“Search and rescue,” Jude explained when she looked at him. “Al came immediately when the state police made a request and we gave the dog your phone to scent, and it picked up your trail.” He took out his cell and sent a text. “I’ll let the trooper know you’ve been found. He’s coordinating things with a couple of my operatives and a group of search volunteers.”
The man was vigorously rubbing the dog’s ears. “Don’t need ’em now, do we Emma? You’re one of a kind.”
“Can she follow a trail from smelling someone’s bag?”
Al rose, cocked his head at her. The dog seemed to follow suit. “Depends. If the person handled it a lot, the bag would work. The handle especially. Does it belong to the woman on the run?”
“Yes.” Mia started over toward the bag she’d dropped when Four had shoved her. The man brushed by her.
“If it’s okay with you, I’ll do it.” He pulled a latex glove out of his jeans pocket. “We try to be careful with the scent articles so we don’t get too many different scents on it.” He peered into the bag before reaching into it. “There’s a phone in here. That might be a better scent article than the bag.” He withdrew it and held it up.
Mia backed away involuntarily. The phone was black. Nondescript. But she knew without being told that Four had used it to communicate with The Collector. It was ridiculous to feel as though by touching it she was somehow touching
him
. But she was helpless to control the feeling.
The handler held it out for the dog to sniff for several moments. “Go find, Emma. Go find.” The animal turned and trotted off a few feet, nose in the air, before lowering it to smell the ground. “She’s a tracker, but she’ll use air and ground scents.”
Her earlier wariness around the creature forgotten, Mia trotted after it. Jude fell into step beside her. “Can the phone be traced?” she asked him. “Maybe back to the caller?” Could it be as easy as that? With all the hoopla about the NSA collecting cellphone data, how difficult could it be to track the man who had been giving directions to Four via this cell?
Jude shot her a glance. Let it linger. “Depends. If it’s a TracFone or other disposable, or if it uses prepaid minutes without a contract…probably not.”
The tiny hope faded before it could completely unfurl. “Not even by Raiker’s lab?”
“His guys are good, but they can’t be better than the technology at hand.” The ground began the incline she’d noted earlier. And with adrenaline fading, she was starting to feel the effects of the last several hours.
Jude’s hand brushed hers. “You gave me a few bad moments today. Actually the whole day sucked.”
Heat from his touch transferred to hers. She curled her fingers into her palm, trapping it there. “Things didn’t go according to plan. But once I had her under control I questioned her…” She looked away then, her jaw working. “Maybe a trained interrogator would get more. Probably would.”
“She doesn’t know anything?”
“Just where he’s supposed to meet us tonight. At Cardinal Cabin Rentals. She said it was near here. That he had given her explicit instructions. But she was supposed to dump the car and then the two of us walk. She said it was close.” Mia stopped in her tracks, unable to believe she hadn’t thought of it before. “We know where he’ll be!” Earlier Mia had focused on the horror of being close to him again without even considering what that proximity could mean. The prospect of the man being caught—perhaps in the next few hours—was too dizzying to contemplate.
Jude took his phone out of one pocket and a card out of another. He unfolded a small attached antennae on the cell, saying, “That’s a detail we can use.” She listened as he called someone named Fenton and relayed the formation to him. After listening for a moment he looked at her. “Any idea what time he’s to arrive or the name of the actual cabin?” When she shook her head, he pressed, “Did Four make the arrangements or did he?”
“He did.” Of that she could be sure. The woman had said as much and their captor controlled everything from afar, while sending the woman to carry out his wishes.
But it could be over soon. The thought of it quickened her step. Made the increasingly steeper grade easier to traverse. The possibility of his capture seemed surreal. The Collector had been loose for years, snatching women away from their families and leaving little evidence behind. It still seemed amazing to her that the crimes had never been linked. The last thing she remembered was slipping out of a crowded DC club with friends for a smoke. The others had later gone back inside, while Mia had stayed for a second cigarette. She’d awakened in an unimaginable hell.
The trees began thinning. When Mia looked behind her she was shocked at how far they had climbed. The ground grew rockier beneath their feet. And when she heard the excited baying ahead, she reached out to clutch Jude’s arm.
“Tell him to keep the dog back. I want to try to approach her.”
“Not a chance in hell.” Quickening his stride, Jude’s tone brooked no opposition. “You’ve been through enough.”
She stayed his progress with a hand on his arm. “There’s no danger. You’ll be right behind me. I want her to see you here. The dog and the handler, too. She’ll realize she has no choice but to come with us. But your presence might scare her into running again, too, and at some point it’s going to get dark. I’d rather put an end to this sooner than later, wouldn’t you?”
