At first, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be looking at. Then the shadowy shapes began to resolve, taking on new meaning. The shards of wood became bones; the dead leaves became twists of dried, shredded skin. The smell of decay mushroomed. It was overpowering. I gagged.

Dead people. I had no idea how many. They were jumbled together, as if each new body had been dumped on the pile and had slowly broken down into pieces and fallen through the mass as it decayed.

“This,” Williams said slowly, “is what I do. Every one of those, I put here.”

He gave me a shove, and I fell into the pile. The remains weren’t as dried out as they’d looked. The stench was everywhere; it was like someone had soaked a wool blanket in week-old blood and stuffed it in my mouth. Things squished under me as I thrashed around in the dark, trying to get my feet and cuffed hands to work together.

I finally managed to get myself clear of the bodies. I lay there on my side, gasping and retching. Williams nudged me with his foot. I looked up at him. He was just a vague silhouette against the starlit sky. I absolutely hated him.

“Do not fuck with me, Ryder. Not again.”

He pulled me back to the van and ran my cuffs through the ring again. We drove. I lay there, shocked and exhausted. That terrible smell was in my hair and on my clothes.

I was too afraid to ask again about Justine. Justine could deal with her own problems.

It was some time before it occurred to me that he hadn’t killed me.

When Williams dragged me out of the van a second time, it was at Callie McCallister’s house. Unbelievable. I could not imagine two people who seemed less likely to hook up.

He frog-marched me up the walk. As we approached the front door, Callie opened it. At first she looked apprehensive. Then, when she recognized me, she looked frightened.

“No. No, no, no. We can’t shelter her. The order’s gone out.”

She blocked the door with her body. I expected Williams to shove her aside, but instead he stopped a respectable distance away.

“Let us in, Callie. I’ll explain.”

He spoke with the kind of gentle, soothing tone a parent would use to calm a scared kid.

Amazing. I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him, even for the purposes of manipulation.

“John, this isn’t a good choice.”

Williams said, “Callie. Trust me.”

Callie stared at him for a long while, then nodded slowly. She stood aside.

Williams only took me in as far as the foyer. Callie closed the door and edged around me, wringing her hands nervously. Williams leaned down and growled “don’t move” in my ear. Then he took Callie’s elbow and led her farther into the house for a private conversation.