Julie was sitting up in bed, watching me. 'Good one,' she said.
That knocked me over. Good one. Julie Martine had grit. Maybe more than me at this point. I did a head roll and shrugged off the muscle cramps that come with taking a bunch of volts and crashing to the floor.
'It was lame,' I told her. 'Your father would have finished him off.'
'Do you mean Ranger? I don't know him real well.'
'He's very special.'
Julie lowered her voice. 'He's going to kill him. That's what he meant by tomorrow being a big day. Chuck says he can't be whole until Ranger is dead.'
'Who's Chuck?'
'That man. He wants me to call him Dad, but I won't do it. I call him Chuck. I don't think he even cares about you and me so much. I think it's Ranger he really wants.'
I wasn't completely surprised. It had crossed my mind that eventually Scrog would feel the need to eliminate Ranger.
'Chuck's crazy, isn't he?' Julie asked. 'He told me he's killed people. Like he was bragging about it. Has he really killed people?'
'I think he might have.'
That's so horrible,' Julie said.
'Has he treated you okay?'
'Yeah. I mean, I'm chained in here like an animal but he hasn't, you know, done anything to me. And my chain can reach to the bathroom.'
The sound of snoring carried from the other room. Murder and kidnapping obviously didn't weigh on Scrog's conscience. No tossing and turning trying to sleep. No late-night pacing.
So now what? Now you suck it up and look for a way out, I told myself. You do what Ranger told you to do. Focus on the goal. Push unproductive emotion away.
I got down on my hands and knees and looked to see how the chains were fastened. 'The bed is bolted to the floor and the chains are padlocked around the steel frame,' I told Julie.
'I know. I looked. I couldn't find a way to get free.'
I took the lantern and prowled the bedroom, looking for something that might be helpful, not finding anything.
'Tomorrow I'll look again when there's daylight,' I said to Julie.
'There's no daylight,' she said. 'He's blacked out all the windows. Half the time I don't know if it's night or day.'
'Rise and shine, ladies,' Scrog said, throwing a couple bags onto the bed. 'Breakfast is here.'
I looked in one of the bags. Twinkies, Ring Dings, Hostess pies, tiny bags of salted nuts, little boxes of raisins, candy bars. More of the same in the second bag.
'He robs conve
nience stores,' Julie said, selecting a box of raisins.
'It's an easy hit if you get there when they're opening up,' Scrog said. 'Problem is, they never have a lot of money. I need more money.'
'Where's the coffee?' I asked him.
'There's no coffee.'
'I can't get through the morning without coffee,' I told him. 'Do you have any idea how nuts I'm going to be without caffeine? I need coffee in the morning!'
Julie made a big pretense of opening a package of peanuts, but I could see she was enjoying my show.