He stared at her then, a familiar glint in his eyes. “I’m getting to know you well enough to realize that when you sound the most reasonable all hell is about to break loose.”
“Relax.” She gave him a small smile. “I still have some pepper spray in my pocket.”
“Duly warned. Still…”
The adrenaline that had faded earlier was making a comeback. Excitement was beginning to thrum in her veins. This could all be over before the end of the day. She didn’t dare believe it. But there was something deep within her that longed to. Surely it was time. No evil could run unchecked forever. “Maybe the police can use Four in some way to prepare for later tonight. Or the phone she has could be used to contact him. We need to bring this to a conclusion. One way or another.”
His expression softened infinitesimally. “Yeah, we do. You get within ten feet of her and the cavalry is coming in, got it?” She nodded, impatient, and he blew out a breath. “Okay.”
When Mia broke from the cluster of trees to where Emma was prancing and barking, the first thing she noticed was the spectacular view. They had indeed climbed some distance. The ground was almost all rock ahead, with a jagged ledge running twenty feet from left to right that jutted out over the forested valley below.
And in the center of that ledge, close enough to the edge to weaken Mia’s knees even from where she stood was Four. She looked the worse for wear. Running through the forest and up an angled slope would have been difficult with her hands bound behind her. There was a scrape on that exquisite cheek. A bruise forming on one arm.
“Emma. Come.” With a visible show of reluctance the animal stopped its cavorting and returned to its owner, who was waiting next to Jude well behind Mia.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” The woman’s voice was held a thread of wistfulness. “It’s easy to forget there are spots like this. Where you can see the world all laid out beneath you.”
Mia approached her, being careful to keep her promise to Jude. But she had to be near enough to the woman to have a conversation. “There are more places like this. All over the world. You could see them. Anytime you want. All you have to do is come with me.”
“I’d like that, I think.” The woman turned to face her and Mia’s heart jumped a little. She was way too close to the edge. “We could go together, you and me. See every lovely site nature has to offer.”
“We could.” She took a step closer. Heard Jude’s warning growl behind her. “Let’s start now. Walk toward me and we’ll talk about what we want to see first.”
“Come and get me,” the woman invited. “At least meet me halfway. Otherwise how will I ever trust you?”
“You don’t have to trust me.” Mia was getting desperate. There was a look in the woman’s eye that she’d seen all too often. “You’re free to leave here. Now. Go anywhere. Do anything. All you have to do is take a step this way. And then another.”
Four sighed prettily. “It would be so much more satisfying to take that step together. I’m afraid. Come take my arm. Lead me back with you.”
She wasn’t even aware that she’d taken another step toward the woman. Not until she saw Jude coming after her from the corner of her eye.
“You’re a fool and you never deserved to be chosen.” The dreamy quality was gone from the other woman’s voice to be replaced by a familiar acrimony. “You can’t see that life without our master is no life at all.”
“You’re wrong.” She didn’t move another inch. She knew she didn’t. But Jude’s hand was clamped around her arm just in case. “You have to give it time to realize what freedom feels like.” It had been an adjustment all those years ago, regardless of how much she’d coveted it. There had been no warm homecoming. No credibility. No feeling of safety. But it was millions of times better than being subjugated and abused nearly every day.
“I’m going to be free. I just wish I could take you with me.” Four smiled a horrible smile. Backed up.
Jude leaped forward as a strangled cry broke from Mia’s lips. But it was already too late. Poised on the edge of the ledge the woman leaped backwards. The moment slowed as if she hung suspended in the air. Then a moment later Four was gone from sight.
In a few quick strides Jude was at the edge, looking down. Mia didn’t move. Couldn’t. When he turned back to caught his gaze with hers, an unspoken plea on her lips. The expression on his face said it all.
“Oh my God.” The dog handler came bounding up to them. “Did you see that? She just let herself fall!”
When Jude would have led her way, Mia’s feet remained rooted in place, her eyes glued to the spot where Four had been just a moment ago. And when he folded her into his arms, pressed her face to his chest, she let herself lean, just a little, against his strength. She’d known how emotionally traumatized the woman was. How impaired. But it was still hard to fathom that given a choice, Four had chosen death rather than the thought of being parted from a monster.
* * * *
He waited impatiently miles away from the cabin, the van tucked into a gravel road with trees overarching it, branches mingling like interlocked fingers. Four was supposed to text him every hour on the hour. He hadn’t heard from her since this afternoon when she and Eleven had arrived in the area.
Something was terribly wrong.
