“It was,” Kaila said.
“But you couldn’t find her?” Amy asked.
Kaila shook her head. “We should have called the cops,” she said dolefully.
“If something does happen to her...” Casey murmured.
“No, don’t go that route,” Hunter said firmly. “You two were her friends. You, Martin and Patty—you helped her. And we don’t have any answers yet.” He hesitated and looked at Amy. “Do you think you could sketch a likeness of our Jane Doe number two’s face, as she might have appeared in life?”
Amy stared at him for a minute. Could he read her mind? Her face was eaten—I’m not a magician!
But he kept smiling at her; others didn’t know the circumstances of the woman’s death.
“I can try.”
Amy pulled out her pad and worked. Kaila looked nervously around.
Amy created a pleasant image of a woman with long dark hair, dark eyes and a smile.
Casey looked at the image.
“No, not her,” she said.
“How do you know?” Hunter asked.
“Billie has light hair. Lighter, dirty-blond hair and pretty eyes, a soft, soft brown, like an amber or yellow. And her hair is short—like curving around her face, just about chin length. She chopped it off when she started running.”
Amy and Hunter exchanged a quick glance; they hadn’t known much about the second corpse, not from the way the body had been all but eaten. They did know she’d had long dark hair.
“When did Billie start running?”
“When they brought her down here.”
“When who brought her down here?”
“The men with the van. They brought her and a few of the other girls.” Casey paused, taking a deep breath. “Billie said the men in the van—there were three of them—brought down three girls. So, from what you’re telling me...well, Billie knew the women were transported here because they were supposed to serve men—and were convinced it was a holy mission. She escaped from a cabin somewhere and made her way out through the brush and the snakes and whatever somehow. From what I’ve seen on the news, and what I’ve learned from my father, and now you... I think the girl killed on the cross was one of the girls Billie was with. I guess the other girl—the second woman you found dead—was the third. Because that’s not Billie you sketched,” she said, looking at Amy. “I mean, I don’t think it can be.”
Amy nodded and reached across the table to squeeze Casey’s hand. “It’s not Billie.”
“Not that the murders are any less horrible,” Casey said.
“Excuse me, people think I work here,” Kaila muttered, moving away from the table to pick up an order of food Frank had set out. Then she put on her waitress smile and went and checked with her customers.
As Kaila headed to a booth, Frank left the kitchen and came around the counter. He spoke casually to a few of his customers while making his way to them.
Hunter watched him, speculative.
“You have to find these killers,” Frank said, smiling as if he pretended for anyone watching that he was just discussing his recipe for French toast. “We haven’t figured out what the hell is going on around here, but two girls are dead. It’s bad for this town. Bad for business.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Hunter told him.
“We don’t know what you know, but we know Artie was arrested, and Hank is dead. That boy never stood much of a chance, but still. Sometimes I think there just might be an evil seed and some folks are born with it.”
Frank straightened as the door to the diner opened. Agent Ryan Anders had arrived, ready for his meeting with Detective Mulberry. Time had been ticking away—they’d started early that morning interrogating Artie, driven back here, taken an airboat out to the shack and made the bloody discovery there.
Yeah, it was dinnertime.
And if they wanted to get up to Maclamara tonight, they had a good five-hour drive ahead of them.
“Hey!” Ryan said, surprised to see them there.
“Hi!” Amy said.
Frank moved away from the end of the table. “Are you joining this crew here?” he asked.
“I, uh, for a minute, sure. I’m meeting Detective Mulberry for dinner,” Ryan said.
The open seat was next to Casey. He and Casey hadn’t met yet.
Hunter quickly performed the introductions.
“Please, sit,” Casey said.
“Back to work for me. Some of us don’t get dinner breaks,” Frank said, and walked off.
Casey turned back to Amy. “Billie wouldn’t just leave, not without a word to us. She was grateful and sweet and...we were idiots. We should have done more. She should have...trusted cops, I guess,” Casey said. “They have her.”
“We think we know where they have their main group,” Hunter told her. “And we’re heading that way.”
“You’re leaving?” Casey said worriedly. “I admit, I’m afraid. For me, for my dad... My brothers are safe. They’re up at college, though... I don’t know! I worry about them, too. I swear to you, my father is a good man. But he thinks he can bring that billionaire Ethan Morrison into the fold, and that if he can do that, he can convince Morrison many of the things he does are wrong. My dad always wants the best in life—he wants to see the best in people. He believes every man can be helped. My dad thinks he can fix a man like Ethan Morrison.
“I worry sometimes my brothers think he’s cool—that the media has lied about him, and all he’s trying to do is save humanity, researching drugs that can cure cancer, that kind of thing. He scares the hell out of me, but...I love my brothers. Anyway, that’s not the here or now, but...I’m scared of what’s going on here.”
“I’m staying at the motel,” Ryan said firmly. “If any of you need me to help in any way, you make sure you have me on speed dial. I’ll come running.”
Hunter nodded. “And Detective Mulberry will be close.”
He slid out of the booth. “Amy, you and I need to get going. I don’t believe Billie is here anymore. I think they found her. They might even know we were closing in on them and got the hell out. I don’t believe you’re in danger, Casey. But we’ll make sure you’re protected. And we’ll do everything in our power to find Billie.”
Amy also stood as Kaila swept back by, anxious.
“What’s happening?” she asked.