Scream For Me

Chapter Twenty

Atlanta , Thursday, February 1, 10:15 a.m.

I can take her, Alex,” Meredith said, looking up from her laptop. “You haven’t moved from that position in an hour. Your arms have to be breaking by now.”

Still sitting at the table in the room with the two-way mirror, Alex pulled Hope a little closer. “She’s not that heavy.” Even asleep, Hope grabbed at Alex’s shirt as if she was afraid Alex would leave her. “I should have been with her all this time,” Alex murmured.

“Ideally, yes,” Meredith said logically. “But this is far from ideal. You’ve been looking for Bailey. You needed to see Fulmore and all the other people, so stop feeling guilty.”

But as she held Hope, Alex knew it was more than simple guilt. She’d been quick to accept the responsibility for Hope’s physical care and safety, but until Hope had sobbed against her, she hadn’t opened her heart to this little girl who’d needed her. She hadn’t opened her heart to many people over the years. Certainly not to Richard, and if she was honest, not even to Bailey. Again, she’d been quick to offer help to get Bailey into rehab, but she hadn’t offered her heart.

Maybe she hadn’t known how. Deep down she was afraid she still didn’t. But then the door opened and Daniel came in, and every dark and heavy thing inside her heart lightened at the sight of him. Maybe there was hope for her after all. It was a light in the midst of all the darkness.

“Is it time for Hope to go with Mary?” she asked softly, but he shook his head.

“Not yet. I didn’t mean to make you wait here so long. There’s a sofa in the break room. Hope can sleep there until Mary comes back.”

Alex started to rise, Hope in her arms, but Daniel stopped her. “I’ll take her.” And he did, holding Hope much like he’d held Riley the night before. Hope didn’t wake, though she snuggled against him, and Alex was hit with a wave of longing so strong it almost knocked her over.

This is what I want. This child. This man. She stood unsteadily, a wave of panic following in the wake of the longing. What if he doesn’t want the same? What if I can’t give him what he needs?

Meredith was watching her with a frown. “Come on.” She put her arm around Alex’s shoulders as they followed Daniel.

Daniel stopped at the sofa in the break room, Hope nestled on his shoulder. He gently rocked from side to side, his brows bunched, his mind obviously somewhere else. Alex was certain he didn’t realize what a picture he made, strong golden-haired man holding the small golden-haired child.

He settled Hope on the sofa and shrugged out of his jacket to cover her, then glanced at Alex and gave her that half smile. “Sorry, my mind wandered.”

“Where did it go?” she said, her voice low.

“To the day your mother died.” He slid his arm around her waist and walked her to a table by the coffee machine. “I need to talk to someone who talked to your mother after she found Alicia.” He pulled out chairs for her and Meredith.

“That would have been Sheriff Loomis, Craig, the coroner, and me,” Alex said, sitting down.

“And me,” Meredith added.

Daniel’s hands stilled on the coffeepot. “You talked to Kathy Tremaine that day?”

“Several times,” Meredith said. “Aunt Kathy called that morning to say Alicia was missing and my mom packed her suitcase. Her car wasn’t too reliable, so she decided to fly.” Meredith frowned. “My mom was guilty about that decision until the day she died.”

“Why?” Alex asked and Meredith shrugged.

“Her flight kept getting delayed because of storms. If she’d driven, she would have arrived hours earlier and your mom would have still been alive. And if Aunt Kathy had been alive, you would never have taken those pills.”

“I wish Aunt Kim were here to know the truth,” Alex said sadly.

Meredith patted her hand. “I know. Anyway, Aunt Kathy called later, hysterical, and that’s when I started talking to her. Mom had left for the airport already and back then nobody had cell phones. I was the go-between. Mom called from a pay phone at the airport every half hour and I’d tell her what Aunt Kathy had said. The first time I talked to Aunt Kathy, she’d gotten a call from a neighbor saying some boys had found a body.”

“The Porter boys,” Daniel said.

Meredith nodded. “Aunt Kathy was leaving to check it out.”

“And that’s when she found Alicia,” Alex murmured.

“When did you talk to her again, Meredith?” Daniel asked.

“When she came home from finding Alicia, before she went to identify the body. She was… past hysterical. She was sobbing, crying.”

