The woman’s fingers closed around the edge of the trash liner.
From behind the locked bathroom door, I could see only a narrow slice of the hallway, but I knew her voice.
It was the same voice that had answered Ethan’s call while Ryan and I lay motionless beside the dinner table.
“Finally, we’ll be free.”
Now she was standing inside my house.
Ethan took two steps toward the bathroom and stopped.
The dining room was empty.
Ryan and I were no longer on the floor where he had left us.
For the first time that night, Ethan lost his perfect calm.
“What the hell?”
His footsteps came quickly toward us.
Ryan tightened his fingers around my shirt.
My phone was still connected to 911.
I had lowered the volume almost completely, but the dispatcher was there, listening.
I pressed the phone against my chest and whispered to Ryan, “Stay with me.”
Ethan grabbed the bathroom handle.
It didn’t turn.
He tried again, harder.
“Open the door.”
I said nothing.
“I know you’re in there.”
Ryan began trembling.
Ethan changed his voice instantly.
That frightened me almost more than the anger.
“Listen,” he said gently.
“Something was wrong with dinner.
You’re both sick.
I came back to help.
Open the door and let me see Ryan.”
An hour earlier, that voice might have fooled me.
Now I could hear the calculation underneath every word.
I looked down at my son.
“Don’t answer him,” I whispered.
In the kitchen, the woman still hadn’t removed the trash bag.
Ethan noticed.
“What are you waiting for?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Take it.”
Her voice was different now.
The satisfaction I had heard during the call was gone.
“Ethan…”
“Take the bag.”
He rattled the bathroom handle again.
“And give me your phone.”
Silence.
Then she said something that changed the entire room.
“No.”
Ethan turned away from our door.
I couldn’t see his face, but I heard the sudden stop of his shoes against the floor.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.”
The woman’s breathing was unsteady.
“You told me we were coming back to clean this up.
You didn’t tell me they were awake.”
“They’re not supposed to be.”
Ryan flinched at the words.
