“Yes, it is, and not a moment too soon. Because all this is going down just as Carlotta’s walking to her car and about to take off. With the words ‘dungeon,’ ‘house,’ ‘murder,’ and ‘the girl,’ we think we have a very good reason for a second look and maybe a more intense search. Scott runs after Carlotta and we catch her just as she’s driving off. Matter of fact, she almost hit him. I can’t tell you how frenetic things were.”

“I can picture it. Marge, I’m boarding the plane now. I’ll have to turn off my cell in a few minutes.”

“I’ll speed it up. We go back into the house and poke around. At this point, we’re trying to find a trapdoor or a dummy wall or something that might indicate a hidden room. We come up empty. We check the garage. Nada. So I’m outside in the back looking around. Now mind you, this isn’t a ritzy development.”

“Got it.”

“All the houses have small properties with low cinder-block walls to divide one house from the next. And you can see into your neighbor’s yard if you look over the wall. I’m peeking into the neighbors’ yards, figuring that maybe Garth saw us coming and was hiding out in one of the houses. It’s like desperation time. Then I happen to notice that the two neighboring properties on either side of Garth’s property have cement slab patios. Garth’s patio is brick. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why would anyone bother with the upgrade out here?’ Then I take a closer look. It’s a brick patio, but there isn’t any mortar or cement, Pete. It’s just bricks laid into sand and the bricks on the right side aren’t lying so neat.”

“Oh dear.”

“Yeah, you can see where I’m going. Since Mandy mentioned something about a girl, a dungeon, and murder, we start throwing off the bricks. Underneath the patio, dug directly into the ground is a…” A pause. “Like a bomb shelter. It’s made out of cinder blocks with a trapdoor with a padlock on it. Rodney Major shoots it off the metal, we open the trapdoor, and the stench hits us immediately. It’s a fucking cesspool down there—pitch-dark and fetid. Silver has a flashlight. I take it and volunteer to go down first. I’m shaking like Jell-O. You know how I feel about dark, confined places.”

Decker knew too well. Ever since Marge had rescued a group of children from a cult that used tunnels as escape routes, she’s been claustrophobic. “Good job, Dunn.”