“Do you remember what she said?”

Meredith frowned. “She was crying that her baby had been left in the rain.”

Daniel frowned as well. “It didn’t rain the night before. There was thunder and lightning, but no rain. I checked the weather report after we talked to Gary Fulmore.”

Meredith shrugged. “That’s what she said. ‘Just asleep in the rain.’ Over and over.”

Alex tensed, remembering the phrase. “No, that’s not what she said.”

Daniel sat beside her, looking her square in the eye. “What did she say, Alex?”

“When Mama came back from identifying Alicia, Craig gave her a sedative, then went to work. I put her to bed. She was crying so hard, and so was I… so I climbed in bed with her and just held on.” Alex pictured her mother lying in bed, a steady stream of tears running down her face. “She kept saying, ‘A sheep and a ring.’ That’s all she had to identify Alicia because her face was so destroyed. ‘Just a sheep and a ring.’ ”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed, and she saw the flash of triumph. “All right then.”

Alex looked down at her hands. “Alicia had a ring. So did I. Our birthstones. Mama gave them to us for our birthday.” Her mouth curved bitterly. “Sweet sixteen we were.”

“Where is your ring, Alex?” he asked softly, and her stomach turned over.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember.” Her heart was suddenly racing. “I must have lost it.” She looked up, studied his eyes, and knew. “You know where it is.”

“Yes. It was in your old room. On the floor, under your window.”

A sense of dread stole inside her, darkening everything. Inside her mind, thunder rolled and a single voice screamed. Be quiet. Close the door. “That’s it, isn’t it? What I don’t want to remember.”

His arm tightened around her. “We’ll find out,” he promised. “Don’t worry.”

But she did.

Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 10:55 a.m.

Daniel stopped by the team room, where Luke pored over a stack of spreadsheets.

“A sheep and a ring,” Daniel said with a nod.

Luke looked up, his eyes narrowed. “That sounds nasty, Daniel.”

“But it’s not.” He sat down at the table and pushed a stack of yearbooks out of the way. “Alex’s mother said it the day Alicia died. She meant because Alicia’s face was smashed, she could only identify her by her sheep tattoo and the ring on her finger. And she saw Alicia before the cops got there.”

Luke frowned. “Alicia had a sheep tattoo?”

“On her ankle. They all did-Bailey, Alicia, and Alex.”

“And a ring on her finger. So now you have independent corroboration that Fulmore was telling the truth,” Luke said. “And that the Dutton sheriff’s office wasn’t.”

Daniel nodded grimly. “Looks like. So what have you found?”

Luke pushed a sheet of paper across the table. “I’ve compiled the names of every male to graduate the same year as Simon, a year ahead and a year behind, from the public and the private schools.”

Daniel scanned the list. “How many?”

“After we cut minorities and dead people?” Luke asked. “Roughly two hundred.”

Daniel blinked. “Shit. Do all two hundred still live in Dutton?”

“No. Culling out everyone that’s moved away leaves only about fifty.”

“Better,” Daniel said. “But still too many to show to Hope.”

“Why would you show them to Hope?”

“Because she saw the man who abducted her mother. I have to assume whoever took Bailey did so because of the letter she got from her brother, Wade, or else Beardsley wouldn’t be missing now.”

“That makes sense. But then what? I hate to be a broken record, but we’re trying to solve the murders of four women left in ditches. How are you going to connect whoever took Bailey to whoever’s killing the women?”

“You assume it’s not the same person.”

Luke blinked. “I guess I did.”

“And you’re probably right. Whoever took Bailey doesn’t want anyone to know about the rapes and the pictures. Whoever’s killing the women wants us to focus on Alicia Tremaine. I don’t know how I’ll connect them. All I know is that this SOB doesn’t leave anything behind on the body or at the scene that can identify him. If I can find out who took Bailey, something else might shake out.”

“Fair enough,” Luke said. “So you want me to get these fifty photos down to five or six so we can show them to Hope. You’re going to have her talk to an artist, right? If she can give the artist some basic description, we can cherry-pick from the fifty.”

