Gertie tried not to succumb to complete blind panic. She had to stay calm. Make him see reason. She couldn't keep the tears from flowing, but as long as she could keep herself from simply squeezing her eyes shut and screaming at the top of her lungs, maybe she could talk her way out of this.

Ken picked up the stepladder and walked out of sight. A moment later he walked back to where Gertie could see him.

"I wish I could stay longer," he said. "I'll be back tomorrow, though."

"Listen to me," said Gertie, keeping her voice as steady as possible. "You can't get away with this. I'll be found."

"I disagree with that."

"They can track me."

"Is that so?"

She nodded. "It's a GPS tracker."

"I didn't see one when I searched you. Are you saying that it's an implant?"

"Yes. I had it put in when I went out looking for you. They'll trace me back here. But if you let me go, I'll leave and I won't say a word, I promise."

"Really? It's too late for your dead cousin, but you won't try to save your neighbor Olivia? She's still alive." He pointed to the woman in the cage next to hers.

Kimberly's death was not a surprise and Gertie forced herself not to let it distract her. She tried to think of the proper way to answer this. "I don't know her."

"That's pretty cold-blooded."

"I just want to go home."

"If you have a tracker implant, then I guess I'll have to lop off whatever part of you has it. Is it your arm? One of your legs? What about your head? Or should I just completely dismember you to be sure?"

Gertie didn't answer. She rested her forehead against the cage and wept.

"Lucky for you, I know you're lying, so I won't have to start chopping off limbs. I'll be back tomorrow. You can have some water then. But I hope you enjoyed the chocolate cake, because that was your final meal."

She said nothing as he left.

It wasn't hopeless. When people finally realized that she'd gone missing, her picture would be on the news, and Charlene would tell the police that Gertie had been at The Shellfish Grotto before she disappeared. Their server would remember the guy she'd been with. The cops would find him, and force him to reveal where he kept his kidnapping victims.

Easy, right?

That's why she was in a basement full of corpses.

* * *

Ken felt great as he locked the door. He got her. She'd thought she was smarter than him, and he'd bested her. She was going to die a slow, agonizing death, simply because she'd tried to mess with the wrong guy. He was positively ecstatic.