Stephanie hurried over. “What’s up?”
“Can you make sure this young lady is okay? She seems to be in pain and I don’t like the way she’s breathing.”
The girl’s frantic eyes met hers. She did not want to be examined. Chloe held her gaze. “It’s okay, really. You’re safe.”
The other girl wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulder. “Let them check you, Skye,” she said softly.
“What if they’re watching? They’re always watching. They’ll know. Remember the consequences. There are always consequences.” The last word came out on a gasp as a sob slipped from her. Pain contorted her face and she went to her knees while she continued to babble about secret cameras and eyes everywhere.
Chloe, Stephanie, and Skye’s friend acted as one. The friend grabbed Skye’s upper arm while Chloe and Stephanie lowered her to the hard concrete. Her words stopped and her breathing grew shallow and labored. Wheezing. Her eyelids fluttered.
Chloe looked at Skye’s friend. “What happened to her?”
“He tossed her down the stairs,” she muttered. “Then kicked her.”
Anger burned bright and hot in Chloe’s midsection. She pressed a fist to her stomach and drew in a breath to get her emotions under control. “What’s your name?”
The girl hesitated. “Beth.”
Stephanie looked up and met Chloe’s gaze. “We need to get her to the hospital now. I think she’s got a couple of broken ribs and a possible punctured lung. Jeff!”
Her partner looked up from the woman he’d just finished bandaging, saw the expression on her face and rushed over. “What is it?”
“Broken ribs, a pneumothorax, trouble breathing, and a fever. She needs to be transported immediately.”
Within seconds, they had Skye loaded into the back of the ambulance.
Beth climbed in beside her.
“Hey, you can’t go,” Stephanie said.
The young girl met the paramedic’s gaze. “Then she’s not going.”
Chloe looked at Stephanie. “Let her ride, Steph, she’s going there anyway.”
After a brief hesitation, Stephanie nodded. “Fine. We’ll be at Providence Health Hospital.”
The doors shut and they were gone. Chloe rushed to let Hank into his area in the back of the SUV, then climbed behind the wheel.
From his vehicle, Derek saluted her with two fingers and motioned for her to go first. She pulled away from the edge of the bridge and made her way as fast as she dared to follow the path the ambulance had taken.
She arrived and parked in the police parking spot near the door. Derek pulled in behind her. The other girls would be arriving soon. They’d bring them to the hospital first to have them checked out. Then they’d assign them victim advocates and question them. It was going to be a long day for them. But at least they would get to go home at the end of it.
Chloe left Hank locked in his temperature-controlled area for now and hurried through the emergency room doors. Derek stayed on her heels. She stopped at triage and showed her badge. The woman at the desk buzzed the doors and she headed for the back. She stopped one of the nurses she’d met a few weeks ago. “Eve, hey.”
“Hey, Chloe, I’ve got a busload coming in.”
“I know. Two are already here. Skye and Beth. That’s all I know to call them.”
She walked behind the counter and clicked her keyboard. “Ah . . . yes. Room 2. But the girl, Skye, she’s headed for surgery.”
“Okay, what about her friend, Beth? She okay?”
“At first glance. I left her in the room to be checked out.”
“Is it all right if I talk to her for a minute?”
“Sure.”
Chloe made her away into room 2. Beth looked up and leapt to her feet, only to drop back into the chair when she saw Chloe. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Waiting for news on your friend?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her hands together. “She’s not strong. She wouldn’t get on the trailer without me.”
“What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “When they were loading the girls on, Skye was crying and screaming and they told me to go with her. But she still fought and he threw her down the stairs. I managed to get her back up and in the trailer so they wouldn’t hurt her anymore. So, where is she?”
“In surgery. They took her right back because of the broken ribs and lung issue.” Chloe processed the load of information the girl had just dumped in her lap while trying to decide on the best line of questioning.
Beth glanced at the clock on the wall and stood, pacing from one end of the room to the other. Every so often, she would shove a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. A fine tremor ran through her hand. Before Chloe could speak, Beth had turned the waistband of her pants down. “I need to switch out my pod.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got type 1 diabetes. My pod—my insulin—is almost empty. And I need a PDM. They didn’t give it to me to take when they put me on the truck.”
“PDM?”
“Personal Diabetes Manager. The thing that allows me to control the dosage amount and provides other information.”
“Ah. Okay. We’ll make sure you get exactly what you need.” Chloe sighed. “Look, I can’t begin to understand what you and the other girls have been through—”
“No, you can’t.”
“But could you please tell me where you got that shirt?”
Beth stilled. “What?” She looked down at the top. “This?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my seventeen-year-old cousin was wearing it—or one like it—the night she disappeared and now you’re wearing the same shirt. I need to know if the two things are connected.”
The air around them stood still. Cold. Frozen. Carson said nothing as his friend paced the wooden front porch, then turned and unloaded on him. “Where are they? More importantly, where is she? How’d you lose her? I thought you had her under control.”
