Brock opened another desk drawer. He reached inside.
Sara tensed, but then she saw what he was doing.
Brock laid a pink scrunchie on top of one of the binders. The elastic band was sprinkled with white cartoon daisies. His hand disappeared again. He pulled out a plastic barrette. A pink headband. A red Chanel hair tie. A silver hairbrush. A plastic comb. A tortoiseshell hair clip with one of the teeth missing. Sara lost count of the number of ties and bands until Brock retrieved the last of his trophies, a long piece of white ribbon. Sara didn’t need to read the orange and blue letters to recognize the Heartsdale High School logo.
“Is that—”
“I would never hurt you, Sara.”
Heat rushed through her body. High school. Tennis team. Sara remembered tying up her hair with a ribbon exactly like the one that dangled between his fingers.
She struggled to ask, “You took that from me?”
“Yes, but only so you wouldn’t use it anymore.” He carefully laid the ribbon across both the binders. “That’s how they got my attention. A flick of the hair. Running their fingers through their curls. They’d be in the store or at the gym and just reach up and … It was those private moments that always pulled me in. It was special, only something that I would see. I would watch a light spread around them. Not like a spotlight, but a glow that came from within.”
Sara felt tears on her cheeks. She remembered the hair tie now. She had borrowed it from Tessa. Then she had lost it. Then there had been a screaming argument with slamming doors and Cathy had finally sent them both to their rooms.
Brock said, “Gina Vogel.”
The name echoed inside of Sara’s head. She could not take her eyes off the ribbon.
“I saw Gina at the grocery a few months ago. She’s very funny. You’d like her.”
“What?” Sara could only see herself at the store, Brock watching her from afar as she untied the white ribbon from her hair.
“Sara?” He waited for her to look up. “I was saving Gina for March, but I had to move things along. I knew that I wouldn’t fool you a second time.”
Sara felt the knowledge of what he was trying to say come down around her like another avalanche.
The thing they had all feared the most was coming true.
She said, “You abducted another woman?”
“Gina is my insurance policy.”
Sara looked around his office with a new understanding. He had known that it was going to come down to this. The boxes were carefully labeled. All of the paperwork was filed. This was the office of a man who had decided to put all of his affairs in order.
She said, “You want to trade Gina for what? You’re not walking out of here, Brock. There’s no way—”
“You’ll take care of Mama for me, won’t you?”
Sara moved to the edge of her chair. She could see over the green binders. Brock wasn’t planning on walking out of here. He had placed a syringe out of view of the camera. The liquid inside was dirty brown. The plunger was pulled back as far as it would go.
She shook her head. “No.”
“I can tell you where Gina is.”
“Brock—”
“You’re such a kind person, Sara. That’s why you’re here. Don’t you want to give the families closure?”
She watched his eyes go to her purse. He had known that he was being recorded.
“Gina is still salvageable.” He added, “If you find her in time.”
Sara frantically searched for a way to stop him. He was going to inject himself. What could she do? Take the revolver out of her pocket and threaten him? Shoot him? Say the codeword and hope that Will killed Brock before he could kill himself?
Gina Vogel.
Still salvageable.
“You’re a smart woman, Sara. You’ll put the pieces together.” His eyes flicked down to the binders. He was telling her what was inside. “I don’t want a trial.”
“Tell me where Gina is,” Sara pleaded. “We can stop this right now.”
His hands moved methodically behind the binder. He uncapped the syringe. Pushed the air out of the plastic barrel. “You know they’ll put me to death. Maybe I deserve it. I didn’t really give those women a choice. I’m not so far gone that I can’t see that.”
“Please,” she begged.
“I want to thank you for your friendship, Sara. I really mean it.”
“Dan. We can work something out. Just tell me where she is.”
“Wallace Road intersects at 515 about a mile south of Ellijay.”
“Please …”
The needle slid into his vein. He rested his thumb on the plunger. “Gina is two miles west, about fifty yards from the fire road. I always did like a fire road.”
Sara said the last word that he would ever hear. “Salad.”
Brock looked confused, but his thumb was already pressing down the plunger. The brown liquid shot into his vein. His mouth dropped opened. His pupils constricted.
“Oh,” he gasped, surprised by the rush.
By the time Will busted down the door, Brock was dead.
29
Gina felt something wet hitting her face. She thought a dog was pissing on her, then she thought she was in the shower, then she remembered that she was in the woods.
Her eyes opened.
The trees swayed overhead. Dark clouds. Still daylight. A drop of rain tapped against her eyeball.
Her eyes were open!
She blinked. Then she blinked again to prove that she could do it. She was controlling her eyes. She was looking up, seeing things. It was daylight. She was alone. He wasn’t here.
She had to leave!
Gina thought about the muscles in her stomach. The—the abs. The six-pack. The eight-pack. What was wrong with her? Why did her only knowledge of stomach muscles come from Jersey Shore?
For fucksakes.
He
