He barked a laugh. “You can thank your local sheriff for that one. I met him at Haints. A few drinks in and that man has a loose tongue. He bragged that he heard you talking to the deputy. The rest was easy.”
They’d bonded over their animosity toward her. Ellie wanted to scream.
“Did you know that that’s my bar?” he asked.
“You own Haints?” Ellie asked, shocked.
“I bought it because it was across from the cemetery where Cici is buried. And to be close to the cops.” His fingers dug into her arms. “Where I should have been all along, with my fellow officers.” His sinister laugh rang in her ears. “Where I could keep an eye on you.”
“You put that blood on my porch,” Ellie said. “The blood—”
“I took from your precious friend,” he snarled. “Imagine my fun watching it drain from her body. And I didn’t have to go anywhere near your house. Vinny did that for me.”
“But what about Cord? You put his print on Shondra’s truck?”
“Easy peasy.” He laughed again.
“How did you know about his upbringing? About Finton?”
Another sardonic laugh, and he shook her so hard her teeth rattled. “Because I’m the best detective,” he said sharply. “What a mistake the academy made… Once you spilled your guts to the therapist, all I had to do was a little investigating.” He bounced up and down on his heels like a kid with too much energy. “When I learned about his foster family, I knew he’d make the perfect patsy. And finding all those books in his house gave me all the information I needed to plan out the disposal sites.”
“And Finton? You let us think he was part of it. Was he?”
“That sick creep. No. But he was the icing on the cake. With his past and McClain’s, it was easy to make them look like conspirators,” Burton said with a grin. “Really, Detective, I helped you put away a bad guy. I should receive a police commendation.”
He was totally deranged.
Keep him talking, Ellie. She needed time. “Tell me this, Hugh. How did you get that woman to agree to be a fake therapist and help you?”
He pulled at the collar around her neck, choking her. “I have my ways.”
“You held her hostage and abused her,” Ellie said, figuring it out. “Stockholm syndrome.”
“You’d be surprised what a woman will do when she thinks she’s going to die.” He threw his head back and laughed, the ugly sound booming off the concrete walls. “She was easy to manipulate, to train, just like the dogs.”
“You’re a sociopath,” Ellie said, earning another slap across the jaw.
“Once I had her under my thumb, I could make her do anything for me. Not like you or Cathy.”
“Where is she?” Ellie asked.
He shrugged, then brushed his calloused fingers across her cheek. A second later, he snatched off the rubber band holding her ponytail and spread her hair over her shoulders. “Your daddy should have taught you how to be a lady.”
“And yours should have taught you how to be a man,” Ellie said, unable to resist the barb.
He hit her again, this time so hard her head snapped backward and the dog collar cut into her neck. She gagged as he hauled the chain, dragging her after him.
“That’s a good girl, Ellie. Good girl.”
Tears blurred her eyes at the menacing edge to his deep voice, but she blinked them back. She refused to give him the satisfaction of crying in front of him.
Her body ached as he heaved her into the hallway, into another cold room, where the air was thick with the smell of blood. Three metal cages glinted in the dark.
Two were empty, but she saw the outline of a body in the other.
One Hundred Thirty-Six
Bluff County Hospital
Derrick found Randall Reeves perched by his wife’s bedside.
He knocked on the door, which stood ajar, the sound of machines beeping and whirring from inside. Randall looked up, surprised, then something akin to suspicion settled on his craggy face.
Derrick motioned for him to step into the hallway, and Randall kissed his sleeping wife, before striding toward him.
Anger darkened Randall’s face, his tone defensive. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s about Ellie,” Derrick said, knowing time was of the essence.
Randall softened somewhat. “What about Ellie?”
“The Weekday Killer has her.”
Randall balled his hands by his sides and straightened, looking more like the intimidating man he used to be. “How did you let this happen?” he barked. “You were supposed to be working with her.”
Guilt slammed into Derrick. He’d been beating himself up the entire drive over. “I don’t have time to get into everything, but the bottom line is that I went to Ellie’s house and found signs of a struggle in her bedroom.”
The man’s face turned ashen. “No sign of Ellie?”
He shook his head. “One of his victims is in the hospital, but she never saw the man’s face. But he told her that Ellie had to pay for humiliating him. That means the killer knows Ellie personally, that they crossed paths. Captain Hale is reviewing her old cases, but you know her better than anybody. Is there anyone you can think of who hates her?”
Randall pinched the bridge of his nose. “She and Bryce have some tension, but he wouldn’t hurt her or kill all those women.”
“He’s been cleared,” Derrick said, earning a surprised look from Randall. “But think. There has to be someone in her past.”
“You know Ellie. She’s a ball buster and has pissed off a lot of people, but… to want to kill her. I…”
“If you don’t give me something here, it might be too late for your daughter.” Derrick barely resisted beating the damn man. “Think about it. This perpetrator forces the victims to wear a dog collar. Perhaps he trains dogs to fight?”
Randall’s frown deepened.
“He also said she humiliated him. And he mentioned something about a woman named Cathy. He could have seen Ellie in the news lately, maybe that triggered something in him. We’ve eliminated the family members of the Ghost victims.”
“You mentioned he might have trained dogs to fight?” asked Randall, pacing in the hall.
Derrick nodded.
Closing his eyes, Randall rubbed the back of his neck. “There was an officer at the academy with Ellie. An incident, but it happened a long time ago.”
Derrick’s pulse jumped. “What kind of incident?”
“He volunteered to train dogs for the K-9 units, but he was caught beating one.”
Derrick’s heart raced. “Was there anything else?”
Randall glanced back at his wife’s room, but she hadn’t moved. “Ellie was very competitive and athletic. She ran rings around a few of the men. She was faster, was mentally sharp, and also outshot a lot of them at the shooting range. She filed a complaint against the same man for sexual harassment.”
“What happened?”
“She didn’t share the details. But after she filed, some other female officers spoke up as well. An investigation ensued, and he was dismissed from the academy.” Randall worked his mouth from side to side, his face growing more and more ashen. “After he got kicked out, I heard his wife left him. I… believe they had a child, and they were killed in an accident.”