Stay calm. Work your hands. Ignore the way your head feels. Ignore the bile rising in your throat. Just stay calm and work your hands.
“He wasn’t supposed to be there on a Thursday. That part wasn’t planned. I was not happy with him, believe me.”
Damn it damn it damn it.
“I told Trey, I said, this was supposed to be between Elana and me, and nobody else. That’s why I told her to come down to the station because I was going to surprise her, and not to tell anybody because I knew we weren’t supposed to be up there, but there’s this place in the old part of the station where the light comes through those big windows and I knew she’d love it and be able to get some great shots there, you know? And she really did love it, I gotta say, I mean I totally nailed it, but then that’s not why we were there, not really, which kind of became obvious, I guess.”
Don’t listen to him, I told myself. Don’t get sucked into this. Just keep concentrating.
“So when Trey was there, I was like, you and I have a secret now, my little sweet thing. We’re in this together now.”
Work the hands. God, my head hurts so much.
“That was a long time ago, Alex. I swear, things were really getting better. I was in such a better place mentally. I’d worked it all out of my system, I think. I was even ready to forgive her for what she did to me.”
Shut up, you goddamned psychopath. Just shut the hell up.
“None of it would have happened if she wasn’t planning on leaving me. You realize that.”
It’s working, I told myself. You can move your hands a little bit more now. I was rubbing them raw, but I was making progress.
“Her family never thought I was good enough for her. Not rich enough, not successful enough. I wasn’t a County Amateur champion like her father, but that stuff isn’t supposed to matter, right? I thought me and Elana had something there. I thought we had something bulletproof.”
You’re going to get free. Then you’re going to crawl up behind him and you’re going to grab him by the neck. Even if that means sending this vehicle right off the road.
“Listen to me. I just got done telling you I’m finally ready to forgive her, and now here I go again. I guess I’ll never really be over it, huh?”
I felt the vehicle slowing down. Then turning right. I had no idea how long I had been out. Five minutes or five hours.
“You want to hear something funny? You’ll like this. We’re going to this golf club where I did a demo day in the spring. The pro there, thinks he’s a real hotshot, thinks he’s got the greatest little gem of a golf course, the best in all of Western Michigan.”
Western Michigan. A piece of information, not that it will do me any good.
“He’s got this house across the river, raised up a little bit so it’s got a little view, right? All you can really see is the water treatment plant, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him. I was just like, oh yeah, this is so nice. Anyway, he takes me out to the back of his property, down by the river. There’s a bend there and it gets kinda deep, and he actually says to me, he says, ‘You could dump a body back here, huh?’ Can you believe that? He actually said that to me.”
The vehicle was slowing down again. This time we came to a complete stop. I looked up at the hazy sunshine coming through the tinted windows. I wondered how many minutes of sunlight I had left.
No, do not think this way. You still have a shot as long as you’re breathing. As long as you’re thinking. Keep working those hands.
“He’s golfing in Scotland this week. Think he was bragging about that trip a little bit? Even six months beforehand? But now it all kinda works out, so I hope he’s having a good time.”
The vehicle turned right again, then left. Then it slowed down almost completely.
“Now, where was that turn again?”
I slowly brought my knees up toward my chest. I knew we had to be getting close. I’d be lucky to get one chance to do something. If I got that chance, could I even move?
“Ah, right here.”
He turned hard to the right, sending me sliding against the side of the minivan. I hit my head and everything went out of focus again.
I lay there for the next minute, just trying to get my head back on. Then he turned hard to the right again. He was driving slowly now. I knew I was running out of time. I gave up trying to sit up. I closed my eyes and tried to work my hands free. I was sweating, and I could feel the blood on the back of my head, running down my neck.
The vehicle left pavement. We were on gravel. I opened my eyes and looked at Paige. He was leaning forward in the driver’s seat, staring out at the road. I heard branches scratching on both sides. Then we hit a series of bumps that had me bouncing up and down. I cried out in pain, despite myself. A line of blood came trailing out from Grayson’s head.
“Sorry about that,” Paige said. “We’re almost done, I promise.”
I felt the incline. We were rumbling down one more stretch of rough road. I knew whatever came next would happen in a matter of minutes. My hands still weren’t free. I didn’t have any options left.
Except one. Maybe.
The minivan came to a stop. The driver’s side door opened. Paige got out. He closed the door. I could hear his footsteps coming around to the back. The rear door opened.
I stayed still. I kept my eyes open. I kept my mouth open. I did my absolute best impression of a man who had just breathed his last breath.
“See, it’s perfect,” he said. “The town’s right over the hill there, and yet nobody can see us here.”
Eyes staring dead ahead, looking at nothing. Not a muscle moving. Not a breath taken. I am a hunk of meat here, just like the hunk of meat lying next to me. You will look at me and realize this. Then you will let down your guard. You will pull me out of this minivan, thinking I’m nothing more than dead weight now.
Then I’ll have my only chance.
“I know they’ll find this thing eventually. I’m not an idiot, but it should be a while, I would think. By then I’ll have figured out where I need to go next.”
What did he just say? What is he going to do?
“Alex, you there?”
I felt a sharp jab on the back of my knee.
“Alex. Hey. Wake up.”
Come closer, I thought. Come see if I’m really dead.
The seconds passed. Then there was a loud thud as the tire iron landed on the floor next to me. Before I could even realize what he was doing, the rear door closed.
I heard the footsteps again. The driver’s side door opened, but he didn’t start the vehicle. Instead, he hit the gearshift, and then in the next second he was out and the door was closed. I felt the vehicle moving. It was rolling downhill. Faster and faster.
It was going into the water.
I felt the jolt as the front end hit. The momentum reclaimed the vehicle, only now the movement was smoother and even more downhill. I slid up against the back of the driver’s seat. My head slammed against it, then my shoulder, then my arms, still pinned behind me. Everything just a riot of pain as I was folded into a ball. The dead body hit me a second later, pinning me against the seat as the weight of the engine pitched everything forward. The vehicle was pointing almost straight down now, and as I looked back and up at the rear window, I saw the last of the daylight disappearing.
It wasn’t done moving. Down and down it went, impossibly deep. The pressure built in my ears and made my head pound even louder. It was getting darker. I could barely see a thing now. Then the one last interior light blinked off and it all went black.
I’m not dead yet, I thought. I have a little bit of air left. I need to gather whatever strength I have left. I need to get out of this thing and get back up to the surface. Yes, even with my goddamned arms tied behind my goddamned back.
It was time to move, no matter what it did to my head. I let out a loud yell as I moved my shoulder against the dead body. Nobody to hear you now, I thought. You might as well scream all you want.