Heidi tapped a finger to her lips. “Do you remember how we passed notes to each other in the basement? When we weren’t allowed to talk? When he threatened to cut out your tongue if you spoke again? Do you remember that?”

“Notes?” Ilse said, her voice hoarse.

“Yes, notes. Like these.” Heidi pulled out a small pile of sticky notes from her pocket. “We used to pass them back and forth between our sleeping bags. I can even remember how you used to giggle, when I would do those cartoon smiley faces. I was just trying to make you laugh. It was the only sound of joy I ever remembered. I miss that.”

Heidi trailed off for a moment, staring out the window, lost in thought it seemed.

Ilse took that moment to desperately try to twist her wrists. But she was unarmed. There were no weapons. She glanced at the desk. There, in the cup holder, next to a pen, was a pair of scissors. How could she reach them though? She slid, ever so subtly, an inch to the right. Her legs weren’t bound, mercifully. She needed to reach the scissors. A desperate goal. But what else could she do?

“See, little sister,” Heidi said, softly. “There was no killer. I just needed to raise the stakes, to get you invested and involved. To get you alone. To get you to think I was in danger. It’s really funny how people with weak consciences will put themselves in harm’s way for another, to assuage their own guilt. And so I let you do that. And you did do it. You did it to yourself. Because you wanted to be my savior; you thought little Samantha Wright was in danger. And so you tried to protect me; it’s really quite admirable. A couple of decades too late, of course. But admirable.”

Another surreptitious inch to the right. More stalling. Just a bit longer. “Those women. The ones that were killed. Did you—were you the one who—did you—” Ilse tried to keep the horror from her voice.

“Duh. I killed them. You really have to work at getting to the point, sister. For those first two sessions, I have to tell you, I wanted to yawn a couple of times. But then again, I knew I needed you to play that sympathy card. I needed you on my side. I needed to get you alone and surprised; I needed you to come to the rescue, and then, at the very end of it, I needed you to invite me in the house off hours when your guard was down.”

Heidi smirked, sticking out her chest a bit in a prideful posture.

“I see. You kill them. How?”

“Ah, that was easy. It’s not my first time, either. That was why I got in trouble back in California. Mostly there, I was playing with hookers. It was fun. But not at all the same thing. Honestly, prostitutes are already half gone anyway. It’s in the eyes.” Heidi wiggled her fingers in front of her own vision. “Kind of like their soul is vacant. It’s really quite sad. Maybe you should do something about that. Well, I guess you won’t be able to do much after tonight. I’ll write a note for Dr. Mitchell. There’s a lot of prostitutes that could use someone like him. He might be able to fix up a couple of them. They’ll be more fun to kill that way. But look, it was easy. Drove a truck. I lowered my voice. I wore a baseball cap. I’m pretty sure one of them knew I was a woman. She didn’t let on. If anything, I think it put her at ease. It’s funny what people are willing to overlook.”