Emma goes up to the barricade sawhorses. She still hasn’t forgiven him for psychoanalyzing her earlier. “Sure. Creeping around a mental asylum in the dark—I can’t imagine a more entertaining way to spend my Sunday night.”

“It’s keeping me entertained, at least. I see you’ve brought the bloodthirsty Mr. Bell along. And—” He sits himself up. “Emma. Why did you bring my sister with you?”

“Don’t blame Emma. I lobbied to come.” Kristin walks around Bell, who seems reluctant to get closer than Pradeep’s desk, and strolls up to the barricade, pushing back Emma’s scarf. “Goodness, Simon, look at you—you’re so skinny. Don’t they feed you properly?”

“If I told you about the food here, you’d cry.”

“Poor Simon.”

It’s still jarring to see Kristin slip under the barricade and go straight up to the bars of the cell. Even more jarring to see Simon meet her there, to see them hold hands and press foreheads.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Simon whispers. “Go out again right now.”

“I can’t. The man locked the door behind us. You’re stuck with me.”

“Tonight will get scary. You know how you hate scary.”

“They’re taking us out in a minute.” Kristin cups his jaw. “And I can be brave if I get to see you again.”

Emma glances away to Bell, whose hand slides automatically to his hip as he stares at Simon and Kristin, until he remembers again that the gun isn’t there.

Simon chucks his sister under the chin. “Kristin, be a dear and have a look in that big desk over there for my pack of cigarettes? I haven’t been allowed any for days and I’m gasping.”

“Sure.” She makes an indulgent smile and meanders off toward the desk.

Emma waits until Kristin has begun her search for the cigarettes before turning back to face Simon. “Okay, let’s make this easy for everybody. Tell us who the Butcher is and we’ll get Kristin out of here as soon as possible.”

Simon’s eyes are still following Kristin. “Do you have a favorite fairy tale, Emma? I’ve always loved the old German one ‘Brother and Sister.’ Two children run away from their evil stepmother and wander lost in the woods. But the stepmother bewitches all the streams, so when the brother drinks from one, he turns into a beast.…” He tears his eyes away from his sister. “Well. It doesn’t look as if you and I will be having that slumber party after all, Emma. Such a shame. You should have walked more quietly in the hall.”

Emma isn’t here for repartee. “Simon, you said you know who the Butcher is.”

“Indeed.” Simon stretches, elbows out, a picture of indolence. “But I can’t just give you the information. You don’t need to be spoon-fed, surely. Why don’t you take a guess?”

“Simon, I could stand here all night taking guesses, but we don’t have time, your sister doesn’t—”

He looks up at the ceiling, his attention becoming an absence.

Emma digs her nails into her palms against the need to hurry. “All right—I can tell you that this… arrangement with the Butcher, it’s a game you’re playing. You’ve been playing it awhile. Tonight is the finale. But now Kristin is caught up in it.”