On the walk to Hannah’s building, she passed an old homeless woman sitting on the curb next to her bulging black plastic bag that probably contained everything she owned. The woman was rocking, eyes closed, humming to herself. Lilith hesitated. She didn’t know about shelters in the area, so she reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a fifty from her tip money.
“Hey,” she said, bending down to give the bill to the homeless woman.“Get yourself something to eat.
The old woman looked up and frowned. “You’re not the same one.” She took the money from Lilith.
“Same one?”
But the woman was back in her own world, humming to herself.
Lilith shrugged and moved toward the entry to Hannah’s place… then stopped. Wait a minute, Pucinski had said the only witness to Hannah’s kidnapping had been an old homeless woman.
She whipped around, but the street was empty.
WHY DIDN’T HE just kill her?
That was the burning question in Hannah’s mind.
As far as she could tell, this was the third day he’d kept her alive. Or was it the fourth? Living in the dark was timeless. Sunlight came through cracks between boards covering the windows. The only light she’d seen. Other than that, she’d been in the dark for however long she’d been here.
Wherever here was.
She didn’t know where she was or who had taken her. She didn’t know how much longer he would keep her alive. He’d dumped her in this cold, dank, dark room which she assumed was a basement. Cuffed to a narrow bed except for the few times he’d let her up to use the gross excuse for a toilet, she couldn’t free herself, couldn’t move around.
All she could do was await her fate.
How had this happened to her?
Why?
Had she pissed off some customer? Of course she had. The one who’d killed the waitress and the working girl.
Only, who was he?
Every time he came in here, he was wearing the billed cap and camouflage and sunglasses. Every time he came in here, he thought of some new small torture.
He hadn’t raped her. Yet. But she was sure it was coming.
He was playing with her, building his own anticipation. While calling her vile names and making all kinds of accusations that made no sense to her, he’d touched her all over. Rubbed her through her clothes, pulled at her nipples and dug into her through her panties.
Through it all, she’d lain there frozen, sending her mind to some other dark place. The way she used to when she was on the street and needed food. Lucky for him he hadn’t tried to get her to reciprocate. She would tear him apart with her nails or her mouth. He’d told her how he could do anything to her, and no one was coming to her rescue. He outlined the things he would like to do to her body and her mind until little by little, he shredded her confidence that she would somehow get out of this mess. He sent her plunging back to the hellhole of her childhood, when she’d first been witness to her stepfather’s brutality and then had more than a taste of it herself.
The two men had a lot in common. They both hated women. Or at least hated women having any kind of power or even confidence in themselves.
Things had been going so good for once. Not the money. She didn’t mean that. In truth the money meant little to her other than to make sure she never had to live on the street again.
Lilith meant something to her.
She’d moved to Chicago to find her older sister and then had turned gutless, hadn’t been able to do it lest she face rejection because of who she had become. Lilith had found her. Reconnecting had been every bit as difficult as she had feared. But Lilith had said she loved her anyway.
What was Lilith thinking now that she had disappeared?
Did Lilith believe she’d driven her little sister away? That she’d run once more?
Hannah’s eyes filled with tears, but she couldn’t even cry anymore.
No one even knew she’d been taken.
They wouldn’t know until she was dead.
Chapter 12
TEA AT THE PLAZA. With Paul Ensdorf. At least it was someplace public, Lilith thought.
Michael had said her sister gravitated to men she could control. Men like Paul, who thought they were in charge. She remembered Paul mentioning “Anna” as if he wanted to shake her. And he had.
Now she was going to shake him. Or shake information out of him. Hopefully she would do a better job than she had with Michael.
Michael.
Thinking about the almost kiss, she closed her eyes and for a moment wished she had let him. A man’s arms around her would feel good right now. There hadn’t been many times in her life when anyone had comforted her, but she somehow knew he would.
She jerked herself out of the soft mood. She had to think about Hannah. About how to find out if Paul was the one who had her.
What the heck was she going to wear?
She tore through Hannah’s closet, pulling out various outfits, all indicative of Hannah’s ‘on-the-edge’ lifestyle, checking them over, discarding them on the bed. Then she pulled out a dress that puzzled her. Modest, long and flowing, it didn’t go with the others.
Lilith held it up before her and checked herself over in the mirror. Should she wear it or not?
The apartment phone shrilled, making her jump and drop the dress. Elena would call her cell. Maybe it was Pucinski. She rushed to answer the bedside unit.
“Hello?”
No answer. Her fingers gripped the receiver tighter.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
Heavy breathing was her only answer. One she didn’t like.
Her stomach tightening, she crashed the receiver into its cradle and waited for it to ring again. She tried to convince herself it had been a wrong number. Tried but didn’t really believe it.
Her gut told her it had been the kidnapper. If she could get the phone number she could give it to Pucinski to run.
She picked up the phone and looked for the caller ID — PRIVATE CALLER.
“Oh, hell.”
This time, she threw the phone across the room.
Trying to forget about the call so she could concentrate on her plan for the afternoon, she grabbed a different dress from Hannah’s closet and got ready for her “date.”
PAUL’S PALMS WERE SWEATY as he waited for Lilith to show. They wouldn’t seat him until she arrived. He checked his watch. She was late. It was ten after four. He would have to teach her better.
When he looked over to the stairs, he froze in disbelief. That couldn’t be… but it was Lilith coming up from the foyer. She was wearing a low-cut red minidress a size too small. The tightness accented her lush curves. That and her wild hair and even wilder makeup had everyone’s attention. She looked like a cheap hooker.
All eyes followed her straight to him.
Flushing in embarrassment, wanting to sink through the carpeted floor, Paul forced a smile to his lips.
