The internal clicking got louder. There was a Geiger counter in her brain. Then she saw it. It had been hard to see the way they came in, because it was on an angle—another opening, about two and a half feet wide.

“There’s another tunnel,” she said. She shone her light down into the space.

“I’m ashamed of myself for saying this,” David said, “but we should get back up before Pix comes home or Nate seals us in.”

Stevie took just a few steps into the new branch of tunnel. On the ground in front of her was another piece of plastic. She picked it up. It was the same shiny black plastic. Garbage bag plastic, that’s what it was.

Click. Click. Click. Her mind was going faster now, showing her picture after picture. Garbage bags in the kitchen at home. Her clothes in garbage bags when she came back to Ellingham. Garbage clothes. Ellie wearing a skirt made of garbage bags at the silent party . . .

Up ahead, there was some trash on the ground. That’s what it looked like anyway from a distance. There was a subtle sheen from more garbage bag plastic, then something formless, purple . . .

She didn’t have to go any farther to know what she had found.

INTERVIEW WITH MARION NELSON

CONDUCTED IN NEW YORK CITY BY AGENT HENRY EVANS, NYC OFFICE, AND AGENT GEORGE MARSH, VERMONT FIELD OFFICE

APRIL 20, 1936

HE: Thank you for coming in to speak to us, Miss Nelson.

MN: It’s no trouble at all. None at all.

HE: You understand what has transpired? I don’t need to explain anything to you.

MN: Yes. I know. I know about it.

HE: You are the housemistress of Minerva House at Ellingham Academy, is that correct?

MN: Correct.

HE: How did you get your position?

MN: I knew Mr. Ellingham from here, from New York. I worked as a secretary at his newspaper.

HE: Directly for him?

MN: No, for the editor in chief, Max Campbell. But I got to know Mr. Ellingham from his visits to the office. He was very involved in the day-to-day.

HE: You became friends.

MN: Yes.

HE: Good friends?

MN: I . . . yes. Good friends.

AGENT MARSH: We first met when you worked at the paper.

MN: Yes, when you saved Mr. Ellingham from that bomb.

HE: And he asked you to come and be a housemistress at his new school.

MN: Yes. He wanted people at the school he knew and trusted.

GM: You’re the only person from the newspaper to come and work at the academy, Miss Nelson. Just you.

MN: Yes.

GM: Why do you think you were the only one he brought from the newspaper?

MN: I suppose . . . I was the only one with the right skills. I’m not a reporter. I was a secretary.

HE: Did you have any other position at the school? Did you teach?

MN: Biology.

HE: So you taught biology and lived at Minerva House.

MN: Yes.

HE: Miss Nelson, we’ve been going through the files on all the faculty at Ellingham Academy. None of the other faculty members had a direct connection to Albert Ellingham’s business life. Not just the newspaper. All the businesses.

MN: Yes. What of it?

HE: I understand that was not a question. Just an observation. It’s just that out of the hundreds and hundreds of people who work for Albert Ellingham, he chose you to come to the academy.

MN: And you, Mr. Marsh.

GM: I don’t work for Mr. Ellingham, Miss Nelson. I work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I was posted locally to Mr. Ellingham. But he picked you, out of everyone who works for him.

MN: Like I said, Albert—Mr. Ellingham wanted people he knew. . . .

HE: You must be close. You call him Albert?

MN: I don’t know what you’re implying.

HE: Nothing at all. I am making an observation. But I now need to ask, Miss Nelson, and I must remind you of the serious nature of the matter at hand, is your relationship with Albert Ellingham . . . more than friendly?

[Subject had no reply.]

HE: Miss Nelson, I’m not asking this to embarrass you. I’m asking because we need to understand everything that happened at the academy that night. We need information.

MN: I know you need information.

HE: So will you please answer my question?

[Subject had no reply.]

HE: Miss Nelson, when you left Ellingham Academy, you took a train back to New York with several students. Then you went to an apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue.

MN: Who told you that?

HE: It’s not important how we know. It’s important that we find out the facts. Is that correct?

MN: Yes.

HE: Who owns that apartment?