“I don’t know where she is!” Carson was tempted to pull the weapon he had strapped to his ankle, but that wouldn’t help the situation. Besides, this was a friend, the only guy who’d ever made Carson feel like he could be someone. Feel like he was important. He’d given him his identity and he could take it away.
Carson drew in a calming breath. “Come on, man, I thought she was at the hospital, but no one could tell me where she was. There was no Rachel MacCallum brought in. The other girls were there, but I couldn’t get to them to ask if they knew what happened to Rachel. They had people all over them. Family, cops, just too many. I’m not worried about them talking, though. We’re too careful. There’s no way they can provide any information that would lead the cops to us.”
“I’m not worried about the others. They can be replaced. Rachel can’t. She’s the means to the end goal—and she has to stay alive until we reach that goal.”
“I know,” Carson said, subdued. His friend was right. Without Rachel, their bargaining power was gone. “I’ll find her.”
His partner raked a hand through his hair. “This could be a disaster.”
Carson wracked his brain trying to put a positive spin on the situation. Desperate, he blurted, “Okay, so, the lost income hurts. We’ll have to build up the inventory again, but the auction can go on as planned with the remaining girls. No one knows anything. Everything is under control.”
“She knows what you look like.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter since she knows me as someone else. She doesn’t know my real name.”
The man in front of him calmed slightly. “Right. That’s true.”
“So chill.”
“I won’t chill until he’s dead. And that girl was our ticket to make sure that would happen.”
“Hey, I didn’t put her on the truck,” Carson said. “Manny did.”
“So, Manny’s calling the shots now?”
“Look, the other girl—Skye—wouldn’t shut up.
I thought about drugging her but didn’t want to do that since the auction was so close. Rachel was able to keep her calm and quiet. Stillman and the others were supposed to bring her back as soon as they delivered the rest of ’em.”
“Stupid. Unbelievably stupid,” he muttered.
“Take it up with Manny.”
“Oh, I plan to.” The quiet words sent a chill up Carson’s spine. His friend had always had a reputation for ruthlessness, but lately, he’d taken that to a new level. But Carson owed him and that was that. Not to mention the fact that he was also the means to an end—making as much money as possible. So, as loyal as he was to this guy, he was even more loyal to his own bank account. Just the thought stiffened his resolve.
“How much insulin is left?” his friend asked.
“Not much. One pod, I think. And her PDM is in the office.”
“Hmm. Well, we don’t need much. If her father doesn’t do as ordered, it’s a moot point. It’s not like we need her alive for the auction. No one would buy her with the high-maintenance medical issues she has.”
“Maybe,” Carson said. “You never know. She’s one of the prettiest ones we’ve ever had.”
“Right.” His eyes narrowed as he thought. “That’s actually true. And we don’t have to tell anyone she’s got the issues. I’ll think about it.”
“So, what do I need to do now?”
“Find the girl.”
“I can do that.”
“You might want to start at the hospital again. That’s the first place they’ll take them. She’s got to be there. Maybe she just wasn’t processed when you were asking about her.”
“All right, I’ll try again.”
“And this time, make sure you don’t fail.” A pause. “You know I love you like a brother, but I can’t have any weak links. Make sure you cover your tracks.”
Carson shivered at the unspoken threat. He knew the man would make good on it. He’d watched him kill before. One minute he’d been sharing a drink with the man at the bar. Ten minutes later, in the alley out back, he’d put a bullet in the same man’s head.
Maybe it was time to get out while he could.
4
Before Beth could explain about the shirt, the doctor had come in to examine her. After prescribing her more insulin and praising her that her sugar levels were only slightly elevated, he left the room.
Beth let out a breath. “Your cousin disappeared?” she asked.
“Yes. Wearing that shirt. So, please. Tell me?”
“It was in a box at the house,” she said slowly. “He told me to find something. This was scrunched up at the bottom, but it was the most decent thing in there.” She shuddered. Tears flooded her eyes and she looked away. After several long silent moments, the tears disappeared and a blank, fixed look covered her features.
A coping mechanism, Chloe thought. Survival mode.
When Beth recovered her composure, she remained quiet, her eyes staring at the wall.
“Who told you to get something to wear? And where’s the house?” Chloe asked.
Beth shook her head. “It doesn’t matter about the house. They change locations every few weeks—and you can be sure as soon as they heard about the wreck and us being found, they cleared out. And I don’t know where to tell you to begin looking anyway. It could be anywhere.” She tilted her head. “Although, it’s probably within an hour’s drive from here.”
“Yeah. Okay. So . . . what about the ‘who’?”
“I . . . um . . . don’t know his real name. One of them went by Manny.” She looked away, then at her watch again.
“Do you know a girl named Penny St. John?”
Beth hesitated. “Is she your cousin? The one the shirt belongs to?”
“Yes. Do you know her?” Hope sprouted.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t remember her name anyway. What does she look like?”
Chloe pulled up the last picture of Penny on her cell phone. Wearing the same shirt Beth had on.
She held the screen so Beth could see it.
