by Debra Webb
How the hell could they lose four women and one Jag in a town this small?
Volunteers from several counties had arrived to help with the search. Tony was grateful for every pair of boots on the ground.
His cell vibrated and he fished it from his pocket. A number he didn’t recognized flashed on the screen.
“LeDoux.”
“Mr. Gates?”
Tony hesitated, then remembered giving that name at the walk-in clinic. “Speaking.”
“Oh, good, hello. This is Renae from the walk-in clinic. I’m sorry to bother you. I know this is a terrible time for your family.”
“No, hey, I’m glad you called.” He stepped out of the conference room. The briefing was over and most had gone on their way. A few uniforms were still mulling over maps. “Do you have some news for me?”
“I don’t know what difference it makes, but I think I do.”
“You never know what might help,” he offered.
“I guess you heard about Dr. Alexander. She was in a terrible car accident the same day you and your wife were here. Well, she died this morning.”
Tony hadn’t heard that news. “That’s a shame. I’m sure she’ll be missed.”
“You know, I almost didn’t call because it felt like I was going behind her back, but she’s gone and there’s no help for that. I want to do whatever I can to help your wife find her sister.”
“I really appreciate that, Renae.”
“I was looking through Tiffany Durand’s and Vickie Parton’s files and I saw where the office administrator had sent a copy to Dr. Blume. You might know him as the psychology professor at the college, though I think he’s retired. Since neither woman was a patient of either one of the Doctors Blume, I found that odd. The report explained how both women were in good health and excellent mental condition. I asked our lead nurse but she’s so upset right now she blew me off.”
“You can’t tell if the reports were sent to Orson Blume or Pamela Blume?”
“Sorry, it just says Blume.”
“What about the address?”
“It’s an address on Lands Drive.”
They had found the two faxed reports at the Blume home but they still didn’t know which Blume was the intended recipient. “Anything else?”
“That’s all for now. I really hope you find your sister-in-law.”
Tony did, too. “Thank you for calling me.”
Tony moved back into the hall, headed for the lobby. The sooner he was back out there helping with the search the better. His nerves were jumping. His cell vibrated again. Angie. “Hey, sis. I’m just leaving the task force briefing.”
“Oh God, Tony. Steve’s had a heart attack.”
“Is he okay?” Tony pushed through the front entrance doors and hustled to the parking area and his car.
“He’s stable, but...” Her voice broke. “I’m scared, Tony.”
“You’re at the hospital here, in Milledgeville?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“No, please. They’re talking about transferring him to Macon. I need to know you’re out there trying to find Tif. Please, Tony, I can’t leave but how can I stay with him if you’re not out there trying to find my baby. Please, promise me.”
“Don’t worry, I’m heading back to the search now. You keep me posted.”
“I will.” Her voice rose on each syllable.
“Ang,” he exhaled a big breath, “I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “Goddamn it.” This was too much.
He fired up the BMW’s engine and roared out of the parking slot. Today, he was going to find Tiffany. Her mom and dad couldn’t take any more.
He didn’t see any scenario that put Pamela Blume in the clear. She was somehow involved with the abductions. There was no other explanation for her sudden disappearance—unless she was dead, too. His gut clenched. Until he had a body, she was all he had in the way of a real lead. She had to be alive.
Maybe she and her husband were in it together. Her research in Cognitive Science could definitely be tied to the kind of treatment Jo and the others had endured. They were cautiously optimistic that she was still in the area, which could mean the victims were, as well.
All they had to do was find them.
Five minutes later he made the right onto the campus of Central State Hospital—the former Georgia Lunatic Asylum. He wound around the streets. Official vehicles and those of volunteers filled the parking lot of the Powell Building. He drove on until he located Nick’s vehicle near the Ingram Building.
The search teams were going through each standing building, one by one. Tony walked through the gate of the twelve-foot wire fence as Nick, Bobbie and Jo were exiting the building.
“Any news?” Jo asked.
She looked so tired. Tony wished he could find Tiffany and the others and end this for all concerned. He shook his head. “Nothing really. Alexander’s nurse called. She confirmed the reports we found at the Blume residence were faxed from Alexander’s office. She also told me the doctor died this morning.”
“You okay?” Bobbie asked. “You look like you need to sit down.”
“My sister called. Her husband had a heart attack.”
“Oh my God. Is he okay?” Jo took a step toward him, and then seemed to catch herself.
“Hope so.” He suddenly felt as if an elephant had settled onto his shoulders. “Angie will keep me posted. She made me promise to stay here and keep looking for Tiffany. Anything new here?”
“We spoke to a group of squatters who call this building home,” Nick spoke up. “Fewer and fewer are daring to seek shelter here. Too many have gone missing over the years. They think it’s the ghosts of former patients haunting the place.”