Daniel stood up. “I’ll tell Mary to get you whatever they come up with. I’ve got to get down to Dutton to talk to Rob Davis and Garth. But first I have to call the SA. Fulmore was telling the truth about the ring and he didn’t hit Alicia while she was alive, so the man is not guilty of murder. Abuse of a corpse, but not murder.”

“Chloe’s gonna love you,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Not.”

“As long as-” Daniel stopped himself short. As long as Alex does, he’d been about to say. But that was premature. Maybe. But he was still warm from the… rightness of holding her in one arm and a little girl in the other. It was certainly more than he’d ever had before. It could end up being nothing more than good sex.

Really, really, really good sex.

But he didn’t think so, and Daniel was a man to trust his instincts.

“As long as what?” Luke asked, one side of his mouth quirking up.

“As long as Chloe does the right thing by Fulmore,” Daniel said quietly. “But that’s not the biggest thing. If Fulmore is telling the truth about that ring, then the Dutton police planted evidence.”

“Chase already gave Chloe the heads-up on Frank Loomis,” Luke said.

“I know. They’re going to open a formal investigation.”

“Are you okay with that? I mean, the guy was your friend.”

“No, I’m not okay with that,” Daniel snapped, “but if he planted evidence, he sent an innocent man to prison for thirteen years and let a killer walk free, and I’m even less okay with that.”

Luke held up his hands. “Sorry.”

Daniel realized he was grinding his teeth and forced himself to relax. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bark at you. Thanks for all of this. I gotta go.”

“Wait.” Luke pushed two yearbooks across the table, one stacked on the other, opened to the senior graduation pictures. “Yours and your sister’s. I thought you might like to have them.”

Daniel looked at the photo on the bottom row and his heart hurt. Susannah Vartanian maintained a cool, sophisticated air in her senior picture, but he knew she’d been silently miserable. He needed to call her before the press got wind of the rapes Talia Scott was investigating. He owed her that much. He owed her a great deal more.

Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 11:15 a.m.

Most likely to be president of the United States. Daniel traced a finger over his senior picture in his high school yearbook. His classmates had voted him so because he’d been so serious and sober. So studious and sincere. He’d been the class president and captain of the debate team. He’d lettered in football and baseball every single year. He’d had straight As. His teachers had seen him as having integrity. Ethics. The son of a judge.

Who’d been a sonofabitch.

Who’d been the reason Daniel had pushed himself so hard. He’d known his father was not all everyone believed. He’d overheard the whispered conversations between Judge Arthur Vartanian and the late-night visitors to his office on the first floor of the house in which Daniel had grown up. He knew where his father had hidden things all over their old house. He knew his father kept a whole cache of unregistered guns and stacks of cash. He’d always suspected his father had been on the take, but he’d never been able to prove it.

He’d lived his life trying to make up for being Arthur Vartanian’s son.

His eyes moved to the other yearbook and stared sadly at his sister Susannah’s picture. She lived her life trying to forget she was Arthur Vartanian’s daughter. She’d been voted most likely to succeed and she had, but at what cost? Susannah harbored secret pain she’d share with no one… even me. Especially me.

He’d gone away to college, then he’d gone away to the police academy. Then after his father had burned Simon’s pictures, he’d just gone away. And left Susannah in that house. With Simon.

Daniel swallowed. And Simon had hurt her. Daniel knew it was true. He was afraid he knew how. He had to find out. With fingers that trembled, he dialed Susannah’s number at work. He knew all her numbers by heart. After five rings, he heard her voice.

“You’ve reached the voicemail of Susannah Vartanian. If this is urgent, please-”

Daniel hung up and called her assistant. He knew the assistant’s number by heart, too. “Hi, this is Agent Vartanian. I need to speak to Susannah. It’s urgent.”

The assistant hesitated. “She’s not available, sir.”

“Wait,” Daniel said before the woman hung up. “Tell her I have to speak to her. Tell her it’s a matter of life and death.”

“I’ll tell her.”

A minute later, Daniel heard Susannah’s voice again, live this time. “Hello, Daniel.” But there was no joy in her greeting. Only wary distance.

His heart hurt. “Suze. How are you?”

“Busy. Being out of the office for so long, I had stacks of work waiting for me when I got back. You know how that goes.”