Rationally he knew that, but his mind kept reeling out several plausible options. The phone could be lost. It could have been stolen. The battery may have gone dead and the charger was misplaced. It was two hours past the time that Four was to have contacted him and still no word. The phone lay in his lap. All he had to do was reach for it. Make a call that would put an end to his wondering.
And yet he didn’t reach for it. Because then it would be all too final. All too real.
The local news channels were worthless. Either they didn’t know anything—likely didn’t—or they were keeping it under wraps.
Twenty more minutes crawled by. Mother had called twice on the other phone and he’d fobbed her off with a story about not feeling well and flying out later. The candelabra was safely packaged, insured and on its way to their business, because he’d intended on taking a couple days to get home.
Finally unable to stand it any longer, he snatched up the phone and brought up the voice alteration app. Dialed the familiar number. After three rings he heard it picked up. But Four didn’t answer.
“We’re waiting for you.” That voice. So familiar. So
dear.
“Why haven’t you come to get us?”
“Eleven.” He breathed the word, his cock stirring in interest at the sound of it. “Where’s Four?”
“She got hurt walking to the cabin. She needs help. When will you be here?”
And then he knew the truth. The horrible final truth. The knowledge had been inside him for hours but there was no longer any denying it. “I have something picked out just for you.” The fury washed over him, and he struggled to rein it in. “You will be brought back to where you belong. And you will pay dearly for what you’ve done.”
“I want to come.” His eyes closed as a terrible pleasure pain shook him. The loss…he knew he’d suffered one. Four would have called had she been able. At the same time the sweetest of all his items was likely very close by. “Please come get us. It’s not too late.”
The lies the woman could tell without blinking an eyelash. He’d never broken her of it, though he’d been harsher with her than with any of the rest. But he would, he vowed. There were other ways. “Soon.”
He disconnected. Methodically took off the back of the phone and removed the battery. Like an automaton he started the van. Executed a three point turn and drove back the way he’d come.
When he got to the bridge he stopped and got out, hurling the phone and battery into the water below. Then he gripped the railing with both hands and let loose the scream of grief and rage that would no longer be contained.
10
Jude looked at Mia with grim concern. She was huddled in the passenger seat, her arms clasped tightly around her middle as if to keep herself from flying to pieces. Although likely he was underestimating her. He had a habit of doing that.
When the state police investigators had come up with the farce they’d wanted her to take part in, he’d been vehemently opposed. After taking their sweet time tracking Mia’s location, they’d picked a bad time to play Super Cop. But Mia had agreed. Of course she had. And now she was paying the price for it.
“You cold?”
She shook her head, the way she had the last two times he’d asked her. He’d never been drawn to emotional females, but a little falling apart right now would be preferable to her rigid control.
“He won’t come.”
Headlights approached in the oncoming lane, spearing through the darkness. Jude took his gaze off them to look at her. “The police think it’s possible…”
“…that he’ll wait until he thinks it’s safe and then appear. He won’t.” Her brittle tone told him how tightly she was holding her emotions in check. “He knew. That’s why he didn’t call, because he already sensed the danger to him. He’s got animal instincts. Maybe that’s how he’s survived all these years. Flourished. Free to pick and choose victims at whim.”
“Think about this.” The lights of Morgantown winked in the distance. “No one has ever heard his voice before except for his victims. Now they have it recorded.”
“Right. And it sounds like Eeyore.”
The man they were seeking was cautious. He’d turned on an electronic alteration app before calling. “The recording can still be examined by a forensic linguist. You’d be surprised by what they can discover about word use, vowel patterns, and intonation.”
Finally he’d sparked some interest. She turned toward him. “Even if the voice is altered?”
“An aural spectrograph can be used for voice analysis. I know they can match voices even if someone deliberately tries to change their accent, pitch or tone. What they can do with an electronic alteration is a question for Raiker.”
She digested that for a few minutes. “So now all we have to do is find them the subject to match it to.”
He gave a mental headshake. They should be talking about something else—anything else—to avoid her reliving the events of the day. Yet here she was, still on point. “We may have picked up a lead. I’ve got Logan, one of my techs, running an identification on the TASER confetti.” Sensing her confusion he explained about the AFID process, without going in to the need for a breach of the database. Some people were high-minded about such things. “With any luck he’ll soon have the name of the person the weapon was registered to. Owners have to go through background checks. It’s highly unlikely Four would have done so.”
“As careful as The Collector has been, I doubt he’d chance having his name registered either.” Interest had sparked her voice and the sound of it was satisfying, despite the topic. Anything to jar her out of the cocoon of misery she’d seemed encased in earlier.