MN: The Ellingham Corporation. I don’t have an apartment of my own right now. I live at the school. Mr. Ellingham let me stay in one of his properties.

HE: And when did he tell you you could stay at one of his properties? When did he convey this to you?

MN: When . . . when he told us we had to go.

HE: Miss Nelson, do you understand that lying to a federal agent is a serious matter? I need to point out again that we need information if we are to find Iris and Alice Ellingham. Without information, there is nothing we can do. Any delay in getting that information means we are delayed in our search, and if we have false information, we go down false roads. Do you understand what I am saying?

[Subject is visibly distressed.]

MN: Oh God. Oh. How did this happen? Can we stop for a moment, please? Just a moment, please?

HE: Miss Nelson, I’m going to need you to be honest now. There is nothing to fear in being honest. We are not out to shame you or Mr. Ellingham. We just need to know. This is information that could be used against Mr. Ellingham, or you. We need to have it. Is your relationship with Albert Ellingham purely friendly?

MN: You know, you know! Why do you keep asking? Why do you keep asking what you know?

[Subject needed some time to regain composure.]

HE: How long has it been going on?

MN: Seven years.

HE: Does anyone else know? Does Mrs. Ellingham know?

MN: She doesn’t know. She’s . . . distracted.

HE: What does that mean?

MN: She’s . . . I don’t want to speak ill of her. I know how that looks, especially now. But you have to understand, she’s not like him. She’s not serious-minded. We understand each other. He can talk to me.

HE: On the night of the kidnapping, Mr. Ellingham could not be found for a period of approximately forty-five minutes, around two in the morning. He was in his office, and then, he wasn’t. Do you know anything about that missing time?

[Subject had no reply.]

GM: Take your time, Miss Nelson. We’re not looking to embarrass anyone. We just want to know what happened.

MN: We met.

GM: Where?

MN: We have a meeting place, where they’re building the gymnasium.

GM: Do you have any sense of how Mr. Ellingham got to you without being seen leaving his office, or the house?

MN: We have . . . a way.

[A photographic copy of the Truly Devious letter was presented.]

HE: Have you ever seen this letter?

MN: No.

HE: Did Albert Ellingham ever mention it to you?

MN: No.

HE: When you worked at the newspaper, did you get letters like this?

MN: We got threatening letters, of course. Someone put a bomb in Albert’s car there. We got letters, all sorts.

HE: Look at it carefully. Did you ever get anything like this at the newspaper?

MN: Nothing exactly like it. Never cut-out letters.

HE: Is there anything else that we should know about? Anything at all? Anything related to Iris or Alice?

MN: Little Alice. Oh. Albert lives for her. You don’t understand. He lives for that little girl. You’d think she was . . .

HE: Was what?

[Subject had no reply.]

HE: Was what, Miss Nelson?

MN: You’d think she was the only person in the world. That’s all. The only person in the world.

15

“DAVID,” STEVIE SAID QUIETLY. BETWEEN HER HEAVY HEARTBEAT AND the smell, she felt like she might vomit at any moment, but she had to hold it down, had to get some control over this. “Back up.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s blocked,” she said. “Just back up.”

No matter how calm she tried to keep her voice, there was a note in it that gave away the fact that something very bad was happening. He stepped around her to look to see what was in the passage.

“What the hell is . . .”

She heard him figure it out.

“Back up,” she said gently. “Back up, back up. This is how we help her.”

“Stevie . . .” There was a lightness in his voice. It was almost giddy.

“Turn around,” Stevie said, moving him back, foot by foot. “I need you to turn around.”

Now she was echoing Larry’s words to her. Turn around. Don’t look, because if you look it stays with you forever.

“We can’t leave her,” he said.

“We’re getting help. Turn. Come on.”

She had to maneuver him back into the main artery of the tunnel. Her adrenaline had taken over. Somehow, she knew how to do this, how to grab David’s hand and lead him back to the end.

When they reached the ladder, Nate was hanging over the opening, his wizard hood drooping around his neck.

“Up,” Stevie said. “Move, move.”

Nate backed up, and she and David scrambled out. When David got up, he staggered into the hallway and bent over, half gagging.

“What’s going on?” Nate said. “What’s down there?”