They’d buried their parents, but immediately after the funeral Susannah had flown back to New York and he hadn’t talked to her since. “I know. Have you seen the news from down here?”

“Yes. Three women, found dead in ditches. I’m sorry, Daniel.”

“Four, actually. We just found the fourth. Jim Woolf’s little sister.”

“Oh, no.” He heard pain and surprise in her voice. “I’m sorry, Daniel.”

“We have something the news hasn’t reported yet, but will soon. Suze, it’s the pictures.”

He heard her exhale. “The pictures.”

“Yes. We’ve identified all the girls.”

“Really?” She sounded truly shocked. “How?”

Daniel drew a breath. “Alicia Tremaine was one of them. She was the girl murdered thirteen years ago, the one all these new murders are copying. Sheila Cunningham was another. She died in what we’re supposed to think was a robbery of Presto’s Pizza two nights ago. Some of the others Alicia’s sister has identified.” He’d tell her about Alex a different time. This call would not be one either he or Susannah would want to remember. “We’ve started interviewing them. They’re all around thirty years old now.” Same as you, he wanted to say, but didn’t. “They’re all telling the same story. They fell asleep in their cars. When they woke they were fully clothed, and-”

“And holding a whiskey bottle,” she finished woodenly.

His throat closed. “Oh, Suze. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you were gone,” she said, her voice suddenly angry and harsh. “You were gone, Daniel, and Simon wasn’t.”

“You knew it was Simon?”

When she spoke again, she was back in control. “Oh, yes. He made sure of it.” Then she sighed. “You don’t have all the pictures, Daniel.”

“I don’t understand.” But he was very afraid he did. “Are you saying there was one of you?” She said nothing and he had his answer. “What happened to it?” he asked.

“Simon showed it to me. He told me to stay out of his affairs. He told me I had to go to sleep sometime.”

Daniel closed his eyes. Tried to speak past the constriction in his chest. “Suze.”

“I was afraid,” she said, speaking now in a logical, cool voice, and he thought of Alex. “So I stayed out of his way.”

“What affairs of his had you been in before?”

She hesitated. “I really need to go now. I’m late for court. Bye, Daniel.”

Daniel carefully hung up the phone, wiped the moisture from his eyes, then got up and prepared his mind to talk to Jim and Marianne Woolf. Jim would be grieving his sister, but grief or no grief, Daniel was going to get some answers.

Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 1:30 p.m.

Alex stood at the glass, Meredith beside her. On the other side of the glass, Mary McCrady had relaxed Hope so that she was actually speaking in full sentences.

“Maybe she was finally ready to talk,” Alex said.

Beside her, Meredith nodded. “You helped.”

“I could have made things worse.”

“But you didn’t. Every child is different. I’m sure Hope would have been ready to talk soon either way. But she needed to feel safe and loved and you did that.”

“I should have made her feel safe and loved before.”

“Maybe you weren’t ready before.”

Alex turned her head to study Meredith’s profile. “Am I now?”

“Only you can answer that, but if the look on your face was any indication… I’d say yes.” She chuckled softly. “Heck, if he hadn’t looked back at you the same way, I might have wrestled you for him.”

“It was that obvious?”

Meredith met her eyes. “In the dark wearing a blindfold. You got it bad, girl.” She turned back to the glass. “At least Hope’s talking to the artist this time. Between her description and the pictures Mary got from that guy who works with Daniel, we might at least get a lead on who did this.”

Alex drew a breath. “Even if we never get Bailey back.”

“We may not, Alex. You need to start coming to grips with that.”

“I am. I have to. For Hope.” Her cell phone jingled in her purse and Alex grabbed it, frowning at the caller ID. It was an Atlanta number, but no one she knew. “Hello?”

“Alex, this is Sissy, Bailey’s friend. I couldn’t talk to you before. Not on my phone. I had to wait until I could use a pay phone. Bailey told me that if anything happened to her that I should talk to you.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Alex asked, more sharply than she’d intended.

“Because I have a daughter,” Sissy hissed. “And I’m scared.”

“Has someone threatened you?”

Her laugh was bitter. “Does a letter under my front door saying ‘Don’t say a word or we’ll kill you and your daughter’ count?”

