Chapter Sixteen
Natalie
When the door opened the next time, I was less afraid. It was like something had shifted between us, and even though I was going to do everything in my power to get out of there and not let my guard down, I felt a little more at ease than previous times when the door opened.
I was sitting crossed legged on the bed, and a huge smile spread across my face when my eyes connected with Duke’s arms that held a blanket, a book, a huge sandwich, and an apple. The most food he’d given at one time.
“I think I picked something good for you. Right up your alley,” he said, sitting the things down on the floor. Appearing proud of his selection, my eyes flicked from the book cover to him.
“Thank you,” I whispered, overcome with emotions at the simplest gesture. He gave a small smirk and disappeared.
I devoured the book, along with the sandwich and apple, all while wrapped in the blanket. The normalcy of reading snuggled in a blanket left me feeling apprehensive. Maybe I was becoming complacent, but it felt so good to be distracted from the worry of what was coming next.
And to my surprise, what came next was the last thing I expected.
The banging outside the door drew my attention away from the book. I hovered close to the door, hoping to be able to comprehend what the noise was. The doorknob rattled and an uneasy feeling came over me.
Duke shuffled in dragging a small card table, which he leaned against the wall and then stepped out for a second. The door was wide open. This was my chance I thought, but my feet wouldn’t move. I willed them to rush through the door, but they felt cemented to the floor. Then Duke was back with two folding chairs and a bag slung over his shoulder. My chance was gone as quickly as it presented itself.
Duke busied himself setting up the table and chairs and then laying out a meal. An actual meal. The smell overwhelmed the room and me, and without even knowing it, tears sprang to my eyes and began rolling down my cheeks.
“I thought we could have dinner together,” Duke said, looking a little uncomfortable as he waited for my response.
“As if I have a choice,” I spat at him, not wanting to show how grateful I felt inside for these two small tokens he’d given me in a short time.
“A reward for being a good girl,” he replied, gesturing for me to take a seat. Even though every ounce of my being wanted to throw the food in his face, I couldn’t bring myself to do it as I gobbled up every bite I could.
We ate in silence. My mouth was too full at every moment to even think about talking.
“There’s more where this came from if you can continue to be calm, Nat. I need you to hang in here for a little longer,” He spoke softly while packing up the remnants of our dinner.
I studied him with wide eyes. What was his end game? I needed to know.
“You know you could let me go, Duke? I don’t know anything. Even if I wanted to tell someone about all of this, I don’t know anything.” I pleaded.
“You know that’s not possible, Nat. I’m hopeful you’ll understand when it’s all over,” he said sadly, leaving me staring after him.
“Right now, or never!” I screamed after him as the door shut, and with that we were back to the fragile existence of captor and captive.
Chapter Seventeen
Duke
Tara and I met for a second time at the same dinner. This time I arrived first and waited patiently in a booth for her. She looked serious when she sat across from me and pulled something from her purse. A file folder, which she slid across the table, loomed in front of me.
Without a word, I opened the folder, and there was a photo of my Shonna smiling and alive with a gentleman I didn’t recognize, and while I flipped through the other photos, the other women, the other victims, were also with the same man, casting doubt on my theory that Morton was our guy.
“No!” Shaking my head in disbelief.
“You have to consider that Morton isn’t who you think he is,” she said convincingly.
“I’ve never seen these,” I said, nodding toward the closed folder sitting on the table between us.
“There are probably a lot of things you haven’t seen or don’t know about this case. It went cold because there wasn’t enough solid evidence to tie in a suspect. Morton was never on that list.”
“I know why it went cold.” I snapped; then, added more calmly, “I’ve done my research. I know Morton is our guy.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then all these years have been wasted, and I’ll never bring justice for my Shonna,” I said quietly, letting the emotions play out on my face.
Tara’s hand gently covered mine, and she gave a brief squeeze. “I trust you Duke. I know you wouldn’t steer this in the wrong direction; therefore, I’m going to help you, but you have to be open to my suggestions too. Together we can nail this scumbag. Going rogue, we can’t.” She was referring to the dark days when the obsession to bring justice overtook my life, where no one was good enough to trust, and my own dark thoughts became so challenging to avoid while I was down the rabbit hole trying to live in a killer’s world.
TARA’S CAR FOLLOWED me to my country estate, the one place that no one even knew existed, but with Natalie there, I had to set up my work there instead of at the city apartment where Natalie knew me.
“Before I let you into my world, into my head, I need to know that no matter what, you’re in?” I inquired, my hand hovering over the lock on the office door.
“You can trust me, Duke,” she said and then added, “But before you let me in. I need to know if there are any loose ends. There can’t be any loose ends. You know that, right?” It was like she knew what was locked in the basement.
“There is one,” I said being transparent and honest.
“You need to take care of it then,” she said sternly.
“Consider it taken care of.” The lock unlocking echoed throughout the quiet house, and the door swung open, letting in the first eyes other than my own.
“This is impressive,” Tara said in astonishment at the research, photos, maps, newspaper articles that hung in various spots around the room, all leading to the piece of paper that read Morton Todd.
“I told you I did my research.” I said as I brushed past her.
“Who’s this?” She pointed to a small photo of Natalie, leaning low to inspect it.
“A friend.”
“The loose end.” She didn’t miss a beat. She was good. This partnership is going to work out well, I thought.
Chapter Eighteen
Natalie
I had read the book a dozen times by then or at least it felt like that. The bucket was about to overflow, the growling noise was my stomach, and the walls looked to be closing in again like they did the first few hours there.
He neglected me then, and he was doing it again.
The up and downs of my emotions was almost more than I could handle. I was losing myself in the battle to keep myself alive.
The unknown was the greatest stressor of them all. When would he come to me again? Which Duke would it be? When would it be the last time?
The need to stay strong floundered each passing day, and I was left with only my thoughts again, it was hard not to look back on the signs I should have seen and missed all too many times.