The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
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Dedicated to the memory of Bridget Zinn (1977–2011), writer, librarian, friend, wife—a vibrant woman who could make an ordinary day into an occasion
CONTENTS
Title page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by April Henry
Copyright
CHAPTER 1
DAY 1, 4:51 P.M.
I wake up.
But wake up isn’t quite right. That implies sleeping. A bed. A pillow.
I come to.
Instead of a pillow, my right cheek is pressed against something hard, rough, and gritty. A worn wood floor.
My mouth tastes like old pennies. Blood. With my eyes still closed, I gently touch my teeth with my tongue. One of them feels loose. The inside of my mouth is shredded and sore. My head aches and there’s a faint buzzing in one ear.
And something is wrong with my left hand. The tips of my pinkie and ring finger throb with every beat of my heart. The pain is sharp and red.
Two men are talking, their voices a low murmur. Something about no one coming for me. Something about it’s too late.
I decide to keep my eyes closed. Not to move. I’m not sure I could anyway. It’s not only my tooth that feels wrong.
Footsteps move closer to me. A shoe kicks me in the ribs. Not very hard. More like a nudge. Still, I don’t allow myself to react. Through slitted eyes, I see two pairs of men’s shoes. One pair of brown boots and one pair of red-brown dress shoes that shade to black on the toes. A distant part of me thinks the color is called oxblood.
“She doesn’t know anything,” a man says. He doesn’t sound angry or even upset. It’s a simple statement of fact.
I realize he’s right. I don’t know anything. What’s wrong with me, where I am, who they are. And when I try to think about who I am, what I get is: nothing. A big gray hole. All I know for sure is that I must be in trouble.
“I need to get back to Portland and follow our leads there,” the other man says. “You need to take care of things here. Take her out back and finish her off.”
“But she’s just a kid,” the first man says. His tone is not quite so neutral now.
“A kid?” The second man’s voice hardens. “If she talks to the cops, she could get us both sent to death row. It’s either her or us. It’s that simple.” His footsteps move away from me. “Call me when you’re done.”
The other man nudges me with his foot again. A little harder this time.
Behind me, I hear a door open and close.
“Come on. Get up.” With a sigh, he leans over and grabs me under my arms. Grunting, he hauls me up from behind. His breath smells bitter, like coffee. I try to keep my body limp, but when my left hand brushes the floor, the pain in my fingers is an electric shock. My legs stiffen and he pulls me to my feet.
“That’s right,” he says, nudging me forward while still holding me up. “We’re going to take a little walk.”
Since he already knows that I’m conscious, I figure I can open my eyes halfway. We’re in what looks like a cabin, with knotty pine walls and a black wood-burning stove. Yellow stuffing spills from sliced cushions on an old plaid couch and a green high-backed chair. Books lie splayed below an emptied bookcase. Someone was obviously looking for something, but I don’t know what, and I don’t know if they found it. Past the red-and-white-checkered curtains lie nothing but fir trees.
With the guy’s arm clamped around my shoulders, I stumble past a table with four wood chairs. One of them is turned away from the table. Ropes loosely encircle the arms. A pair of bloody pliers sits on the table next to what seems like two silver-white chips mostly painted pink.
I look down at my limp left hand. Pink polish on three of the nails. The tips of the last two fingers are wet and red where nails used to be.
I think I know where I was before I ended up on the floor.
I keep every step small and shuffling so that he’s half carrying me. It’s not easy because he’s not much bigger than me, maybe five foot nine. The guy mutters under his breath, but that’s all. Maybe he doesn’t want to get to where we are going any more than I do. The back door is about twenty feet away.
Outside, a car starts up and then drives away. The only other sounds are the wind in the trees outside and the man grunting every now and then as he tries to make my body walk in a straight line.
Wherever we are, I think we’re alone. It’s just me and this guy. And once he manages to get me out the door, he’ll follow instructions.
He’ll finish me off.
Kill me.
CHAPTER 2
DAY 1, 4:54 P.M.
We keep walking toward the back door of the cabin. Except the guy holding me up is doing most of the walking. My left knee bangs into the nearest chair. I don’t lift my feet, letting my toes drag on the floor. I’m trying to buy myself some time. Trying to figure out how to save myself. My half-closed eyes flick from side to side, looking for a weapon. Looking for anything that could help me. But there’s no iron poker next to the woodstove, no knives on the counter, no old-fashioned black telephone on the wall. Just gaping drawers and emptied-out cupboards and a big mess on the floor—cookie sheets and cans and dishtowels and boxes of cereal and crackers that have been upended and shaken empty.
