love. Before we had a child that died. A child I killed.

Before life started to close its hands around my throat.

We finish eating and I clean the dishes and put a kettle of water on the stove.

“We should go to bed,” Alice says.

“Yes,” I agree. “You go ahead. I am going to make a cup of tea to bring with me.”

Alice leaves and I take a teacup from a cupboard. I bring the cup to the cupboard under the sink and pour in the antifreeze. Dolly cannot see the sink.

We go to our bedrooms. She gets ready for bed. I get ready for bed. I change in the bathroom with the door open. I take my time, though I fear it is futile.

Alice comes now to lock the grate. I don’t resist. But then she changes her mind.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” she asks.

Of course you can, sweetheart.

We close the grate but do not lock it. The key remains in the hole.

“What about your tea?” she asks. Nothing gets past her.

Alice snuggles up beside me.

“I would rather sleep now,” I whisper.