She thinks she can’t let it out. It’s so bad that just knowing about it would hurt people. She thinks that once I know what she had to do to survive, I’ll look at her like she’s a different species.

‘I might,’ I say. I show her my missing thumb. ‘You see this?’

She looks. Doesn’t seem shocked, just curious. ‘What happened?’

‘A very bad guy chained me up in his basement. He was someone I’d thought I could trust. I was sure I was gonna die, and no one would ever know what had happened to me. I had to chew off my thumb to get out of the handcuffs.’

She keeps looking, examining the scar tissue.

‘I tell people it was an accident with a hedge trimmer,’ I say, ‘because I don’t want to have to deal with their feelings on top of mine.’

She turns her head away.

‘I wasn’t down there for long,’ I admit. ‘I don’t want to say that what happened to me was as bad as what happened to you. But I’m a good listener.’

Abbey takes a deep breath. ‘I didn’t really know anyone at Braithwaite,’ she begins.

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 29

A man is found shot to death inside his car.

The car is undamaged, the windows up and the doors locked, but the police find no gun inside the car. How was he shot?

At first, Abbey’s story sounds like Hope’s. A young woman, freshman year, isolated. A party. Out in the parking lot, an offer of a ride home.

But Abbey declined.

And Shannon smiled. ‘You have some spine,’ he said. ‘You’re perfect.’

Abbey was bowing her head to take the compliment when she saw the knife.

‘Give me your phone and get in the truck,’ Shannon said.

Later, she would wish she had screamed and run. He might not have chased her. If he had, he might not have caught her. He might not have used the knife. Or the wound might not have been fatal. There were so many ways she might have escaped.

But like all young people, she thought there would be more chances later. She gave him the phone and got in the truck.

He drove fast, so she couldn’t grab the handbrake or the steering wheel without risking both their lives. He drove in silence, apparently feeling no need to justify kidnapping her. When they got to his house, she felt oddly safe. She knew where he lived now. If anything bad happened to her, she would be able to lead the cops to his doorstep. Therefore, nothing bad was going to happen. This was all some kind of joke. A hazing ritual, maybe.