Ilse swallowed. She wasn’t sure how to react to the switch in tone and demeanor. From rageful and furious, to cavalier and carefree. Playacting. A pretense. Just another way to regain control. But Ilse couldn’t show that she knew it. One of the worst ways to rile someone like this was to call them out on their script.

So instead, Ilse changed the subject, her voice shaking. “You saw me in a magazine?”

“A college magazine, if I remember. Purely an accident I even found it. I overhead someone saying there was an article with research on serial killer survivors. There was a photo of a man named Dr. Donovan Mitchell.”

Ilse winced now, remembering the article in question. It had been for the university’s newspaper. She hadn’t even meant to be in that photo. She’d been behind Dr. Mitchell, working on her computer, when the photographer had taken the shot.

“You recognized me? From that?”

“I’ve always had a good eye for faces. Especially faces that I spent years with, trapped, without being able to see anyone else.”

Ilse thought of the postcard of the Black Forest. The postcard of that small little town. Heidi had been taunting her, teasing.

Ilse struggled to make sense. “I don’t understand. You mentioned a barn… a red truck…”

“Bullshit. Made it all up.” Samantha grinned now, nodding. And for the first time, Ilse’s widening eyes weren’t an act.

The look of surprise clearly pleased Samantha, and she clicked her tongue. “You know what I’m going to do for you, little sister. Instead of making you fish, and look, and trouble that pretty little head of yours, how about I help you out here. I’ll tell you what’s eating at you. See, I had to throw you off. I couldn’t tell you that I was harmed in Germany. I couldn’t tell you about the basement. You’d know it was me. Though, I guess you wouldn’t. You still don’t seem to remember me. Which is really quite hurtful.”

Heidi shook her head in mock severity. Wagging a finger, she said, “I needed to get close. And so I scheduled my first meeting with Dr. Mitchell. Nice guy that. Good eyes. Of course, I didn’t give him a thing. Closed down immediately. Hinting, quite obviously, I might add, that I could only speak to a woman. I figured he’d know who you were. Since he was in that picture too. It didn’t take long for him to refer me to you. First name on the list he gave.” Heidi grinned now, her teeth forming a crescent moon in the dark.

She began to stalk back and forth again, giving a little hop skip every couple of steps, as if she were a child at play.

“Why?” Ilse said, swallowing deeply. “I don’t understand. Why do any of that?”

“Ah. I see how it might be confusing. Because, little sister. I wanted to fucking slit your throat.”

Heidi said it jokingly, playful. Skipping once more and landing with a little thump, facing the glass and looking in the direction of the lake.