dragged me out. I was dizzy. I couldn't stand up. I fell on the ground, a- a-dirt road. And he just got back in the van and drove away.'
Thrown on the side of the road like a sack of garbage. Something they had used and didn't need anymore. Still, she was damn lucky, Landry thought.
'I don't know how long I was laying there,' Erin said. 'Then finally I got up and started walking. I could see lights. Town. I just started walking.'
Landry said nothing for a moment. He let Erin's story sink in. He turned it over a few times in his mind, more questions shaking loose.
So, Jade and company figured out they weren't going to get the ransom. They dumped the girl rather than face a murder rap. Only, the way Landry saw it, Van Zandt was Jade's accomplice, and he was already under the lights for one murder. Why risk Erin Seabright identifying them? Because they knew she couldn't do so positively? Because they had taken pains to make certain there was no physical evidence to tie them to her?
That remained to be seen, of course. The clothes Erin had been wearing were at the lab being scrutinized under microscopes and fluorescent lights, swabbed and stained and picked over with tweezers.
Maybe letting Erin go was just part of the game for them. Let the victim live, and let her live with the knowledge that she can't put them away. Let the vic live, and let the cops live with the knowledge of their guilt, but no evidence to prove it. Power trip.
The problem with that theory was that Landry had no intention of letting anyone get away with anything.
'Erin, did they ever talk about why they singled you out?'
She shook her head, her eyes on Landry's microcassette recorder sitting on the bed tray, tape rolling. 'I was so drugged up most of the time. I know they wanted money. They knew Bruce has money.'
'Did they call him Bruce?'
'They called him I don't know how many times-'
'When they talked about him,' Landry clarified, 'did they use his first name? Did they call him Bruce?'
Erin nodded, though he thought she didn't get the significance of her answer.
'Did you tell them his name?'
'No. They just knew it.'
It struck Landry odd the perps would call Seabright by his first name. Familiar. Like a friend.
'I could have died because of him,' Erin said bitterly. 'I can't believe my mother stays with him. She's so weak.'
'People are complicated,' Landry offered, out of his element.
Erin just looked at her lap and shook her head.
'Erin, how many videotapes did they make of you while you were in the trailer?'
'I don't know. Three or four. It was so humiliating. They made me beg. They did things to me. They hit me.' She started to cry again. 'It was horrible.'
That son of a bitch, Landry thought. Three or four tapes. Seabright had handed over one besides the tape he had picked up at the ransom drop.
'Erin, did either of the men have sex with you?'
The tears came harder. 'They k-kept drugging me. I couldn't do anything about it. I c-couldn't stop them. I c- couldn't d-do anything.'
'We're going to try really hard to do something about it now, Erin. We'll work together-you and me-to build the case against them. Deal?'
She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and nodded.
'Get some rest,' Landry said as he started for the door.
'Detective Landry?'
'Yes?'
'Thank you.'
Landry walked out hoping he would be able to really give her something to thank him for sooner rather than later.
I was waiting down the hall when Landry came out of Erin's hospital room. He didn't look surprised to see me. He stopped outside her door, took out his cell phone, and made a call that lasted about three minutes. When he ended the call, he glanced in the opposite direction down the hall, toward the nurses' station, then came toward me.
'What's she saying?' I asked as we walked toward the emergency exit.
'She says it was Jade, but that the kidnappers wore masks the whole time and they kept her doped up on ketamine. She never actually saw Jade. She can't identify the other guy at all. She says he rarely spoke.'
'That doesn't sound like Van Zandt,' I said. 'I've never met anyone who liked the sound of his own voice better than Tomas Van Zandt.'
'But she'd know his voice, because of the accent,' Landry said. 'Maybe he's smarter than he looks.' He sighed and shook his head. 'She won't make a good witness.'
He was frowning, and I could tell I had only a fraction of his attention. He was mentally replaying what Erin had told him, trying to find a way to work it into a lead or lead him to a piece of evidence.
'She doesn't need to be a good witness, yet,' I reminded him. 'You've got enough for Jade to be arraigned. Maybe you'll come up with some forensic evidence.'
'Yeah. Don't strain yourself in your enthusiasm,' he said sarcastically.
I shrugged. 'What do you have on him I don't know about? Have you come up with anything from his condo?'
He said nothing.
'Anything from the girls' apartment?'
'Some snapshots of Jade. One of him and Erin together. Someone wrote on the back: 'To Erin. Love, Don.' Jill had the pictures stashed. She had scratched out Erin's face and name with a ballpoint pen.'
'All the girls love Donnie.'
'I don't see it, myself,' Landry muttered.
'Have you found whether or not he owns or rents property other than the condo?'
'He wouldn't be stupid enough to hold Erin on property that could be traced back to him. And I couldn't get that lucky.'
'How did she get away?'
'She says they let her go. They figured they weren't getting the money, so they tossed her in the back of the van, drove her around, and dumped her like an old rug.'
'So, she can't say where they held her.'
'No. A trailer house. That's all she knows.'
'Could you tell anything from the last videotape? Any background sounds?'
'There was some noise in the background. The techno-geeks are trying to figure it out. Sounded like heavy machinery to me.'
'What did Erin say about it?'
He looked out the window. 'That she wasn't sure. That they kept her drugged. Special K, she says. It's easy to come by,' Landry said. 'Especially for people who work around veterinarians.'
'But it's not a sedative we use on horses,' I told him. 'It's commonly used on small animals.'
'Still, the access is there.'
'What about Chad?'
'He never left the Seabright house last night,' Landry said, opening his phone again. 'Besides, Erin and Chad had an intimate relationship. You think she wouldn't recognize him while he was raping her?'
'Maybe he was the silent one. Maybe he just watched the partner do her. Maybe they had her so drugged up, she wouldn't have recognized Santa Claus if he was bending over her.'
Landry scowled at me while he checked his messages. 'You know what? You're a pain in the ass, Estes.'
'Yeah, like that's news.' I slipped down from the ledge. 'Well, what the hey, Landry. Just kill them all and let God sort 'em out.'
'Don't tempt me. Half the people involved in this girl's life belong in prison, if you ask me,' he muttered as he
