"Upsy-daisy," she said. "We're gonna go pay the little woman a visit."
Isaac stood up slowly, passing Audrey to Natalie, who was making a visible effort not to cry. Suddenly Tracy paused.
"Are they all here?" she asked, looking around suspiciously.
"Yeah," one of the men snorted.
"I'm sure someone's missing..." this remark brought on a head count.
Tracy counted a couple of times and glared at Isaac.
"One's missing!" she accused.
"Angel died." Isaac suggested as if being helpful.
Tracy paused for a moment digesting this. Then lifted the gun higher and pointed at him.
"There's nineteen here. I know there's twenty!"
"Where would he or she go with your people watching, huh?"
"I know there are secret passages in this house."
"Yes. But I repeat, you have people watching," he turned to them. "Did you see any kids sneaking into secret passages?"
"No..."
"See? Besides, didn't you ever take maths? There are nineteen kids here and Angel died. Nineteen plus one is twenty. Satisfied?"
She eyed him warily.
"I still smell a rat. But hey when your wife is nothing but a corpse, it'll have something to eat huh? Move!"
"Daddy!" Psylocke wailed.
"Don't worry Lockie, everything's going to be fine."
Isaac slowly led Tracy the long way to Babsie's room. Tracy made a black joke about walking to a funeral, but he ignored it.
He opened the door and they walked in. Too quickly for Isaac to react Tracy lifted her gun and squeezed the trigger at Babsie.
"No!" Isaac yelled.
As he lunged towards Babsie, the door behind them opened again and a voice said:
"Put down the gun slowly and reach for the sky."
Startled, the gun slipped out of her hand. One of the two officers grabbed her and put the handcuffs on her, all the while reading her rights and then leading her out. The second one walked over to Isaac how had made a rather astonishing discovery.
"It's... it's not her..."
It was the old pillows-under-the-sheets ploy. Isaac had thought it odd that her head had been covered. There was a coloured wig sticking out from underneath.
"Thank your daughter, Esme," the officer said softly. "She escaped through the secret exit - which isn't quite so secret any more - and alerted her uncle down the road. Her aunt called us while Esme and her uncle came back and moved Mrs Hanson into another passage. When they came out, we had arrived and Esme showed us the passage in."
Isaac nodded. He was shaking.
"Where is Esme?"
"Esme is outside. C'mon, let's go assure your kids everything's okay."