Jillian walked around the table, skimming through each document before she went back to the timeline. “I think I can fill in some of these blanks with what I found this week.”
White copy paper ruffled between her fingers as she dug through the first box. She started with a diagram of the street where the accident took place, putting the larger sheet of paper near the top of Ellie’s arrangement. Eyes narrowed in concentration as she dug deeper into the papers, she wondered if what she was searching for was in one of the other boxes. No, she knew it was in this one. The call log from that night was one of the last documents she’d printed, so it should be—
She barely suppressed a yelp of triumph when she found what she was looking for. She overlapped the two papers, setting them between the article about Ellie’s hospital stay and the notes in Ellie’s own writing about the night she was kidnapped.
“These are the dispatch logs from that night. The first one is Chief Johnson calling in the accident at eleven twenty-one p.m. The second is a 9-1-1 call from a Ms. Evelyn Bradford claiming she saw two men shove a woman into the back of a car five minutes later that same night.”
Ellie’s lips parted, and her eyes widened with excitement. “Was she questioned?”
That familiar pit Jillian got in her stomach whenever she had to tell Ellie she didn’t have all the information about her kidnapping opened up, and she reluctantly shook her head. “I’m sorry. She wasn’t. Ms. Bradford was a frequent caller, and she lived right here.” Jillian used a pencil to circle a house on the farthest corner from the little rectangle Chief Johnson had drawn to show where his squad car was when he hit Ellie. “It was dark, and her vision was so poor she couldn’t tell that the vehicle was a police cruiser, so no one paid her much attention.”
“Was?” Ellie sighed. “I’m guessing that means she’s not alive for us to question now?”
“She was eighty years old, thirteen years ago. She’s in a memory care facility near her family in Georgia now.”
Ellie nodded, accepting the information easier than Jillian had anticipated. “So, that’s one dead end down.”
“But it backs up the chief’s story, doesn’t it? That’s something.”
“It is, but it doesn’t prove that the chief wasn’t working with the kidnapper that night.”
Jillian’s mouth dropped open. “Do you really think that? I know I’m no detective, but I’ve read his reports, and the notes from the office shrink and Chief Wellesley. By all accounts, he was consistent about the events of that night and sincere about how it affected him.”
“I don’t suspect him, if I’m being honest, but I can’t rule out anyone right now. Fortis thinks I’m paranoid, but I know this is more than just one dirty detective.”
“I agree.” Jillian drew in a long breath. “I just don’t get that vibe from the chief.”
“I hope you’re right. Having him in the hospital with me really changed how I viewed police officers and their contributions to the community. When I woke up, he was there in the chair, uniform wrinkled from staying in the hospital room, watching me. He was nodding off with his hat hanging from one finger, about to fall onto the floor and…” Ellie gasped, her hands going to her mouth. “That’s the first time I’ve been able to remember it that clearly.”
“You’ve been remembering a lot lately. Maybe it’s the hypnosis?”
Ellie grimaced, giving Jillian a guilty look. “I don’t know. I didn’t tell you, but I couldn’t even stay under at the last session. It’s like there’s a wall in my brain, and I can’t get around it.”
“But you remembered this when you were just talking about the incident.” Jillian slid the empty notepad to Ellie and handed her a pen. “Write that down and just keep writing. Talk out loud if you have to but let whatever comes to you come out without thinking too hard about it.”
Ellie took the pen, her eyes narrowing. Skeptical. Nevertheless, her pen flew over the yellow-tinted paper so fast Jillian could barely keep up. “Johnson was there when I woke up, and he told me about the accident. He had a scruffy beard at the hospital, and I remember that he was cleanshaven when he came out of the police car.”
“Was he wearing his uniform hat? A rain slicker? Tell me about how he looked when he first found you.”
“I was in so much pain.” Ellie closed her eyes, the pen freezing in place. “He appeared in the headlights and looked so shocked. His skin was damp, but even in the pale light, I could tell that he was young. His eyes were so wide, but his voice was very calm. He kept telling me I would be all right.”
“Can you back up? Do you remember the impact?”
Ellie started to shake her head and went still. “I do. I was running, and I could hear the man. Jillian, he was right behind me, laughing. I was so tired, and I’d been running without one shoe.”
“With one shoe?”
Ellie nodded, the blood draining from her face. “I lost it somewhere. I don’t know where. My foot was sore and bleeding, but I still forced myself to run. He was so close I could hear him breathing, so I ran between two cars. There was a light, and I thought I was near a grocery store or a gas station, and I was relieved. Then I got scared again when I realized it might be closed, and I could have just run all that way to die without being found.”
Jillian nodded, her heart racing, knowing what was coming next.
Ellie swallowed so hard Jillian could hear the click in her throat. Ellie inhaled through her nose, her hand going to her abdomen as she sat down in a chair at the table. “In the next instant, I was flying through the air. I