“It’s possible.” He slowed down as he entered town, watching for a hotel with a restaurant. He hadn’t eaten all day. She wouldn’t have either. “Weapons represent power and if there’s one thing this guy seems to be into, it’s power and control. He has to make a mistake sometime. Everyone slips up eventually.”
She said nothing to that. Her silence lasted the whole time he spent choosing a hotel. Continued while he gathered their bags that he’d retrieved from the parking lot this morning and while she accompanied him inside to get a room. She hadn’t blinked when he’d gotten only one double, citing concern for her protection. But when he ordered food, she finally roused to life. “A ham sandwich. Lots of cheese. And fries with a caffeine free Diet Coke.”
“Double it,” Jude told the front desk clerk. “Except bring me a Coors Light.”
“The restaurant and bar are right down the hall, sir,” the young man started.
“But you’ll place our order for us.” It hadn’t escaped Jude’s notice that Mia was swaying slightly on her feet. “And have it delivered for us.”
A moment’s hesitation. Then, “Yes, of course.”
“Thanks.” He led Mia to their second floor room. Ushered her inside it. It was a medium priced motel, but the room was luxurious compared to the one she’d chosen last night. She’d looked out of place in the slightly shabby room he’d found her in. Even if he hadn’t known about her privileged upbringing, she had an air of refinement that was difficult to miss. Coupled with her gut-wrenching looks and kiss-my-ass cheekbones, she’d looked right at home in some fancy lunchroom eating rabbit food and sipping expensive tea.
But he’d made the mistake of judging her based on her looks and background on more than one occasion. Jude would never make that mistake again.
He caught the longing look she threw toward the bathroom. “You’ve got plenty of time for a shower before the food arrives.” He set his duffel bag and her backpack next to the wardrobe. She carried her purse. Was worrying the strap with nervous fingers.
“Maybe later.” The cause of her reluctance was clear.
“I’m going to step outside.” He made the decision without forethought. “I want to get a look at the set up of the floor. Exits. Windows.” He had a pretty good blueprint in mind just from observation on the way up, but it was a decent idea anyway. And would remove him from the room for as long as she needed.
The relief in her expression would be hard to miss. “I’ll lock and latch the door.”
Jude lingered in the task, giving her nearly a half hour. When he saw the server arrive with their food he returned, and waited for Mia to unlock the door so he could bring it inside.
She was barefoot, but otherwise fully dressed in a tee shirt and jeans, her hair dried. Following him to the table in the corner of the room, she snatched the cover off one of the plates on the tray. “I haven’t thought about food all day but you mentioning it triggered my appetite. I’m starved.”
They ate in companionable silence for a while. When he’d finished his fries and attempted a stealth attack on hers, she slapped his fingers away. “I’m territorial about my food.” But there was a smile on her lips when she said it. “Too used to having to ration it, maybe. We were never sure how long it would be before he came back. Occasionally it was a few days or more.”
The identity of the
he
she referred to was all too clear. “How did he store it?”
“We had places for it in our cells.” She ate quickly and efficiently. “He called them that, but there weren’t bars. The back of each was stone, the sides, front and top charged wire. You got a heck of a jolt if you touched one. Although not as bad as the stunner Four used today. Anyway there was always bottled water. The food was packaged in plastic bags. There used to be a plastic trough bolted to the stone wall to hold the food in each cell. I broke it once. Thought I could use a jagged piece as a weapon.” She chewed reflectively. “That cost me an extra week at boot camp for retraining.”
The reference to what she’d endured made it suddenly difficult to swallow. Jude reached for his beer. Took a gulp. It did nothing to alleviate the sudden burn in his chest. “Did others fight him the way you did?”
“Some. At least at first.” Her voice turned pensive. “In time, enough abuse will cow anyone. Others turned vicious, although none were as bad as Four. Most would immediately rat you out for the slightest transgression as soon as he reappeared. Which was unnecessary, since the cameras caught a lot of it. But Eight never did. Not even when we were both allowed to paint once and I used my time to figure out how to pick the lock on the door of the room where he kept the discipline tools. The paintbrush had this little wooden piece down by the bristles. It was held on by bits of wire and I’d pried one off. After I discovered I could get the discipline room door open, I hid the wire in my cell. In case I ever got a chance to try again on the main door.”
“Hard to believe he ever let his captives out of the cells when he couldn’t control their movements.”
“He didn’t. Not during showers, exercise time or any earned free time. We wore shackles on our wrists and ankles. Fur lined of course.” A note of bitterness tinged the words. “No marks to mar the items of his collection. The only time we weren’t chained was when we were in our spaces…”
…or when he was sexually assaulting them in a group. She didn’t need to finish the thought. She’d already revealed once how she’d happened to be free to attempt her escape. Talons of fury for what she’d experienced raked through his system. And a half acknowledged realization actualized in his mind. He wasn’t law enforcement. He’d never been above operating slightly outside legal boundaries when he needed to acquire information.