“Did you contact the police?”

“Hell no. Look, I told Bailey to pack her things and move in with me. She was going to, the next day. She called me Thursday night, said she had their things packed and loaded in her car. She said she’d see me the next day. But she never came to work.”

“So you went to the house and found Hope in the closet.”

“Yes. The house was trashed and Bailey was gone. There’s one other thing. Bailey told me that she’d mailed you a letter. That I was supposed to tell you that.”

“A letter. Okay.” Alex’s mind was spinning. “Why didn’t she just come that night?”

“She said she was meeting someone. That she’d come when she finished.”

“You don’t know who she was meeting?”

Sissy hesitated. “She was seeing a man. I think he might have been married. She said she needed to say good-bye. I have to go now.”

Alex looked at Meredith, who was impatiently waiting. “Bailey mailed me a letter the day before she disappeared.”

“Who’s been getting your mail?”

“One of my friends from the hospital.” She hit Letta’s speed dial on her cell phone. “Letta, it’s Alex. I have a favor to ask.”

Dutton, Thursday, February 1, 2:30 p.m.

Daniel’s conversation with the Woolfs had not gone well. Jim Woolf had lawyered up and Marianne had just slammed the door in his face. He’d gotten back to his car when his phone buzzed. “Vartanian.”

“Leigh told me you called,” Chase said. “I’ve been in a meeting with the captain for the last two hours. What’s the news?”

“I went to Sean Romney’s house and interviewed his mother. Apparently Sean was below average in cognitive ability as the result of a birth defect. He was too trusting and willing to please, according to Mrs. Romney. Because of this, she kept closer tabs on him than her other kids. Guess what she found in his room two days ago?”

“I have no idea, but you’re going to tell me right now, aren’t you?”

Chase sounded cranky and Daniel guessed his meeting with the captain had gone even less well than his visit with Marianne Woolf.

“A disposable cell phone. It wasn’t in his room and the cops didn’t find it on his body, but Mrs. Romney had written down the numbers in his call log. The number for his incoming calls matches the call Jim Woolf got Sunday morning.”

“Yes,” Chase hissed. “Does it match any of the incomings on the cell you found on the pizza parlor guy, Lester Jackson?”

“Unfortunately no, but we finally have a solid connection.”

“I wish you’d told me this before I went into my meeting,” Chase grumbled.

“Sorry,” Daniel said. “How bad is it?”

“They wanted you off the case, but I convinced them otherwise,” Chase said dryly.

Daniel let out a breath. “Thanks. I owe you.” His phone beeped and he glanced at the caller ID. “It’s Ed. I gotta go.” He switched calls. “Hey, Ed. What do you know?”

“Lots,” Ed said, clearly pleased. “Come to Bailey’s and you’ll know lots, too.”

“I’m just leaving the Woolfs’, so I’m not far. I’ll see you in twenty.”

Atlanta, Thursday, February 1, 4:50 p.m.

“Alex. Wake up.”

Alex twisted out of sleep, a warm mouth meeting hers. “Umm.” She kissed him back, then leaned back against the sofa in the break room where she’d drifted off. “You’re back.” She blinked her eyes open. “What time is it?”

“Almost five. I have a team meeting, but I wanted to find you first.” Kneeling on one knee next to the little sofa, he gave her an appraising glance. “Did you get your clothes back from the bungalow?”

“No. Shannon, the agent who was there last night, said they’d been slashed.” She shrugged. “So I went shopping.”

He frowned. “I thought-”

She patted his cheek. “Relax. Chase had one of the agents ‘accompany’ me.”

“Which one?”

“Pete Haywood.”

Daniel smiled, relieved. “Nobody messes with Pete.”

“I should think not.” The man had been bigger than Daniel and built like a tank.

“Nobody tried anything?”

“Nobody even looked at me cross-eyed.” She struggled to sit up and he easily lifted her. “I got a call from my friend Letta.” Alex had called him with Sissy’s revelation earlier in the afternoon. “She said there was no letter from Bailey.”

“It should have arrived already.” His brow creased. “How long since you moved?”

“A little more than a year. Why?”

