“It’s what you deserve,” Dee says. “No, it’s just a little of what you deserve, after what you’ve done.” She looks around in the dim air. Nothing else stirs between the trees. “Where is she?” Dee asks. “Tell me where she is and I will make it quick. Help you end it.” She thinks of Lulu, alone and frightened, under the big uncaring sky. She wags a finger back and forth in front of his face. His eyes follow it. “Time is running out for you,” she says. “Tick-tock.”

Ted gasps and red bubbles form at his lips. He makes a sound. It is a sob.

“So sorry for yourself,” Dee says furiously. “You didn’t have any pity to spare for her.” She stands. The world sways and grays at the edges, but she steadies herself. “I’m going to find her.” Lulu will come home to live with her. Dee will have the patience for the years of healing she will need. They will heal one another. “Die, monster,” she says and turns away, toward the sound of the waterfall, toward the day, where the sun is breaking gold through the cloud.

Behind her, a little girl’s voice whispers, “Don’t call him that.”

Dee turns, thrilling. There is no one there but her and the dying man.

“He’s not a monster,” the girl’s voice says, coming reedy and weak through Ted’s blue lips. It is the same voice that was recorded on the cassette tape. “I had to kill him—but that is between Daddy and me. You keep out of it.”

“Who are you?” Dee asks. The rushing of red wings fills her ears.

“Lauren,” the little girl says through the big man’s mouth.

“Don’t try to trick me,” Dee says firmly. It must be a hallucination, some side effect of the poison. “He took Lulu. He takes little girls.” This must be true, or everything collapses.

“He never did that,” the girl says. “We’re part of one another, he and I.”

The world tips as Dee limps toward Ted’s body. “Shhhh,” she says. “Be quiet. You’re not real.” She presses her palm over his nose and mouth. He squirms and struggles, kicking up leaves and dirt with his heels. She holds her hand fast until he goes still. It’s hard to tell through the mess but she thinks he has stopped breathing. She stands, wearier than death. The world goes gray at the edges. Her arm is shiny, blackened and swollen.