And he sure as hell wasn’t going to waste any time worrying about legal niceties while he searched for the evidence needed to bring her former captor to justice.
The fully formed thought had him freezing in the act of bringing the beer to his lips. He wasn’t sure when it had occurred, but there it was, along with a map of the steps he was going to take toward that end. Raiker kept talking about the connections they needed between the corpse in the mineshaft and Mia’s case. Jude could find them. He wasn’t an investigator, but he had skills of his own.
What he was considering was far afield from the services his business offered. But this was no longer about a job. He flicked Mia a glance over the top of the bottle he held. She caught his gaze, smiling as she deliberately bit into the last French fry.
And if he hadn’t realized it before, he finally recognized just how much trouble he was in here. His famed objectivity was shot to hell when it came to her. And he wasn’t exactly sure what to do about it.
Brooding over the rest of the beer, he considered the problem. Decided how to broach it. “I’m going to track down the owner of the TASER myself,” he finally stated baldly. “I’ll give the information to law enforcement. At some point.” Right now the cops would be interested in the detail only as it pertained to Mia’s kidnapping today. They had nothing on which to base a broader scope of investigation. So he’d get it for them. “But first I’m going to take a run at him, after doing a background check to discover exactly what I’m dealing with.”
Her smoke gray eyes widened a little. “Good. I’ll come with you.”
He set the bottle down with more force than necessary. “No. You won’t.”
“Okay.” She picked up the remainder of the sandwich and nibbled on it. “I’ll follow you then.”
“Mia.”
“Jude.”
A part of him was distracted by the sound of his name on her lips. He could count on one hand the number of times she’d said it. But he wasn’t a hormone-driven teenager panting over the prom queen. It wouldn’t deter him. “We have to keep you safe. That’s more important now than ever. You heard what that scumbag said to you on the phone tonight. He’s still coming after you.”
Watching the way her creamy complexion paled was a kick in the gut. But he wasn’t above using whatever tool necessary for her security. “I have to know you’re protected in order to do my job. I’ll personally update you daily so you’re kept abreast of developments. You can even pick your own protection detail. You already know most of them.”
“Okay.” She piled her plate back on the tray. “I pick you.”
“That isn’t an option.”
Leaning forward, her gaze caught his. Battled with it. “Here’s the thing. I’m no longer your client. My check effectively ended our arrangement. You can’t keep me from doing anything I want, and I am not going to be kept a silent bystander while others fight this battle on my behalf.” Her mouth twisted. “That hasn’t exactly worked out in the past. I can hire another investigator. One who can track your movements if I’m unable to. One who will be paid well enough not to care if I accompany her. But I won’t be updated every day. I’ll
be
there.”
A thread of pleading entered her tone. “Believe me, I don’t want to get anywhere near him on my own. This isn’t like confronting Four. I wasn’t terrified of her. But I’m no longer going to be a spectator in my own life. If we get close…there might be something familiar. Something that triggers a memory. A landmark, a sound that points us toward the location where those women are being kept. You need me there.”
Everything inside him rejected her assertion. He
needed
her safe. And given the events of the day he’d already failed her once. “I can’t follow leads and tend to your protection at the same time.” When faced with a losing argument, use reason. “Neither of us can afford for me to splinter my focus.”
She appeared to give his words serious consideration. “You’re right. So you’ll have to bring along another operative to stay with me while you’re following those leads. I’m fine with whoever you choose.”
Getting up from the table, she walked over to one of the beds. Arranged the pillows and sat down to prop herself against it. As if the discussion was closed. As if she’d left him with no alternative.
Temper simmering, he went to grab his duffel and took it in the bathroom. Shut the door. There was always an alternative. He’d had recalcitrant clients before, although as she’d pointed out earlier she wasn’t technically a client anymore. He stripped, started the shower and stepped in. His first choice when faced with a lack of cooperation had always been logic. But he’d resorted to using fear tactics with some to keep them in line. There had been one or two so impossible that he’d been driven to terminate the contract.
And none of those options applied here. Mia was plenty logical; he just didn’t agree with her line of reasoning. And she didn’t scare. Or she did, he corrected himself, rinsing the shampoo from his hair. But the woman had more guts than most people he’d met. Fear wasn’t a deterrent. The hell of it was he even respected that on some level. When the worst has already happened, a person could curl up or fight. They were both fighters. But it wouldn’t do him any good at all to focus on the similarities between them.