“The post office only forwards mail for about a year. Did Bailey know you’d moved?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s probably at Richard’s house. I’ll call him.”

“Where are Hope and Meredith?”

“Back at the safe house. Hope was exhausted after she and Mary were done, so Meredith took them both back. Hope was able to pick out two of the pictures, then Mary showed her a bunch of different hats and asked Hope to pick out one that matched the hat she drew on Bailey’s assailant the other night. Hope picked a hat just like the one they wear in the Dutton sheriff’s office.”

He nodded soberly. “I know. I stopped by the team room on my way to find you.” He rose and held out his hand. “Come. We need to talk to you.” He pulled her to her feet and, sliding his arm around her waist, walked her to a conference room with a big table. Around the table were Luke, Chase, Mary, and a woman she hadn’t yet met. “I think you know everyone except Talia Scott.”

Talia was a little woman with a sweet smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Alex.”

“Talia’s been interviewing all the women in the pictures.”

And Alex could see the day had taken its toll. Although Talia’s smile was sweet, her eyes were weary. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” She looked at the table and saw the two pictures Hope had identified.

Garth Davis, the mayor, and Randy Mansfield, the police deputy.

“What did they say when you arrested them?”

Chase shook his head. “We haven’t arrested them.”

Alex’s mouth fell open in disbelief, then anger started to rise. “And why not?”

Daniel smoothed his hand over her back. “That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We don’t know which of them abducted Bailey. Maybe both.”

“So arrest them both and sort it out later,” she said from between gritted teeth.

“At this point,” Chase said patiently, “it’s the word of a four-year-old against two men who are respected in the community. We need evidence before we can bring them in.”

He said the words as if she were four years old herself. “This is insane. Two men can abduct a woman and beat her head in and you won’t do anything?” She whipped her gaze up to Daniel. “You were there at the pizza parlor. Garth Davis walked up to our table and a minute later, Hope’s smearing sauce all over her face like blood.” The memory had surfaced as soon as she’d seen the picture. “Garth Davis kidnapped Bailey. Why is he walking free? Why haven’t you even brought him in for questioning?”

“Alex-” Daniel started, but she shook her head.

“And Mansfield… he’s a cop. He has a badge and a gun. You can’t just let him roam free while you figure all this out. Everything he’s ever done has to be suspect. I mean, he shot the guy who tried to kill me after the guy killed Sheila Cunningham. Isn’t that enough evidence? What does it take to get arrested in this goddamn state?”

“Alex.” Daniel’s voice was sharp, then he sighed. “Just show it to her, Ed.”

Ed moved a box filled with books, revealing a silver flute. Alex’s mouth dropped open. “You found the flute Bailey was playing.”

Ed nodded. “We sent out a team with metal detectors and found it behind a fallen log. It had been buried under about a half inch of dirt and a pile of leaves.”

“Where Bailey hid Hope.” She glared at them all, her breath hitching in her chest. “While those men beat her senseless, until her blood soaked the ground.”

“Alex.” Daniel bit her name out. “If you can’t hold it together, you’ll have to leave.”

She stopped, still furious, but now embarrassed as well. Chase only talked to her like a four-year-old. Daniel treated her like one. But perhaps he’d had a right. She was closer to hysteria than she’d ever been. She drew on her control and nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said coolly. “I’ll hold it together.”

Daniel sighed again. “Alex, please. The flute isn’t what we wanted you to see.”

Ed held out a pair of gloves and obediently Alex pulled them on. Then her eyes widened when he handed her a piece of paper, creased where it had been folded longways multiple times like a child’s fan.

“Ed found the note inside the flute,” Daniel said. “It’s from Wade to Bailey.” He held a chair out for her and she sank into it, her eyes fixed to the page as she read aloud.

“Dear Bailey, after years of trying, I’ve finally succeeded. I’ve been hit and I’m dying. Don’t worry. There’s a chaplain here and I’ve done my confession. But I don’t believe God will forgive me. I haven’t forgiven myself. Years ago you asked me if I killed Alicia. The answer was no then and it still is. But I did other things and so did Dad. I think some you guessed. Some you never will and that’s for the best.

