by LENA DIAZ,
“Miss Brighton... Kaylee, we need to go.”
A shiver went through her body as she stared at the truck’s front bumper. And that was when Zack realized his blunder. In his rush to get to the airport and convince Kaylee to hop on the next plane to Miami, he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he’d be taking her back with him.
In the same truck that he’d hit her with when she’d run from her abductor.
He silently cursed himself for being such an idiot. He could practically see her thoughts flashing across her expressive face. She was valiantly trying to gather her courage, stiffening her spine.
“Kaylee.” He kept his voice low, gentle. “It’s just a truck, okay? I promise it’s safe. And I’m so, so sorry that I didn’t think to bring a different vehicle. If you want, I can have Deputy Holder drive it back and we can take a cab.” He turned to do just that, wave down a cab, but her soft, warm fingers curled around his forearm.
“No, wait.” Her hand tightened on his arm. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s just a truck.” She gave him a brave smile that was barely above a grimace. “I’ll be okay. Let’s go.”
He was determined to get a cab but she moved past him and hopped up into the passenger seat. Since the TSA agent was striding toward them again and Zack knew he wouldn’t get off easy this time, he closed the door then hurriedly got into the driver’s side. He squealed the tires pulling away from the curb, leaving a very angry agent behind on the sidewalk, with his hands on his hips.
Beside him, Kaylee sat stiff and silent. He wished he could think of something to make her feel better, but they weren’t that far from their destination. So he figured the best thing to do now was just bite the bullet and get there as quickly as he could.
A few minutes later he was heading north on Airport Pulling Road. And a few minutes after that he slowed and put his blinker on to signal his turn onto Mercantile Avenue.
Kaylee sat up straighter in her seat, her brows crinkling. “Wait, why are you turning? The sign to I-75 says to continue north on this road.”
“We’re not going to the interstate.” He made the turn.
She jerked her head toward him. “Isn’t that where you’re searching for Mary? Off Alligator Alley?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand. Where are we going?”
“Here.” He turned into the parking lot in front of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
* * *
THERE WERE 2,304 little one-inch squares in the grid pattern in the safety glass on the conference room wall opposite from where Kaylee was sitting. At least, if her math skills were right, and 48 squares up times 48 squares across equaled what she thought it did. In the middle of all that glass was the round seal of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, with red, blue and green arrows displaying the words “Community, Safety, Service.”
Looking away from the glass, she leaned back in her chair and studied the yellowing ceiling above her. Counting the acoustic tiles had been a little more difficult than counting the grid pattern in the glass window because the room was L-shaped. The short leg of the L was at the far end. It boasted a vending machine with all kinds of chips and candy, and two rows of expired “healthy” energy bars. Apparently, the cops preferred the chips, because they hadn’t been allowed to expire.
There was also a narrow cabinet and countertop beside the machine, with a coffeemaker and microwave. If her assumption was correct that the ceiling tiles in the little L each constituted one-third of a full tile, then overall there were 105 tiles.
She shoved back from the table and contemplated the swirls in the carpet. There was probably a pattern there, too, hidden amongst the coffee stains and dark impressions where many a booted foot had probably shuffled restlessly under the table, waiting for another boring meeting to end. Of course, none of their meetings could be as boring as hers—a meeting for one—while she waited for Zack to return from wherever he’d gone.
In spite of her protests, he’d escorted her through the lobby of the sheriff’s office, down a long tan hallway filled with crayon drawings on the wall, probably from one of the neighborhood elementary schools, and into the conference room.
And then he’d left.
That was—she looked at her watch—forty-five minutes ago. She ran a finger over the tiny diamonds that marched around the delicate gold face. This watch was a replacement for the original one that her parents had gifted her on her sixteenth birthday: the watch the devil had taken from her the day he’d abducted her.
She shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms. Was Zack punishing her for pulling him off the search? He hadn’t seemed the type to be so petty, especially when a woman’s life hung in the balance.
The sound of footsteps coming down the long hallway outside the conference room had her focusing on the large glass opening in the opposite wall. A moment later Zack walked past it and opened the door.
“You tricked me,” she immediately accused, even as she noticed that his hair was wet and that he’d undergone an amazing transformation since picking her up at the airport. He was clean, wearing clean clothes. Even in her current state of mind, she could appreciate how handsome he was, and how wonderful he smelled. But that didn’t make her any less annoyed at him. “You were supposed to take me to the search site.”
He rounded the table and stopped beside her, his hand on the back of her chair.
“I never said I’d take you there.” His voice was tight, his expression grim.
Something was definitely wrong.
“What happened?” she asked, her earlier annoyance gone. “Zack? Tell me.”
He pulled out the chair beside her as more footsteps sounded out in the hallway. The door opened and two men in suits stepped into the room, men she recognized as Lieutenant Shlafer and Detective Larson. A third man came in behind them, but instead of a suit, he wore dark blue pants and a white lab coat.
Zack sat beside her and gave her a sympathetic look.