“I think,” Jo said, “it’s the third victim I’ve been telling you about. The throwaway victim no one will miss.”
“The ones who die?” he asked.
She nodded. “The ones who die.”
Tony clenched his jaw. How the hell could they know so much and not be able to find the goddamn hiding place?
“We should keep searching,” Nick suggested, breaking the tense silence.
Since Tony was back they decided to divide up into pairs and take two buildings at a time instead of one.
Bobbie patted Tony’s shoulder. “Come on. We haven’t worked together in a while.”
Jo gave him a nod and trudged on with Nick.
Bobbie started across the road to a low white block building. Security had gone through this morning and unlocked all the padlocks to help with the search. Most of the companies conducting business on the property had agreed to a search of their facilities. Phelps was working on the others.
“So what’s going on with you?” Bobbie asked as she crossed into the dim interior of the building.
“You mean besides having a missing niece and a brother-in-law in the hospital hanging on for his life?”
“Ha ha.” Bobbie shot him a look. “You know what I mean.”
“I drink way too much. And...” He pulled out his flashlight and checked the corridor to the right before they moved in that direction. “I drink way too much.”
Bobbie gave a somber nod. “You know the Bureau wants you back, right?”
“Oh yeah. I got really good vibes about that.” He opened a door on the left and had a look inside.
“Nick talked to Jessup, his contact there. Jessup says you weren’t fired. That you quit. Is that true?”
Tony moved on to the next door. He flashed the light onto a piece of concrete rubble on the floor. “Watch yourself there.”
Bobbie waved her flashlight. “I got this. Answer the question.”
“If I hadn’t quit, my new boss would have
fired me. I had no desire to give him the satisfaction.”
Bobbie laughed. “You are such an idiot. All you have to do is get your ass in AA. Go to counseling and you can have your career back. If you don’t want to go back to BAU, then don’t. But drinking your life away is not the answer.”
“Geez, you sound like my sister.”
Bobbie moved to the next door. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She opened the door and immediately stepped back, hand over her face. “Shit. We gotta ripe one in there.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t a human body. Tony and Bobbie peered at the carcass with the aid of their flashlights.
“Looks like a possum,” Bobbie said.
“Think so.” He scanned the room, spotted a hole in the wall that went clean through the backside of the building.
Moving around the decomposing animal, he leaned down and inspected the hole. A couple of squirrels scampered from the wall cavity. He jerked back, almost stepping on the possum.
“Whoa.” Bobbie laughed. It was good to hear that sound, even under the circumstances. “We should move on. I think we’ve seen enough in here.”
As they navigated from room to room, keeping an eye out as much for the wildlife as for another human, her earlier comment kept niggling at him.
“I’m not saying I want my job back.” They reached the final door on the opposite end of the building. “How long is this offer good?”
Bobbie sighed. “Saw right through me, huh?”
“I did.”
Final room was empty save for the trash of a former transient resident.
They headed back outside. “You have until the first of May to give them an answer and to prove you’ve secured the proper counseling and so forth.” Bobbie hesitated at the door. “Don’t throw away all you worked for just to prove you can. It might feel like you’re getting the last word, but you’re not.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t take too long,” she warned.
May first. He had a couple of weeks. Plenty of time.
All that mattered to him right now was finding Tiffany alive.
49
Day Thirteen
Eighteen years ago...
I open my eyes. The light is still blinding so I close them again.
I turn my head and look for the others. Ellen is near me. She is breathing. I see the faint rise and fall of her rib cage.
Forcing myself to move again, I roll my head until I’m looking the other way. Carrie is staring at me. At first I fear she’s dead but then she blinks.
I smile. My lips crack painfully. “I thought you were dead.”
“Maybe we all are and this is hell. Sure feels like it.”
She has a point. Though my eyes are adjusting to the brighter light, they feel raw and my skin still burns.
My mouth and throat are so dry. It feels like I swallowed sand. No water today so far.
Of course I have no idea what time it is or what day it is.
I just want to go home.
Metal rattles and my gaze snaps to the steel cage-like door overhead in the center of the ceiling.
There’s a clink. Then I see something fall. Another clink and then another falling object. Just a blur in my weary gaze.
Moving slowly, I crawl across the floor.
Shiny. Metal.
Keys.
Keys?
The gate suddenly opens and a box slowly descends downward. It isn’t a large box. Slightly bigger than a shoe box. It comes down on a flat white shelf attached to metal things, not chains but wires of some sort.
The box settles on the floor. Carrie moves to my side. We sit on our knees and stare at the keys and the box that we now see holds three bottles of water.
I grab one and twist off the top and drink deeply.
“Put down the water!”
I almost drop my bottle of water.
Ellen has dragged herself to where we are. She reaches for the final bottle of water.
“If you wish to eat, each of you must swallow a key.”
