She rubbed her hand over her eyes, and Derrick took in her jagged nails and bruised skin.
“It was almost two weeks ago. As I was leaving my office, he attacked me at my car.”
“Did you see this woman there?” Derrick asked, showing her a photograph of the deputy. “Her name is Deputy Shondra Eastwood.”
“I didn’t know Shondra. But I heard him with her. She refused to beg and kept telling him she was a cop. He… punished her over and over again.” A sob escaped her. “I wanted to help them, but… I couldn’t… he kept me chained in a cage.”
“Do you know who he is? Did you see his face?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “He wore a ski mask all the time. And it was dark, so dark. I think we were held in a basement somewhere. There was no light, but there were steps. I… heard them creaking every time he came down.”
“How about his voice? Do you think you’d recognize it if you heard him speak?” Derrick asked, glancing back at Bryce, who was hovering in the doorway.
Biting down on her lower lip, she gave a quick nod.
“Do you have any idea of the location where you were held?”
“Somewhere in the mountains. All I remember was being in the trunk of his car and going around the winding roads. I’m sorry… I’m not being very helpful…”
The woman had been through so much. Yet she’d survived. She was here. “You’re doing great.”
Sniffing, she rubbed her finger over her throat where the wide band of bruising marred her skin. “He… put a dog collar around my neck…” she said, her voice trailing off.
Derrick bit back a sound of revulsion. That fit with Dr. Whitefeather’s findings. “How about sounds? Did you hear a noise outside? A plane or train? Cars? Anything that might help us pinpoint the location?”
She furrowed her brow. “I did hear a plane a couple of times. Like a small one. It sounded close by.”
“Okay. I’ll have my partner start searching for remote areas near a small airport or where a private plane might be able to land.”
“And… I think I heard a dog barking, maybe more than one,” she said, rubbing at her neck again.
That also fit with the theory that the killer might have trained dogs to fight. “Did he say why he was holding you hostage or killing women?”
Pain wrenched Kennedy’s face, then her cheeks reddened. “Just that he wanted me to beg. He wanted all the women on their hands and knees begging like… animals. And he called us all Cathy. He never said why but he hated her, and said we were all Cathys.”
Disgust ate at Derrick, but that might be the lead they needed. “I want you to listen to this voice and tell me if it sounds familiar.”
She nodded, clenching the bedsheet in a white-knuckled grip as he played the recording he’d taken of his conversation with the sheriff.
At the sound of his own voice, Bryce burst into the room, his face a picture of fury. “What are you doing? You didn’t have my permission to tape me.”
Stepping in front of Bryce to protect Kennedy, Derrick’s gaze met hers. “Was that the voice of the man who took you?”
One Hundred Thirty
Sunday
Somewhere on the AT
After what felt like forever, Ellie felt a tingling in her toes. She struggled to move her fingers, managing to bend her pinky slightly. Hopefully the drugs were starting to wear off.
“Where are you, you coward?” she tried to yell, but her voice emerged as a hoarse whisper.
Silence surrounded her as the darkness swept her into a black abyss, but she fought the fear running through her. She had survived the dark before and she would survive it again.
You survived the coffin, she told herself. But only because Derrick found you.
She couldn’t count on Derrick this time. He had no idea where she was. He might not even know she was missing.
In desperation, she ordered herself to turn her head. Like the rest of her body, it felt heavy, weighted down.
As she moved, metal clanked, cutting sharply into the silence. Something was around her neck. The collar. Trembling, she realized he’d chained her inside the space, and she squeezed her eyes shut to stem her rising hysteria.
When her breathing steadied, she listened again. A scratching sound echoed from somewhere in the dark.
“Hello, is anyone there?” she choked out.
Nothing.
But seconds passed, and there was another noise.
Suddenly something sounded from above. Footsteps. Shuffling. A thumping noise, as if someone was tapping their fingers on the wall.
A memory flitted through her brain. Someone else used to do that. Another man towering over her. Pushing her against a wall. His fingers tapping on the wood as his breath bathed her neck and face…
A shudder coursed up her spine as the door creaked open.
Then came his voice. “Ellie, Ellie, where are you?”
One Hundred Thirty-One
Bluff County Hospital
Kennedy’s sister rushed in on the sheriff’s heels, and Derrick raised a hand to her in a silent plea to let Kennedy answer. “Ms. Sledge?” Derrick asked. “Is that the voice you heard?” His heart pounded as he waited for her response.
“No,” she whispered. “That’s not him.”
The sheriff glared at Derrick, but the FBI agent ignored him. “Thank you so much,” he said to Kennedy. “You’ve been a big help. Now get some rest.”
Lara rushed to her sister’s side, and Derrick started to step into the hall.
“There’s one thing he said,” Kennedy murmured. “He hated Ellie, said she humiliated him, and that she was the cause of everything.”
Derrick contemplated the statement. They needed to look back at other cases Ellie had worked and look for any reference to a woman named Cathy. “If you think of anything else, please call me.”
She nodded, and her sister sank into the chair beside her, clasping her hand, as Derrick and the sheriff exited the room.
“Keep guarding her,” Derrick told the deputy.
“You had some nerve back there,” Bryce growled.
“I’m just doing my job. Besides, it was the fastest way to clear you.”
“Ellie’s ass is toast.”
“Let’s find her first, then she can explain,” Derrick replied.
Once again Derrick rang Ellie again, but got her voicemail. “I think she’s in trouble. I’m going by her house.”
“I’ll go with you,” Bryce said.
“No. I’ll drop you at your office. Get a voice recording of Finton and McClain and we’ll have Kennedy listen to it. Also, there was DNA beneath her fingernails. Send both men’s DNA samples to the lab for comparison.”
Meanwhile, he had to find out who Cathy was. She might be the key to finding Shondra and Ellie.
One Hundred Thirty-Two
Somewhere on the AT
As his voice boomed down the steps, Ellie was beginning to be able to move her hands and legs again. The cold metal floor where she lay was the bottom of a cage, she realized, and in the darkness she’d managed to reach up and feel the sides. There were bars, she figured, revolted.