“Wow. I see what you mean. It is the same shirt.”
“Penny disappeared six months ago. She left to go on a date and never came home. How did they get you?”
Beth’s laugh held no humor. “There was this really cute guy. Nice. I’d known him for a couple of weeks, but wasn’t interested in dating him. I already had someone I had my eye on.” A hint of a smile curved her lips, then disappeared. “My friend thought I was crazy not to return his interest. Anyway, she texted and told me to meet her at ‘our place.’” She wiggled her fingers around the two words. “That she had a surprise for my birthday.”
“Where exactly is your place?”
“On the steps near the big fountain in Finlay Park.”
“I’m familiar with it. What happened when you got there?”
“Linds had a blanket on one of the steps with some special sugar-free cupcakes and balloons. She yelled, ‘Surprise!’ when I walked up. And at first, I thought it was cool and sweet. But then Carson and another guy came over to us.”
A chill swept Chloe. She knew that name. “Carson who?”
“Langston.”
“Whoa.” The room spun for a moment and Chloe blinked to steady her gaze.
The girl frowned at her. “What is it?”
“Carson Langston was the name of the guy my cousin was last seen with. We’ve looked everywhere for him, but it’s like he dropped off the face of the planet.”
“It probably isn’t his real name.”
“Yeah. We figured that, but didn’t have a face or any other name to go by. He was a definite dead end.”
“The other guy’s name was Manny, but I didn’t catch a last name. Anyway, their appearance kind of ruined the moment, but I was like, whatever. So, we actually ended up having a pretty good time. I could tell Linds was proud of herself, and while I wasn’t crazy about the guys being there, I didn’t want to sound ungrateful. When we were ready to leave, they insisted on walking us to our cars and after that it’s all pretty fuzzy.”
The cars. Had they been found? She made a mental note to ask.
“How did he knock you out?”
“I’m not sure. I remember something wet hit me in the face. When I woke up, I was in a cage.” Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. “Like an animal. Lindsey was next to me.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall once more. Her face crumpled and Chloe moved to take the girl into her arms. Beth leaned against her and sobbed.
“Tell me who to call, honey. Your mom?”
She shook her head and the tears continued to flow. “She’s dead.”
“Your dad, then.”
“I can’t. They’ll hurt him.”
“No, they won’t. We won’t give them a chance to.”
Through her tears, the look Beth gave her could only be described as one of pity. “You have no idea how powerful these people are or how far their reach goes.”
“And you do?”
“I have an idea—probably just an inkling.” A pause. “They were going to sell them,” Beth said, her voice so low Chloe almost couldn’t hear it.
“Them?”
“The girls in the cages. The ones who were in the back of the trailer.” Her eyes widened. “There are others still at the house.”
“Where were they going to sell them and when?”
“At the auction. I’m not sure when it was supposed to take place. In the next couple of days, I think. That’s where we were going when the wreck happened.”
All senses on alert, Chloe took note. “Do you know where the auction was to take place?”
“Um . . . I don’t know. I just overheard them talking about it. Somewhere here in Columbia, though, I think. They said the trip wouldn’t take long, but they could have been lying.” Her eyes welled again. She dabbed them with a tissue. “I heard them mention a senator and making sure they had a girl that fit his tastes.”
Chloe grimaced.
A cop? Chloe mentally reviewed the news. She hadn’t heard of an officer’s daughter being reported missing.
Chloe passed Beth several tissues. “What else can you tell me, hon?”
“They held a gun to my head and took my picture,” Beth said. She swiped the moisture from her cheeks.
“Did they say why?”
“No. Sometimes they talked freely, other times they just did what they needed to do and left without saying a word. But this time, Carson came and got me. He shoved me into a room and Manny was there. Carson put the gun to my head while Manny snapped a picture with his phone.” Her frown deepened. “He didn’t do that to the other girls. I asked.”
“I don’t know. I’d say that’s not typical. Unless it was an intimidation tactic to convince you that they’re serious.” Or to post on the internet so potential buyers could take a look. But the gun nixed that idea. They might make her pose, but why hold a gun to her head?
She huffed. “Well, it worked. Scared me to death.” A pause. “Something else that’s weird. They gave me my insulin. The prescription was correct and everything. And they made sure I checked my sugar levels whenever I needed to with the PDM. And I ate well. They had healthy foods ready for me.” Her fingers curled into fists and Chloe watched her consciously relax them. “They were prepared. They planned this way ahead of time.”
“It sure sounds like it.” She squeezed the girl’s fingers.
“They had a doctor there. He examined each girl and then gave certificates to the man who was going to sell them. Certificates for the, uh, untouched ones, if you know what I mean.”
Chloe kept her grip from tightening on Beth’s fingers through sheer will. “I know what you mean.” Untouched, pure. Virgins. Ones who would bring more money than the more experienced girls.
Beth’s brows dipped. “They treated them like prize cows or something—complete with that stupid certificate. They weren’t human to them. They were . . . inventory. How can people do that?”
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