The suits moved out of the way, letting the man in the lab coat stand front and center. He was holding a clipboard with a sheaf of papers on it. But it was the embroidered words above the right breast pocket on his lab coat that had Kaylee’s stomach twisting into a cold, hard knot.
Medical Examiner.
Her gaze flew to Zack. “No. Please. Tell me she’s not...” She choked on the words, unable to finish her sentence.
He took her hands in his. “I’m so sorry, Kaylee. They found her while we were at the airport. The ME just finished the confirmation. Mary Watkins is dead.”
Chapter Eight
Kaylee collapsed against Zack, her hands fisting in his shirt as she sobbed out her sorrow. He wished he could have softened the blow, eased into telling her about Mary. He hadn’t expected Lieutenant Drew Shlafer to bring the ME with him into the conference room. He frowned his displeasure at Drew over the top of Kaylee’s head.
“Sorry,” Drew mouthed silently, looking embarrassed. Zack’s anger drained out of him. He knew that Drew was a good man, and a good boss, at least according to Cole, who actually worked for him. Drew hadn’t meant any harm. None of them had. And Zack really couldn’t fault them. They were all doing their jobs.
With an investigation that had stalled, they were excited to have Kaylee back, anxious to finally get answers to the questions they’d never been able to ask when she’d been recovering at the hospital. Plus, with at least one more woman’s life possibly on the line—assuming that Sue Ellen Fullerton’s disappearance was linked to Mary’s and Kaylee’s—it was understandable that everyone was moving forward at warp speed and not taking the time they might otherwise have taken.
“It’s all my fault,” Kaylee whispered brokenly against his chest. “It’s all my fault.”
“Shhh, it’s okay. And it’s not your fault.” R
unning one hand over her dark, silky hair while he lightly stroked her back, he motioned with his chin toward the door. “Guys, give us a few minutes.”
Drew ushered the others out. But he paused in the doorway, a worried frown creasing his brow. “We should have handled that better.” He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else.
Zack let out an aggravated breath. He knew what the other man was waiting for. “I’ll call you when she’s ready to talk.”
Relief flashed in the lieutenant’s eyes. He closed the door, his dress shoes echoing in the hallway as he headed back to the squad room and his office beyond that.
When Kaylee quit shaking and quieted against him, Zack gently pulled her back, his hands on her shoulders. He looked down into her dark, red-rimmed eyes.
“Can I get you something? Water? A soda?”
She shook her head. “No.” She cleared her throat and straightened in her chair. The devastated look on her face gave way to the same grim determination that he’d seen in the airport.
“I’m sorry I soaked your shirt. I’m not usually like this.” She laughed bitterly. “Until the past few months, I couldn’t have told you the last time that I’d cried. And now I seem to cry all the time. It’s ridiculous.”
He held out his right hand, palm up, and waited.
She blinked in surprise then put her hand in his.
He linked their fingers together and rested their joined hands on the top of his thigh. “You’ve been through hell. And still you came back to help with the investigation. That’s more than most people would have done. So don’t be so hard on yourself. You can cry on me anytime you want.” He smiled and was rewarded with her hesitant smile in return, her fingers tightening on his in a soft squeeze before she pulled her hand back.
“Thank you. Again,” she said. “You’ve been so nice to me this whole time. I... I know I’ve clung to you, literally and figuratively. I don’t mean to be such a pain. It’s just that... I trust you. Being around you makes me, well, it makes me feel safe, calms me down.” She grimaced. “Usually.” She ran a shaky hand through her shoulder-length hair, pushing it out of her face and behind her ears. “I should have come back earlier, to help find Mary in time.”
“Nothing you could have done would have saved her.”
Her eyes flashed with a hint of anger, but it seemed self-directed. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes. I do. I didn’t expect the lieutenant to bring the medical examiner in here with him. I apologize for that. But everyone was in a hurry to talk to you. And the ME was probably just as anxious as the others to reassure you that you couldn’t have saved Mary. Although he’s not finished with the autopsy, he did determine time of death. She was killed right around the time that I hit you with my truck, give or take a few hours either way. So you see, there was nothing you could have done. Waiting a few weeks to come back here didn’t make a difference.”
He expected to see relief in her eyes. Instead, she looked horrified.
“Then I killed her by running away. As soon as he saw you on the road, he must have gone back and—”
“Wait. Hold it.” He leaned forward. “Are you saying he was there, by the road, when Cole and I were there with you?”
Her eyes squeezed shut and she nodded, her face a mask of pain. “Yes. That’s one of the things that I saw in one of my nightmares. I remember his eyes, staring at me with such hate, such evil, through the holes in the mask as he stood in the bushes at the edge of the road, watching us. He...he took a step toward you. I tried to warn you. And then the other policeman, Cole, drove up. The devil stepped back into the trees. You saved me. But Cole saved you, by arriving at that specific moment.”
