We drove for about half an hour, then pulled off onto a dirt road. After a few more minutes, the van lurched to a stop. It all seemed sickeningly familiar. At least we hadn’t gone far enough to have reached the old mill. Not unless we’d gone twice the speed limit.

Williams went around and opened the back door. He grabbed my feet and hauled me out. Kara held my head so that it didn’t bounce along the metal floor on the way. Maybe they were setting up a good-cop, bad-cop routine.

I was surprised when I heard the passenger door close, and Callie appeared. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

“Beth! Are you all right?”

She knelt down beside me and reached for the gag.

“Callie, please get back in the van,” Williams said.

She looked up at him, clearly torn.

“She’s frightened. Why did you have to frighten her?”

God, what an innocent, I thought. She seemed to have no idea what sort of people she was involved with.

Williams was looking at her with an expression that suggested he might be thinking the same thing. It was probably the only time we’d ever be on the same page. He bent, helped her up, and walked her around the van, speaking quietly.

I took a look at my surroundings. We weren’t on a farmer’s access road, this time. I found that only marginally reassuring. Williams could have corpse piles scattered all over the Upper Midwest, for all I knew.

We seemed to have pulled into an abandoned homestead overgrown with trees and bushes. A ways to the left stood the ruins of a small house, and behind that a pile of warped wood that might once have been a shed or lean-to. Lone fence posts stuck up here and there, and the ground was littered with rusted pieces of metal. We were completely out of sight of any road. The sun was touching the line of trees on the horizon. It would be dark in less than an hour.

I heard the van door shut again, and Williams came back alone. I guessed he’d convinced Callie to hang tight in the front seat. That brought a surge of fear — Callie’s gentle presence might’ve restrained the man’s violence.

He lifted me up and set me down on a stump. Cold moisture from the wood immediately started seeping through the seat of my jeans. I cringed away from him, but he didn’t seem to notice — just looked at Kara and nodded, then backed off a little ways and sat down to watch.