“Some of the things that I did, I did with others. They won’t want anyone to know. At first there were seven of us, then six, then five. When I die, there will still be four men who share the secret. They live in fear and distrust, always watching each other, wondering who will be the first to fall. The first to tell.

“I’m enclosing a key. Do not carry it with you. Put it somewhere safe. If you’re ever threatened, tell them you’ll turn it over to the authorities. But not to the police. Not in Dutton, anyway. The key will unlock a secret that some of the four would pay to keep and some would kill to keep. Two have already been killed to keep the secret.

“I won’t tell you the names of the four, because you’d feel you had to report them. Once you go down that road, you’d be as dead as me. Them knowing that you have the key will be the only thing that will keep you alive.

“I know you’ve stayed in the house, waiting for Dad to come back. I’ve told you before, he won’t. He’s not capable of the goodness you want him to have. If you see him, give him the other letter. If you don’t, then burn it. Then let Dad go. Let him kill himself on booze and drugs, but don’t let him drag you down with him. Leave the house. Leave Dutton. And for God’s sake, don’t trust anyone.

“Least of all me. I’ve never earned it, although God knows I’ve died trying.

“Take Hope and leave Dutton and never look back. Promise me that. And promise me you’ll have a good life. Find Alex. She’s the only family you have left now. I never told you before, but I love you.”

Alex drew a breath. “Lt. Wade Crighton, United States Army.” She looked up. “He sent her a key. Do you think that’s what Bailey sent to me?”

Daniel sat in the chair next to her. “We think so. Three of the four victims this week were found with keys tied to one of their toes. Now we know why.”

“Do you think the keys tied to their toes are the same as Wade’s key?”

“No. The keys we found this week are brand-new. It’s a sign, a message. Like the hair he tied around their toes.”

“Alicia’s hair.” She stared at the note, trying to focus. “He says there were seven. Two died before him. Both killed to keep the secret. But Simon died in Philadelphia.”

“Wade didn’t know that when he wrote the letter,” Daniel said. “He died a few weeks before Simon. He thought Simon was still dead from the first time.”

“So they all thought that Simon’s first ‘death’ was done by one of them,” she murmured. “They live in fear and distrust. So one of the dead men he’s talking about is Simon. Who is the other?”

“We don’t know yet,” Chase said, “but we have an idea of three of the remaining four.”

“Garth Davis and Randy Mansfield,” she said. “And I guess Rhett Porter would have been the third.”

“That means we still have to identify two,” Daniel said. “One living, one dead.”

“What will you do?”

“Try to use the two we know to turn on the one we don’t,” Chase said. “But in the meantime, we still don’t know who’s behind all of this.”

“It’s revenge,” Daniel said. “We figure that much. Someone is using Alicia’s death to get us to focus on these men. We have to be careful, Alex. We can’t let them know what we know until we know what it all means, or at least until we know more. If Garth Davis or Randy Mansfield had something to do with Bailey’s disappearance, we’ll find out and they’ll answer for it. I promise you that. But, Alex, I’ve got six women and four men in the morgue. At this point nothing else is more important than making this stop.”

Alex dropped her eyes, ashamed. She worried about Bailey. Daniel worried about all the victims. Six women. Four men. Rhett Porter, Lester Jackson, Officer Cowell, and Sean Romney. That was four. But six women… Janet, Claudia, Gemma, Lisa, and Sheila. That was only five. Slowly she lifted her eyes. “Six women, Daniel?”

He closed his eyes, drained. “I’m sorry, Alex. I meant to tell you… differently. Sister Anne died this afternoon. Even though we think Crighton is responsible, we’re counting her among the fatalities. She would be the tenth.”

Alex let out a breath. Pursed her lips. Felt the sympathy from everyone in the room. “No, I’m sorry. You were right. I wasn’t helping. What do you want me to do?”

His eyes flashed approval and appreciation. And respect. “For now, just try to be patient. We’re getting warrants for phone and financial records on both Davis and Mansfield to try to tie them to each other or to the other two Wade mentions or to the man who killed four women. And we hope that somewhere this guy makes a mistake.”

She nodded and looked back to Wade’s letter. “Wade says he didn’t kill Alicia. At that point, why would he lie? So if he didn’t, and Fulmore didn’t, then who did?”

