The Missing Page 0,80

didn’t mince words. He was good and pissed about having a shootout in his backyard.

Darby left them and headed into the house. Chunks of plaster had been blown out of the walls. The smell of cordite was strong. She stumbled through the rooms until she found the basement door.

The steps led to a nightmarish maze of corridors with very little light. Darby called out Carol’s name as she wandered into dim and dusty rooms packed with old furniture and boxes. At the far end of the basement was a small wine cellar thick with cobwebs and reeking of mold.

Carol Cranmore wasn’t here. Nobody was.

Banville was standing in the foyer when she came up the stairs.

‘There’s no prison cell downstairs,’ Darby said. ‘Boyle must have kept Carol and the other women somewhere else.’

Holloway was in the bedroom, examining the suitcase on the floor. One of the windows had been blown apart.

‘He barricaded himself in here and then escaped through the window,’ Banville said. ‘He shot at you from the roof.’

The suitcase held a good amount of clothes and a laptop computer. The envelopes held lots of cash and several false IDs.

‘Looks like he was getting ready to do some traveling,’ Holloway said. ‘You got here just in time.’

‘I’d like to take a look at the laptop,’ Darby said. There might be something on there that can help us find Carol.’

‘Right now, you need to get that cut treated. All due respect, ma’am, you’re bleeding all over my crime scene.’

The EMT used a butterfly stitch on the split skin above her cheekbone and then gave her an ice pack to help keep the swelling down. She could barely see out of her left eye, but she refused to go to the hospital.

Darby sat alone on the back bumper of the surveillance van with the ice pack pressed against the growing lump on the side of her face and watched Holloway’s men moving through the woods.

Seeing the flashlight beams crisscrossing through the woods brought back the piercing memory of watching the police search for Melanie. She had convinced herself Mel going to be okay. Mel never came home.

Please God, please let Carol be alive. I don’t think I can live through this again.

Banville came out the front door. He sat down next to Darby.

‘One of Holloway’s men is somewhat of a computer expert. He turned on the laptop. Everything on there’s password protected, he said. We’re going to need someone who knows how to bypass the security or the files will be erased.’

‘I can call the Boston Computer Lab – they’re in a different building, so they weren’t affected by the bomb,’ Darby said. ‘They aren’t on call. It will have to wait until morning. I’d rather not wait that long.’

‘You have another idea?’

‘You could call Manning. He might have someone – and he’s close by.’

Darby shared the details of her phone conversation with Evan. Banville didn’t speak after she finished. He stared at the tops of his shoes, jingling the change in his pockets.

Holloway emerged from the woods.

‘We found a shed less than a quarter mile off the property. It’s locked up pretty tight. I’ll show you the way. It’s bumpy walking back there, so watch your step.’

The shed sat alone in a clearing, painted the same white color of the house. The large bay door was locked down with twin industrial-gauge padlocks to prevent anyone from gaining access – or from escaping. There weren’t any windows or a door.

They had to wait over half an hour for someone from the station to deliver a pair of bolt cutters.

Inside the garage area was a John Deere Gator holding dirt and a shovel. Darby borrowed a flashlight and found dried spots ofwhat could be blood on the plastic seat.

Banville poked his head around a corridor. ‘Darby.’

The narrow corridor was made of Peg-Board walls holding lawn equipment. Banville stood at the far end. He took down a bag of lime from a shelf and placed it on the floor. Cut inside the Peg-Board wall was a square with enough room to reach inside and turn a door handle.

First they had to take care of the padlock.

The secret room held two prison cells. Both were unlocked and empty.

Banville stood inside a room of gray concrete and stainless steel. No mirror or windows, just a small vent high in the ceiling. A surplus army cot was bolted to the floor. A floor drain was in the center of the room. Darby recalled the pictures of Carol