When the School Bell Rang at 3:15

Maya disappeared from the narrow window. A few seconds later, she came back and eased a little dark bundle through the opening.

Toby lifted his muzzle and caught it carefully in his teeth.

Maya rested her palm against the glass for one final moment. Then the faint blue glow went out, and the house was swallowed by darkness.

Toby scrambled from the window well and raced over the trimmed lawn. He nosed apart the loose fence boards and slipped through to our side.

He settled beside me, then let the wet purple velvet pouch fall onto my boots.

I reached down for it, though my fingers shook so hard that the drawstring fought me.

Sarah switched on the small light attached to her keys, cupping her hand around it so the glow stayed faint.

A USB stick lay inside with a tightly folded hardware-store receipt. I opened the paper carefully. The back was crowded with hurried blue-marker writing, each line uneven and sharp.

I leaned into the tiny pool of light and began to read.

Mark, I don't understand why you stopped coming. I thought you'd left me behind. He told my sister I was staying at a holistic clinic. He took my phone, wallet, and keys. He pulled the handles off the basement door from the inside. I haven't seen daylight in sixty days. This drive holds footage from the kitchen camera he thought he'd shut off. It shows him assaulting me before he dragged me outside that night by my hair and arm. Give it only to Detective Reynolds at the 6th Precinct. Greg golfs with the captain.

Horror tightened my throat until swallowing hurt. Maya had been kept in a lightless basement for two months.

I followed the writing lower on the receipt. The letters grew bigger there, as if her fear had taken up more room.

Mark, Greg was promoted today. He says we're going to London on Sunday and brought boxes down here. Tomorrow at nine, when the notary arrives, he plans to make me sign the house-sale papers. He says he'll leave me locked in this basement if I refuse. Once he takes me out of the country, I'll never get home. Please hurry.

I checked my phone. The screen showed 11:32 p.m.

The appointment was less than ten hours away.

I raised my eyes to Sarah, ready to say we had to go straight to the Sixth Precinct and find Reynolds.

A sudden clatter from the gate beside us cut me off. Its metal latch jerked upward, loud in the narrow alley.

Someone was opening it from the other side.

Toby growled at my feet, a deep vibration beneath the rain, his teeth showing in the dark.

The iron latch rang again, and the soaked gate creaked on its hinges.

I reacted before I could think. Grabbing Toby by the thick fur at his neck, I hauled him behind the overgrown holly. Sarah dropped into the mud beside us and snuffed out her light.

The tall cedar gate swung into the alley. It stopped only inches from the pointed leaves covering our hiding place.

Greg Vance stepped through. A dark raincoat hung over his white shirt and trousers, and he carried a heavy black flashlight.

He switched it on. Its hard beam swept across the wet pavement, passing within a few feet of us.

Toby's body stiffened beside mine. The growl in his chest seemed to gather strength.

I locked both arms around his head and held his muzzle against my chest. His soaked fur brushed my face as I silently begged him to stay quiet.

He quivered against me, every muscle wound tight beneath his coat, but he obeyed and swallowed the sound.

I peered through the wet branches while Greg directed the light toward the far end of the property. He wasn't searching for animals; he was checking the fence itself.

The flashlight stopped on the two cedar boards hanging loose from their upper nails. My heart beat so hard I feared he could hear it.

Greg moved closer and struck the boards with his shoe. They rattled against the crosspiece and fell back into their former position.

He studied the muddy ground beneath the gap, his beam lingering there for a long, unbearable moment. Then he shoved a heavy landscaping rock against the fence to keep the boards in place.

He turned away and shut the gate. The latch fell with a metallic snap, followed by the scrape of a deadbolt sliding home.

Sarah and I stayed frozen for three full minutes. Rain soaked through my jeans at the knees, but I didn't let myself move while any sound might betray us.

At last, the storm's steady patter was all that remained. I loosened my hold on Toby, but he didn't shake off the water or look away from the gate.

Greg's careful inspection of the fence left me with the chilling sense that he might know someone had crossed his perimeter.