I stare at the keys on the floor. Insane, I think. Why would we swallow keys?
“Now.”
We look at each other. We need to eat. I remember swallowing a quarter when I was a little girl. Didn’t hurt me, just scared my mother half to death.
Carrie picks up a key and puts it in her mouth. She swallows big gulps of the water, and then she smiles. “Not bad. Goes down pretty easy.”
I go next. Then Ellen. She has the most difficult time. She keeps gagging the key back up.
Finally she swallows the damned thing.
The box rises into the air again, the hydraulics of the lift whirring softly.
We stare upward as the box disappears.
We pray.
We are so hungry.
Then I smell something wonderful—maybe hamburgers.
The box lowers and sure enough there are three hamburgers inside. Just the meat and the bun but thankfully real food.
I grab a burger and take a big bite.
I gag.
The inside is completely raw. Only the outside is cooked.
I gag and heave but I force myself to eat it. I have to eat something and this is it. The others do the same.
The box disappears and the cage-like door slams into place once more.
I am thankful to have eaten.
No one wants to die on an empty stomach.
50
Aubri Lane’s Restaurant
1:50 p.m.
Jo didn’t want to stop to eat but Tony insisted.
Bobbie picked at the food on her plate.
“Morning sickness?” Jo had read a post by her sister-in-law that said her morning sickness came every afternoon rather than in the mornings.
Seemed silly to call it morning sickness if it occurred at different times of the day. Jo figured she would never know how it felt to carry a child. You had to be able to connect with other humans on a deeper level to form that kind of bond and she couldn’t quite accomplish the feat. Her gaze shifted to Tony and she cursed herself for being an idiot. They didn’t have a bond; they shared a mutual need. Not the same thing.
“Every day, several times a day.” Bobbie laughed softly. “But it’ll pass.”
Jo remembered that Bobbie had been pregnant before. Something else she couldn’t imagine—the pain of losing a child. Losing her family had been hard enough. She wondered if her brother had given her message to her mom. Probably. Ray always stood by his word.
She’d made a promise to go home for a visit when this was over. Could she really do that? Go back and pretend to be that person again? She could try, couldn’t she? There was much in this life that Jo was no longer capable of, but she could at least be as good as her word. When you had nothing else, you had that.
“How far along are you?” Since Tony and Nick were in deep conversation over a map, Jo figured she could at least be sociable. A totally novel concept for her. Bobbie and Nick had come a long way to help. They were nice. Tony was nice. She glanced at him again. He should stop beating up on himself.
If all the cops and these guys right here couldn’t find those missing girls, no one could. For the first time in eighteen years, Jo felt some sense of hope that this might actually be over soon. She could close her eyes at night and know that the people who stole her life and the lives of so many others wouldn’t be taking anyone else’s.
“Three months,” Bobbie said in answer to her question. “I only just started sharing the news. My uncle is over the moon. He’s looking forward to playing the part of grandfather...again.”
She lapsed into silence.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask so many questions.”
Bobbie smiled. She had the bluest eyes. So pale and bright. “I
t’s okay. I’m getting used to touching the past without it hurting so much. I don’t want to pretend my little boy never existed. Or his father. I love and miss them every day. I just realized that loving them didn’t mean I couldn’t love and be happy with Nick and the children we have together. Nick doesn’t take the place of James any more than this baby will take Jamie’s place. I never thought I’d reach this stage, but I’m glad I did.”
Jo wondered if she would ever find that place. “I’m glad for you.”
Bobbie reached across the table and put her hand on Jo’s. “You can find it, too. You just have to open your eyes and your heart to the possibility.”
Jo nodded. It was the best she could do without the risk of blurting out the emotions whirling inside her right now. The past few days had challenged her ability to stay indifferent.
Her cell vibrated.
She removed it from her pocket, expecting to see her boss’s name on the screen. A frown furrowed her brow. She didn’t recognize the number so she hit decline and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
“Excuse me.” She scooted back her chair. “Gotta hit the ladies’ room.”
Tony glanced at her as she turned toward the far end of the café.
Once she was in the ladies’ room, she pulled out her cell and stared at the number of the missed caller. The phone started to vibrate again with a call from the same number. She jumped. Almost dropped it.
“Hello.”
“Joanna Guthrie?”
Female.
“Yes.” The only woman who had this number was Ellen. Wait... She’d written the number on the back of the card Tony had given Madelyn Houser.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“Dr. Blume?” Had to be. Madelyn was dead. Who else could it be? Sounded way too mature to be Ellen’s daughter.
“Where are you at this moment?” Blume, presumably, asked.
Jo laughed. “What do you want?”
“You tell me where you are and I’ll tell you how to get here before I kill your new friend’s niece.”
Jo’s heart slammed into her sternum. She didn’t hesitate. “Aubri Lane’s restaurant on Wayne Street.”