“When does you father return?”
“Next week, Wednesday.” Elizabeth’s face knotted further. “It’s not soon enough, is it, Willow? Michel was looking funny at me at dinner tonight—as if he knew something. He kept talking about dogs, and then he would smile, a mean smile. He knows I helped, I’ll bet. He’s just teasing me with it. He’s going to hurt Abernathy, isn’t he?”
Willow squeezed the small hands. “We will not let him. I have friends with me. We are going to take Abernathy away.”
“You are?” Elizabeth was immediately excited. “Maybe I can help!”
Willow shook her head firmly. “Not this time.”
“But I want to help!” Elizabeth said firmly. “Michel already knows I helped once, so I can’t be in any worse trouble! Maybe you can take me, too! I don’t want to stay here anymore!”
Willow frowned slightly. “Elizabeth, I…”
“Michel’s already said I can’t leave my room! I have to stay up here all the time until he says different. He has to know! Tomorrow is Halloween, and I don’t even get to go trick-or-treating! I practically had to beg to get permission to go to the school party tomorrow night. I even had to get Nita Coles to get her parents to call up and offer me a ride! With my dad gone, Michel wasn’t going to let me go. But I told him everyone would wonder if I wasn’t at the party because the whole school was going—so he gave in.” She was crying. “I guess going to the party doesn’t matter much now, not with Abernathy locked up again. Oh, I thought he was safe!”
Suddenly she stopped crying and her head jerked up sharply. “Willow, I know a way to get Abernathy out! If Michel’s got him locked up again in the cellar, I know how to get him out!”
Willow touched the little girl’s tear-streaked face. “How, Elizabeth?”
“The same way I got him out before—through the passageway in the wall! Michel doesn’t know about that yet! I know because I was in it again after Abernathy got away, and it wasn’t closed off or anything! And I could get a key to those cages again if I had to—I know I could!” She was excited now, her breathing rapid, her face flushed. “Willow, we could get him out tonight!”
For just an instant, Willow considered it. Then she shook her head. “No, Elizabeth, not tonight. Soon, though. And perhaps you can help. In fact, you already have. You have told me of a way to reach Abernathy. That was one reason I came to you—to see if there was a way. But we must be very careful, Elizabeth. We must not make any mistakes. Do you understand?”
Elizabeth was crestfallen, but managed a grudging nod.
Willow tried a wan smile. She had already stayed beyond her allotted time and she was growing dangerously weak from the effort. “You must not say anything about seeing me, Elizabeth. You must pretend I never came. You must act as if you know nothing about Abernathy. Can you do that?”
The little girl nodded. “I can pretend better than anyone.”
“Good.” Willow rose and started for the door, one of Elizabeth’s hands still clinging to her. She turned. “Be patient, Elizabeth. We all want Abernathy safe again. Perhaps tomorrow…”
“I love Abernathy,” Elizabeth said suddenly.
Willow turned, looked at the little girl’s face, and then hugged her close. “I do, too, Elizabeth.”
They held each other for a long time.
* * *
“Twenty-five million dollars is a lot of money, Mr. Squires,” Michel Ard Rhi was saying.
Ben smiled. “We try not to put limits on the price of our research, Mr. Ard Rhi.”
Still seated in the stuffed leather chairs, they studied each other in the silence and shadows of the study. No sound reached them from without.
“The subject of our discussion would have to be in good condition, of course,” Ben repeated. “A damaged specimen would be useless.”
The other said nothing.
“I would need to make an inspection.”
Still nothing.
“I would need assurances that Abernathy…”
“There is no Abernathy, Mr. Squires—remember?” Michel Ard Rhi said suddenly. Ben waited. “Even if there were… I would have to think about your offer.”