Part 6 (2/2)
I scrubbed -around-the-collar into circle-of-crud territory Why was I talking to this guy? It wouldn't o ahead hatever twisted scenario he had planned for me anyway
”The truth Okay I'm innocent I didn't do the cri always came back to that damn video Nabbed by Nanny-caelist caught cavorting with the porn star off their front pages
”It's not me on that video,” I said
”Then how do you explain it?”
”The woowns I wear pajamas”
He spread his hands ”There you have it Conclusive proof of innocence”
I grabbed the shalop over my head, and worked the lather into ers across my itchy, sweaty scalp, clots of straw, hay, and various creepy crawlies worked loose and plopped into the water
I ran more hot water, stuckout ainst the warm, sudsy porcelain, determined to enjoy ould probably be ood that I would soon be returning to cold showers once a week, always keeping one eye peeled for Mona the Monobroho liked to sidle over and offer to lather up my backside That is, if this nut job didn't chop me into little pieces first
I held the shampoo bottle under the tap and filled it to the bri no atteot interested enough, heelse Get hiive hionads with the bottle of Head and Shoulders, then I'd step over his writhing body andof him as Moose ”What's your name, anyway?” I asked
”Labeck”
”Labeck So that's what-Canadian?”
Ignoring my question, he asked, ”What happened to your wrists?”
Ugly red gashes braceleted my wrists, souvenirs of the Sunnybrook Fars had happened since I'd escaped, I could barely keep track of my cuts and scrapes
”You didn't try to-”
”Slash er boiled up insexually assaulted by a sex-crazed yokel, and now Moron Nuht I'd tried to slitwire”
”Those cuts need disinfecting” Ruh his medicine cabinet, he found a bottle of first-aid spray He stepped toward the tub ”Hold out your hands”
To hell with that snatching the bottle out of his hands, I first-aideda molecule or two of the liquid onto my wrists I didn't trust antiseptic stuff Get a scrape at Taycheedah and they treated you with a caustic solution that felt like salt rubbed into an open wound
”You're not using enough antiseptic,” Labeck pointed out ”A big, tough convict like you is scared of a little sting?”
I scowled Keep it up Let's see how the little sting feels when I squirt it in your eye
Before I could consider eye squirting as an escape strategy, Labeck said, ”You're starting to get pruney Let's get you out”
Let's get you oot You can take the guy out of the tundra, but
I illing to betlout was Canadian Evidence A: the Manitoba cap I was probably one of the few Americans who knew that Manitoba was not soiveaway oot I'd spent six weeks in Montreal during junior year of college and that was how Canadians talked Oot Get oot of the warteh
He took a towel out of a cupboard It was the kind of towel men like: sheet-sized, white, no frou-frou He bent and all in one easy movement yanked the shampoo bottle out of onad-whacking plans In seconds I was all mummied up in the towel Labeck unlocked the bathroo me close, he steered me to his kitchen and shoved le eyeball toward that knife block,” he growled, ”and I tie you to that chair”
Escape tip 11:
Whiskey is the best anesthetic
I sat, too excited at the prospect of food to cause trouble Labeck opened his refrigerator, took out a frozen pizza, and popped it in thefor telltale signs of serial killer syndroical instru kitchen with lots of white appliances and a big round pedestal table possibly inherited froer ale out of the refrigerator, popped the a rush as the tiny bubbles fizzed up es and you learn to appreciate life's little pleasures I belched in a spectacularly unladylike way
”How long since you ate?” Labeck asked
I had to think ”Not counting jelly beans? Two days”
Labeck opened the fridge again, took out a round plastic container, and set it in front of ie tray, the kind supermarkets sell to people who don't have ti Broccoli, cherry tomatoes, celery, and baby carrots, served with a tiny container of dill dip The vegetables were crisp and fresh In prison we never had fresh veggies They were always out of a can, cooked to mealy mush We will serve no pea before its ti else I wolfed down like a starving hyena snatching a kill away frohast that I hadn't said thank you, but I figured that captives had no obligation to be polite to their captors
A prisoner's first duty is to escape I'd read that in a book about a World War Two prisoner of war cara tunnels on an eainst the counter and watched as I stuffed ”Don't like toht back”
He picked up an innocent-looking cherry to down his shi+rtfront He looked extrehed out loud Couldn't help it; the chortle just bubbled up, as unstoppable as a fart I tried to disguise it as a cough This ht have the desiccated remains of a dozen women stashed in his closets and I didn't want to be the thirteenth He turned and reached for sole arrote A ceramic cookie jar shaped like a pumpkin He plunked it onto the table ”Help yourself”
Oreos! Real, live Oreos, nothose decadently dark circles of crisp chocolate layered with creauy was a rule bender for sure Possibly that could work in my favor I felt a tiny flicker of hope If he'd intended to kill me, he would already have done so, wouldn't he?
No I quashed the flicker Maybe he was an eat-first-disuy
Labeck watched as I deirlfriend always took the cookie apart and licked the filling Soirlfriend That made him seeht have infuriated hi body lay beneath the floorboards Did I dare ask hierous territory I took another Oreo, recalling a survival tip I'd picked up in prison To fend off an assault, make yourself as unattractive as possible I chewed the cookie but allowed the cruri his eyes And he had a one-trackto his truth-seeking quest ”That nanny cam tape,” he said ”If it wasn't you, as it?”
I chewed on another Oreo ”I don't know nobody else could have been in our house”
”You're certain of that? Where were you when your husband was shot?”
”In our guest bedroom Asleep”
Labeck cocked an eyebrow ”You and your husband-as his naether?”