“It’s a good question,” Talia said. “I’ve talked to seven of the twelve surviving rape victims and they all tell the same story. If Simon and his friends raped Alicia and left her alive like they did all the others, but she was dead when Fulmore found her in the ditch, what happened in between?”

Next to her, Alex felt Daniel tense when Talia mentioned the twelve victims, but his expression didn’t change. She filed it away. She’d ask him later.

“Whatever happened, Alex, you saw something,” Dr. McCrady said, “and it had to do with the blanket Alicia was found in. If you’re up to it, we need to find out what you saw.”

“Let’s do it,” Alex said. “Now, before I lose my nerve.”

Mary gathered her things. “I’ll get ready. You’ll come when the meeting is finished?”

Daniel nodded. “We will. Chase, have we informed all the women at risk?”

“There were a few we couldn’t reach. A couple were out of the country. A couple aren’t answering their phones. But the ones we did talk to will be smart if they just stay home with all the doors locked.”

“And their guns cocked,” Alex muttered.

Daniel lightly smacked her knee. “Sshh.”

“I’m going now,” Talia said. “I’m leaving early in the morning to drive to Florida to talk to two of the victims who have moved.”

“Thanks,” Chase said. “Call me if you find anything new.” When she was gone, he turned to Daniel. “We got Lisa Woolf’s cell phone LUDs. No calls from anyone she hadn’t been receiving calls from for months.”

“And her roommates?” Daniel asked.

“They say she went to a bar last night to unwind. She never made it home. But they did find her car about five blocks from the bar.”

Everyone at the table seemed interested by this. “What?” Alex asked.

“None of the other cars have been found,” Daniel said.

“What kind of car?” Chase asked.

“She was a grad student with no money,” Chase said with a shrug. “She drove an old Nissan Sentra. It’s being brought down here on a flatbed so we can take it apart. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find something he left behind.”

Daniel considered it. “Janet had her Z, Claudia a top-of-the-line Mercedes, and Gemma drove a ’Vette. None of those have been found, but he ditches the Nissan.”

“The boy likes fancy cars,” Luke said.

“We processed the scene at Alex’s bungalow,” Ed said. “Lots of prints to work through. It was a rental property, after all. Nothing on the bathroom window or sill. The bowl of dog food had a very high concentration of tranqs. If your dog had a normal digestive tract, Daniel, he’d be barking with the choir eternal right now.”

“I stopped by the vet on my way in from Bailey’s,” Daniel said. “Riley will be okay and now we know they were likely looking for the key that Bailey sent to Alex.” He looked at her. “Don’t forget to call your ex.”

“I won’t.”

“Then until tomorrow,” Daniel said and started to get up.

“Wait,” Alex said. “What about Mansfield? I mean, I understand how you have to be careful not to show your hand, but the man can’t be allowed to simply roam free.”

“We’ve got him under very close surveillance, Alex,” Chase said. “We started setting it up minutes after Hope picked him out of the photo array. Try not to worry.”

She huffed out a breath. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Then until tomorrow,” Daniel repeated and started to get up again.

“Wait,” Luke said. He’d been typing on his laptop during much of the conversation. “I eliminated all the minorities and dead people from our list of graduates.”

“Right,” Daniel said, then caught his breath. “But there was one other that was killed ‘for the secret.’ ”

Luke nodded. “Still taking out the minorities, there have been five deaths among the Dutton males graduating within a year of Simon, not including Simon, Wade, and Rhett.”

“Check them out,” Chase said, “along with their families.”

Daniel looked around the table. “Anything else?” When nobody said yes, he said, “We’re sure? Okay then. We all meet back here, tomorrow, eight a.m.”

They all stood, then Leigh poked her head in the door. “Daniel, you have a visitor. Kate Davis. Garth Davis’s sister. She says it’s urgent.”

Everyone sat down again. “Show her in,” Daniel said. He looked at Alex. “Can you go and wait with Leigh in the outer office?”

“Of course.” She followed Leigh to the front where a young woman in a trendy suit waited. Alex searched her face and the woman met her gaze unflinchingly. Then Leigh took her back to the room while Alex settled in one of the chairs to wait.