Ilse felt a jolt of grief, of anger. “And you just killed them? You took them back to the farm?”

“Yes. That was a masterpiece. Look, okay, let me pause. You have to at least give me that. I get the whole fear and anger thing. The confusion and the guilt. But let’s pause a moment for you to give me credit for that one.” She made a smacking sound with her lips. “A bloody masterpiece. The way you two showed up—that FBI guy. Really impressive. Following those make-believe clues I gave you two. I was truly stunned. I didn’t think you’d find it that fast.”

“You were down there… You knew we were coming.”

“I had to cut myself quick. There was another entrance behind the window. I don’t know if you saw that drape. I got there just as you guys came down the stairs. Anyway, I took a little nap on some of my friends that I’d left before. It went exactly as I’d hoped. The sympathy, the waterworks. The, puh-puh-please,” she said in a fake trembling voice. “Like puppets, all of you. Predictable.”

“You killed them to get at me?” Ilse’s heart twisted in her chest, and she let out a little sob despite herself, which only prompted a smile on Heidi’s face.

“Yes. Well. Also it was fun. But yes, I did kill them to get you. Really it’s a bit of both.” Heidi tucked her tongue inside her cheek and frowned quizzically. Ilse took that opportunity to slide an inch to the right again, moving even closer to the scissors. Then, with her sister still glancing off, she slid once more.

Heidi seemed lost in her own cleverness, prattling on. “Really, it was all quite easy. Playing with your emotions too, during those sessions, I was so close to laughing more than once. I could see you gazing off as I made up those stories. I could tell that you were thinking about Dad. Thinking about the basement. It was a riot!”

Ilse could feel the fear, but also the guilt. She could feel her face drain, wincing as if in pain. She adjusted, and then used the motion as an excuse to slide even closer to the scissors. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“Yeah, you’re sorry? Like I said, I don’t care. You can tell me while you’re choking on your own blood.”

Ilse kept her calm, kept her tone even, ignoring the comment, trying to stall… just a bit longer. “I don’t blame you for hating me. I can’t imagine what I did for three weeks after I escaped. I didn’t even know Dad was in prison. I didn’t know you all had been rescued. I really don’t remember any of it. I sometimes wondered if everyone had escaped. Or if I’d imagined it all. It took me years to even remember the basement. And only then, in bits and pieces. And by then, I couldn’t even remember where it was except that it was in the Black Forest. I don’t know the address. Even now, I don’t think I could find it.”