And as I enter the room she instructed me to enter, I almost wish the stairs had collapsed.
There’s only an old grey-ish sofa in the room and a baby’s cot. Streaks of dirt from where she tried to wash them cover both.
“I’m still decorating, but it’s a start,” she says proudly.
“This is no room for a baby,” I say. “I have a much nicer room at home. Take me there, please, and you can have anything you want.”
She laughs merrily. “Oh, hush now and lie down. I’ll bring you something to eat. You must be hungry.”
She turns just inside the door and smiles over her shoulder. “And give me that phone you have in your pocket.”
“My phone’s in the car,” I tell her, even though she’s right. It is actually in my pocket.
“Sneaky, sneaky liar,” she says and strides over. “I saw you showing it to that bad man Brother Cecil at the church. How is he? He looked like he’ll be dead soon.”
“Were you following me?” I ask and she laughs a girly laugh as she shrugs and nods at the same time.
She clearly had been following me and Dino today, that's how she was able to attack us so efficiently. How long has she been following me? Ever since the day she spoke to me on the bridge?
When I make no move to hand it over, she points the knife at my belly, reaches into my right pocket and pulls out my phone.
“Exactly where I said it would be,” she says, smiling wide. “Don’t try to be sneaky with me. It won’t work.”
She leaves the room, slams the door shut and locks it behind her. It’s a hardwood door, badly splintered all over but sturdy. And it opens inward so I can’t even try to kick it down.
All sorts of thoughts are racing through my head, tumbling one over the other. The panicked ones telling me I’ll never get out of this room alive are loud. They’re screaming at me that I’ve used up all my luck getting stuck in situations like this in the past and that luck has now run out.
But somehow my head is clear despite it.
It’s because I know I must stay sharp. My daughter’s life depends on it.
I must get out of this house.
But how?
I’ve already tried to talk my way out and I have to try even harder. But this woman is so insane I’m not even sure she fully understands what I’m saying to her. She’s certainly too insane to respond to reason.