He has to take one hand away from me to open the door. Don’t act. Be, a voice whispers inside my head. I picture my consciousness dwindling. I let my body go limp, and slide from his grasp. It’s tough to stay slack when my fingertips hit the rough wood. The pain arcs up my arm like I just stuck my fingers in a light socket. Still, I keep tumbling loosely to the floor as if I’m completely out.
Playing dead. Hoping I won’t be dead soon. Maybe if he thinks I’m unconscious, he’ll let his guard down.
With a sigh, the man steps over me, and kicks the door open, letting in a wave of cold air. He leans down and rolls me over so that I’m face up again. It’s so hard not to stiffen, especially as every bit of me feels tender and bruised, but I bite my tongu
He can’t see my face. I wonder if that’s a mistake. It will be easier to kill me if he doesn’t have to look into my pleading eyes. Doesn’t have to see my lips tremble as I beg for my life.
My feet thump over the sill. I open my eyes again. I see a worn earthen path stretching back to the cabin, my feet in blue Nike running shoes, my legs in skinny jeans. Reddish brown stains splotch the thighs. I wonder if the blood is only from my fingers.
I let my hands, even the broken one, trail along the ground. Under my fingertips, I feel cold earth, ridged with footprints, muddy in spots. A stick about as big around as one of my fingers. And then my good hand closes on a rock, small enough to fit into my palm, rounded on one side, with one sharp edge.
If this man has a gun—which seems more than likely—the rock won’t help me much. Even David had the help of a sling when he used a stone to kill Goliath.
The going is easier now. Pine trees surround us and my heels slide over copper-colored needles. I can’t imagine this guy, who by now is breathing heavily, will drag me for miles and miles. Soon he’ll drop me, take out his more-than-likely gun, and shoot me in the head. Or the heart. Or maybe both.
I’m going to die and I don’t know why.
I don’t even know who I am.
I wonder if he’ll bother to bury me. Or maybe he’ll just leave my body for whatever lives in these woods.
No! The thought is so fierce I have to clamp my lips together to keep from shouting it. I can’t wait for him to choose what happens to me. I can’t just wait for him to kill me.
He’s dragging me past a small tree. I stick out one leg and hook my foot around the trunk. We jerk to a stop.
“Come on now.” He sighs. “Let’s not make this harder than it has to be.”
He lifts me to reposition his grip. I manage to get my feet under me. He’s so close his breath stirs the hair on the nape of my neck.
I don’t know what I’m going to do until suddenly I’m doing it. My right elbow drives back like a piston, landing square in his belly. He grunts in an explosion of air and starts to fold up. The bottom of my right fist is already swinging down to hammer his groin. And then I swing my hand up, twisting it until the back of my fist hits him square in the face. Hard. And made even harder by the rock I hold in my hand. Under my knuckles, I feel the bridge of his nose crack.
I spin around to face him. His eyes are half closed in pain. Blood runs from his nose, red as paint. His right hand reaches out to grab me. My left hand rises, bent at the wrist like the neck of a crane, and knocks his hand away. Then my hand snaps back and claws down, fingers spread, my remaining fingernails digging into his cheeks, leaving furrows that immediately fill with blood. He cries out and puts his hands to his face.
Leaving his throat unprotected. I draw back my hand, my fingers close together and bent at the second knuckle. And I drive them into his throat as hard as I can.
And then he’s lying flat on his back, not moving.
I’m not sure he’s even breathing.
All my moves were automatic. I didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to remember anything.
Whoever I am, I already know how to do this.
CHAPTER 3
DAY 1, 4:58 P.M.
The guy who was going to kill me is lying on the ground, silent and still.
Now what do I do?
My first instinct is to run.
But I’m pretty sure he has a gun. What if he wakes up? He could shoot me before I even make it back to the cabin.
I nudge his shoulder with my foot, ready to jump back if he moves. But he doesn’t. He’s a white guy, maybe thirty or a little older, slender and on the short side, with thick black hair cut very short. He’s wearing dark jeans and a black soft-shell jacket with a hood. His eyes are half open, his mouth slack.
Is he dead?
I kick him in the side about the same way he kicked me. Without a lot of conviction.
He still doesn’t move. But he’s definitely breathing.
Although it’s not exactly breathing. It’s more like gasping. Ragged and uneven.
But at least he’s not dead.
I lean over him, my heart racing. I can feel every beat in my ears, in the hollow of my throat, in my mangled fingertips. I’m so afraid he’s going to sit up and grab me.
I have to find his gun. But what if I’m wrong about what he was going to do? What if he doesn’t even have a gun? Because I think I’ve really hurt him. Maybe I didn’t understand what I heard. Maybe I didn’t understand what I saw. Maybe there is a different explanation for what was happening, and it doesn’t involve him killing me.
Maybe.