Zack rather doubted that Cole’s arrival had saved him, though he supposed it was possible. He preferred to think that his own instincts and reflexes, his training, were better than that. He would have sensed the man behind him, or heard him approaching, long before the stranger could have hurt him. He just wished he’d known that Kaylee was running from a captor, and that Cole hadn’t arrived when he did, so Zack would have had a chance to confront and stop the man that Kaylee called the devil.
He did remember Kaylee trying to tell him something as she lay in the road, broken and bleeding. But he was so upset over hitting her that he didn’t try to get her to repeat anything. He’d just wanted her to be still so she wouldn’t make any of her injuries worse before he could get her to a hospital.
If he’d known the circumstances, that she’d been running from a captor, maybe Mary could have been saved. But he wasn’t going to lay something like that out for Kaylee to think about. She’d only blame herself even more. And the one thing Zack knew beyond a doubt was that the only person to blame for Mary’s death was the animal who’d killed her.
“How...how did she die?” Kaylee asked, her voice a quiet whisper.
She was beaten, savagely, then strangled. But he wasn’t about to dish that out on top of everything she was going through.
“It was quick,” he lied. “She didn’t suffer.”
He stared into her eyes, hoping to convince her that he was telling the truth, hoping he could at least take that one burden away from her. But her sad smile told him that he hadn’t fooled her. She gave him a slight nod, letting him know without words that she understood what he was trying to do and that she wouldn’t press for details.
“I wish we could have found her in time,” she said.
“Sue Ellen is still out there. We still have a chance to save her. And, equally important, we have a chance to stop this man before he abducts anyone else.”
She wrapped her hands around her waist. “You’re right.”
“What else do you remember?” he asked.
“Bits and pieces. I mean, a lot, I remember a lot. Just not necessarily in the right order. I thought that if I came back, if you took me to where you found me, that would help me put everything together to form a timeline that makes sense, to help me backtrack to the last camp where he held us.”
“The last camp? That implies there have been other camps, that he moved around with you. Is that right?”
Her eyes widened in surprise, as if the pieces of her memories were forming that larger whole she’d been hoping for. “Yes. Yes, we did. You’re right. You think maybe Sue Ellen is at one of his other camps? That she could still be alive?”
“It’s possible.”
He studied her profile. It was time to bring the others in, let them question her, see what else she could remember. They had years of training as detectives, whereas his experience was largely in patrol and later as the head of a small squad before becoming “chief of no one” in his fledgling Mystic Glades Police Department. Leaving the detecting to Drew and his team was the smart thing to do. But he had a few more questions of his own to ask before he turned his focus back to the search for the missing woman.
“Kaylee.”
She arched a brow in question.
“If the man who held you captive also abducted Mary Watkins, then he must have left you alone while he did that. He must have, what, taken you out of the box and chained you somewhere when he went after his next victim?”
The fingers of her right hand lightly traced the angry, still-healing red scars on her left wrists. “No. Whenever he left me, I was always in the box. Unchained.” As if just realizing what she was doing, she stopped rubbing her wrist and rested her hand on top of the table. “The chains were for when he was there, when he took me out of the box. He blindfolded me, tied me up and...”
He got up and headed to the kitchenette at the far end of the room. He returned with a cold bottle of water and a Coke from the mini-fridge and set them in front of her.
“Thank you,” she murmured, and took a long pull from the water bottle before setting it down. She pushed her hair behind her ears again and ga
ve him a grim smile. “You don’t have to keep treating me like a fragile doll. I’m not going to fall apart like I did right after you rescued me. I may cry a little, or even get angry. But I’m not going back home until I’ve done everything that I can to find Sue Ellen, and the man who hurt me, who hurt Mary and any other women he may have done this to. So go ahead, ask me whatever questions you’re burning to ask. Because it’s obvious that there’s something else you want to know.”
“You’re a courageous woman, Kaylee. A lot tougher than I realized when we first met.”
“No.” She shook her head. “If I were tough, if I were courageous, I wouldn’t have run. I’d have figured out another way to defeat him. I wouldn’t have left anyone behind.”
That, of course, was completely wrong. He knew it, and he imagined she probably did, too, somewhere in the back of her mind beneath all of the guilt that she was piling on herself. But he also knew that she wasn’t ready to let go of that guilt, and nothing he said was going to change her mind right now. So instead, he asked the questions that were indeed burning to be asked.
“Can you tell me how often he left you there, alone? How many days passed before you’d see him again?”
“Didn’t I answer these questions at the hospital, when Special Agent Willow interviewed me?”
“Some, yes. But I’d like to take you through it again, see if you remember anything new before we get to the really hard part.”
She nodded, her hair sliding out from behind her ears. She impatiently pushed it back. “It was difficult to judge the passage of time. But I’m certain he left me alone for two or three days sometimes. It couldn’t have been much longer or I’d have died from dehydration. He never left any water or food with me. When he was there, it was usually early in the mornings, when the sun wasn’t quite up yet. Or late, when the sun was setting. Sort of like you’d do with a dog, he took me out twice a day so I could relieve myself.”
