Well.
That's a fighter.
“You have no idea where he took you?” Aidan pressed.
Carol shook her head. “Wait.”
Aidan and Shaun watched her closely as she reflected on what Aidan imagined to be the worst few hours of her life.
“I saw a sign...I saw...Broad Street. I came out of a large building. The smell inside was like sawdust. Then I saw colorful windows.” Her head wavered around the room as though she wasn't sure where to look. “That's all I can remember.”
“Colorful?” Shaun echoed. “Like stained? Maybe a church?”
“Maybe,” Carol replied. “I'm sorry, everything's jumbled. All I kept thinking was 'I've got to get away.'“
Shaun regarded Aidan. “The St. Mary's Cathedral is on Broad Street. There's an old warehouse across the street from it.”
“That's good,” Aidan told Carol. He put a hand on her shoulder. “You did real good.”
“When I noticed she was missing,” her husband began. He seemed to be in a daze. “I called around, trying to find her. I was told a serial killer had been killing women around town. A buddy of mine said all the victims were blonde.” He glanced from Shaun to Aidan. “It was him, wasn’t it?”
Aidan looked into his eyes and saw the worry. He empathized with him and nodded, informing the staff sergeant they were posting a few men outside the room for Carol’s protection. He assured him that because of his wife, they could be closer to finding him.
The doctor would take a look at her eyes later, and if he could, he’d remove the patches. Then Carol may be able to speak to a forensic artist. Even if he had worn a disguise, it would give them something to work with. Maybe he wore the same disguise at work. Maybe someone had seen him hanging around.
54
SO FAR, THERE hadn’t been any news report regarding the abduction of the girl that had gotten away.
But that didn't mean he was in the clear.
The police were tricky.
They seemed to enjoy hiding details in order to draw them out.
Over the last few days, he’d been watching as Jordan Blake reported Good Samaritan stories, now that he was back at WJFX. It made him laugh that a talent like Jordan's was being used in such a feeble way.
He'd been watching him, and he could tell the reporter was aching for actual news.
And the people of Augusta didn't know he remained in town. They went about their business as carefree as they did before he entered the picture.
That needed to change.
“Daddy,” Jamie interrupted his thoughts. “What are you sitting all alone in the dark for?”
He looked at his daughter, who peeked into the room. She wasn’t supposed to enter his office, ever. But he didn’t yell at her. Instead, he smiled at his daughter and set her in his lap.
She put her right arm around his neck.
“Well,” he said with a sigh, “Daddy's just trying to work out an issue he's been having.”
“Like what?” Her eyes twinkled as only a child of eight would.
“Some bad men are trying to keep a secret. Something everybody needs to know.”
Jamie frowned. “The bad men?”
He nodded slowly. “The police and the FBI.” He positioned her on his lap so he could see her face better, using the glow of the hall light. “You see, people do things in this world. Things some people believe are wrong. It’s the police's job to tell us about those things.”
“But they don't?”
“No,” he told her. “They don't. They keep it a secret. And secrets are a killer. So, I'm trying to figure out how I am going to stop them.”
“Oh,” she said.
He knew she didn't understand.
But she would.
As she got older, she would understand it all. He'd make sure.
He kissed her cheek and told her to go find Mommy and see what she was up to. Before she jumped off his lap, he asked her to not tell her mother about what they discussed.
“We don't want her to worry, right?” he asked.
Jamie dutifully shook her head.
“That's my girl.”
As his daughter skipped out of the room, closing the door behind her, he turned on the desk lamp, then removed a new burner phone from the drawer to send Jordan Blake a quick text.
It wasn't right the public didn't know about the girl that had managed to get away.
So he decided to help the good reporter out.
In the process, he might even manage to help himself. It might help him find the woman. Then he could finish what he started.
In the meantime, he called around for a new point of operation.
After an hour, he'd finally found the perfect place. The owners were subletting while on summer vacation in Europe, so they didn't need to meet with him or anything. He promised to wire the money to their account this afternoon.
He’d requested for someone to leave the key under a rock for him.
The house was in the heart of the West Lake subdivision and had a basement.
Talk about hiding in plain sight.
55
THE WAREHOUSE ON Broad Street was formerly an electronics store. It had gone out of business six months before and sat empty until two months ago—shortly after the offender went off the grid.
According to the leasers, they needed to rent it out, so when a man contacted them, offering double the asking price to remain off the books, they jumped at it.
The man in question went by the name Harlan Groves.
They ran the name in the system and found