I drop the rock and pull up his jacket, cringing, still worried that he might twist around and grab me. And there it is, in a leather holster threaded through his belt. The gun seems to be made of black plastic, but it looks nothing like a toy.
I don’t want to take it. But I know I have to. So that I can shoot him if I need to. I remind myself that this is certainly what he was going to do to me.
But what if I miss? Is it loaded? Does it have a safety? With shaking hands, I slide it out. The whole time I half expect his hand to close over my wrist, but he doesn’t stir.
It’s a lot heavier than I expected. It weighs at least a couple of pounds. I check the sides and the top, but I don’t see anything that looks like a safety. I don’t really have a pocket that I can put it in. Even though it can’t be much above freezing, I’m not wearing a coat, just Nikes and jeans and a chunky red sweater with no pockets. I stick the gun down the back of my waistband and hope I don’t end up shooting myself in the butt.
I have to figure out some way to slow him down once he regains consciousness. Because despite how his breathing sounds, sooner or later he will, right? Maybe I can tie him up with his belt. With shaking fingers, I unbuckle his brown belt and start to tug it free. Even as his body rocks back and forth, he stays completely limp. I’m torn between fear that he’ll move and fear that he’ll stop breathing altogether. Finally, the belt slides free from the last loop. His gun holster falls to the ground.
Nothing changes. His body is still slack. His breathing still hitches. His eyes are still half open. It’s only now that I notice where his head landed when he fell. Right on a rock. It’s not much bigger than the one I was holding, but it’s smeared with blood.
Bitter acid fills my mouth. Did I break his skull? Is he going to die? Did I kill him?
But I had to do what I did. I had to.
And if he comes to, I have to make sure he can’t kill me. Grunting, I push him onto one side. It takes all my strength. This must be what they mean when they talk about dead weight. In his back pocket, there’s the square outline of his wallet. I pull it out and put it in my own back pocket. Then I make a loop out of the belt. One of his hands is pinned under his body and I tug it free. His breathing pauses, but he never stiffens, never even moans. I slide the loop around his wrists, tighten it, and then wind the belt to make a sort of knot. But I don’t think it will hold very long if he tries to get loose.
I push him onto his back, onto his bound hands, and hope it will at least slow him down a little. I feel something in one of his front pockets, a rectangular shape that has to be a cell phone.
Gingerly, I fish out the phone, and then a set of keys. On the ring is a flat black plastic triangle with two buttons. A fob, the kind that opens a car. I know that much. What I don’t is if I know how to drive a car. Or if there is even a car back at the cabin for me to drive.
I have a feeling I’m going to figure things out in a couple of minutes.
I sure hope the answer to both questions is yes.
CHAPTER 4
DAY 1, 5:09 P.M.
I run back to the cabin, following the path and the two faint ruts my heels left. I’m holding the gun. I just hope I can pull the trig
The cabin door is still ajar. I don’t hear or see anyone. I step across the sill. It’s as cold inside as it is out.
When I take two more steps inside, I see a face. Staring back at me.
I jerk to a stop, my heart leaping in my chest.
It’s a girl. Her mouth opens as if to sound the alarm that I am free. That I am alive. When I am supposed to be neither of these things. I scream and raise the gun, holding it with both hands.
The girl facing me does the same.
It’s a mirror, of course. A mirror with coat hooks hanging above it. One of them holds a coat that covers most of the frame. I kick through the mess on the floor, push the coat aside, and stare at myself. At me. At who I must be.
Only it’s a face I don’t recognize.
Snarled blond hair that falls to the shoulders. To my shoulders. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen? Wide blue eyes. Straight nose with a bit of a bump at the bridge. Lips that look swollen. Skin so pale that the freckles on my cheeks stand out like flecks spattered from a paintbrush. Am I always this pale, or is it from shock and blood loss? What I think is the beginning of a bruise shadows my jaw. My heart pounds in my throat and bloody fingertips. I want to throw up.
Instead, I open my lips to look at my teeth. Even and white. I slide my index finger in my mouth and touch the tooth that felt loose before, the bottom left eyetooth. It wiggles. I snatch my hand back, afraid I’ll make it fall out. I’ve already lost so much: my fingernails, my name, my identity. I don’t need to lose my tooth, too.
I peek out the red-and-white-checkered curtains next to the front door, then push one aside when I see nothing and nobody. Just an empty dark blue SUV and trees and a muddy road. I tuck the gun in my waistband then take the keys out of my pocket and press the fob. The taillights of the SUV flash, and something inside me loosens. I’ll be able to get away.
I’ve got to get help. Get to safety. Before I go, I take a quick look around for anything useful I can take with me. For any clues as to what happened here, who I am, why someone would want to kill me.