She hurried on with, “We know of you! We’ve been to your father’s church. I’m so sorry—I’m Amy Larson and this is Hunter Forrest.”
Kaila Franklin had hurried over and said quickly, “Casey, yeah, these are two of the guys—sorry—two of the agents working on the murders.”
“Oh!” Casey said, her eyes wide.
By then, Hunter had slid into the booth, as well, taking the seat next to Amy.
“Your father seems to be a great guy, and the church is really nice,” he said.
Casey leaned back, looking at them, and then at Kaila, and then them again.
“My father is a great guy,” she said passionately.
“Right,” Amy said, frowning slightly, seeming unsure where Casey was going with this.
Casey lowered her voice and said, “If anything, my father is too good a man.”
“They’re okay, Casey. Honestly, I’ve been telling you.” Kaila said the words quickly, and then moved on to respond to a man by the window who had lifted a hand to summon her, ready to give her his order.
“So, you’re okay,” Casey said dryly, studying them. “FBI—Big Brother. But you’re okay.”
“He’s FBI. I’m FDLE,” Amy said. “We’re trying to catch a murderer. What happened here was brutal, cruel and beyond horrible.”
“My father wasn’t involved. I know you’ve been to the church. You need to know my father wasn’t involved.”
“Your father does appear to be a good man, an upright citizen,” Hunter agreed. “But then, you have Artie and Hank—two young men from one of the church’s youth groups—holding an older couple hostage. They’re thought to have been answering an apparent call to arms for the Apocalypse.”
Casey leaned back. She shook her head, saying again, “It’s not my dad. My dad is a good man. I get scared, though. I...I need Kaila!” she said.
Hunter saw that, behind the grill, Frank was pretending to work—while watching them.
Amy reached across the table and took the young woman’s hand. “It’s okay,” she told her. “Casey, do you know a girl going by the name of Billie? We think she’s in trouble.”
Casey leaned forward, words tumbling from her lips. “This is true—whatever it is, my dad isn’t involved. And we don’t know what’s really going on—we just don’t know! We met Billie. We met Billie because Patty and Martin were helping her. Sometimes Kaila helps out at their motel, cleaning rooms. They told Billie that she might be able to get food at the diner when she needed it. And so Kaila would slip food to her, and we were always so careful! She was afraid of everyone. And after the first dead woman was found on the cross...she was more terrified than ever.”
“But terrified of who?” Amy asked.
Casey shook her head. “She didn’t know. She’s from Mexico. She and her family were caught trying to get across the border. She didn’t know exactly where. They were split up and sent to different facilities. Then she was put in a van with other girls and taken somewhere in the woods where they were promised that they’d be safe. There was a preacher, and he talked about how being part of the group would protect them, and then they were asked to have sex with strange men. They were given—or forced to take—‘happy’ pills and they were told that brought them closer to God, and then they’d be safe forever and loved in the community. The community would hide them from the evil people who would come to throw them back into their countries.”
“Why didn’t you call the police and get help for her?” Hunter asked.
“She begged us not to. She begged us just to hide her,” Casey said desperately.
“But the police, or the FBI—”
Casey shook her head. “She was so nervous about any member of the police. And I don’t know if it’s because...”
“Because?” Amy encouraged.
“Because of me.” She lowered her voice still further. “I had my own doubts. Because of Hank. His father is dead, and I always wanted to feel bad for Hank. I’m sorry to speak ill of the dead, but Hank was just... I don’t know...born evil. Or maybe his horrible alcoholic father made him evil. He used to beat Hank something awful, but he had him brainwashed, too, because the cops would go to his place sometimes. Hank would say he’d tripped or done something stupid, and his dad just kept on beating him. Hank always kind of had a thing for me. Like I said, I was sorry for him, but...he was scary! He said he was high on the chain of humanity, that the people who treated him badly would get what they had coming to them, one day. He...cornered me outside the church one night—my dad’s church. He told me I’d be lucky to call him mine and didn’t know what I was missing. He said maybe he’d show me. I told him I’d scream. He started laughing and told me to scream away—the law wasn’t going to stop him, no one was going to stop him. The law, he told me, well, the law wanted to be better, too. We get some highway patrol out here now and then, but we mostly don’t see the police. Detective Mulberry has come around through the years. But he just basically checks on people. He worked the case when Barney Hough fell in his barn, but it was just an accident. I mean, Mulberry has always been a good guy to all of us, so...” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I didn’t know if Hank was trying to scare me, or if we do have corrupt cops anywhere.”
“I swear to you, we’re on your side,” Amy told her. “Where is Billie now?”
Casey didn’t answer. But Kaila came to the table and leaned over it, saying, “We don’t know. She hasn’t come around. She hasn’t been at the motel, and she hasn’t come here for food. We’re scared. She is the sweetest, most innocent and most vulnerable woman we’ve ever met. One thing—she was bright enough to know someone wanted something very bad to happen to her.”
“What do you think has happened to her?” Hunter asked. “We know the girl who was killed first—Artie called her Lady Liberty—was apparently willing to do whatever was asked of her. Hank used her to bring Artie into the group. He basically gave her to Artie for his first sexual experience, with the promise of a home, community, friends and respect to go along with everything. But I’m afraid we don’t know anything about the second victim.”
“Please... I pray it wasn’t Billie,” Casey said in a whisper.
“I don’t think it could have been. She was evidently being killed when we arrived here, when we discovered the first victim,” Amy said.
“I don’t know... I don’t know,” Casey said.
“Kaila, when we were here before, Ryan saw you hiding food. Was that for Billie?” Hunter asked.