She looked stunned at my question as she said, “How could you even care how I am? I helped that monster bring you here.”
I knew Susan had been filled with guilt, especially because she knew about the baby. I needed to think of how to use that to my advantage. Time was quickly running out. There was no way of knowing how long it would be before he came after me.
“He makes the girls watch.”
Swallowing hard, I asked, “What did you say?”
Chewing on her lip, she said, “He makes them watch a few times as he fucks me. Then, once he gets tired of them crying, he fucks them over and over again until they pretty much pass out. Then he brings them back to Durango.”
Oh. My. God. Does she not see what is wrong with this? How could she help this man?
“He kills them after he rapes them?”
Susan’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh no! He told me he let’s them go.”
Dear God, this woman is delusional. “How . . . how many have there been, Susan?”
“Four, not including you.”
My hand went to my mouth to keep myself from throwing up. There had been four rape/murders in Durango that Grayson and his partner had investigated.
My stomach was feeling sick and my body ached from where Bob had kicked and punched me. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked her.
She shrugged and said, “I like you. When you came and talked at my daughter’s school I felt like I had connected to you. So when I had told Bob about you and he said he knew you, I knew it was all my fault.”
“What was all your fault?”
Susan walked back to the door and looked back at me. “I’m not sure if I will be able to talk to you again. Bob will be coming back with the items he needs for when he takes you as his.”
My stomach cramped as thoughts of what he was going to do to me raced through my mind.
Panic set in as Susan went to leave. I called out her name trying not to sound desperate. “Susan! Do you still have my purse?”
“Oh, he threw out your cell phone on the drive up to the mountains, so if that is what you think you’ll find I’m sorry.”
Fuck. Please don’t have emptied my whole purse.
“No, I really need something for my lips. I’m pretty sure I have some lip moisturizer in my purse.”
With a slight smile, she looked at me as my heartbeat drummed in my ears. Please don’t catch on to what I’m doing. Please. It felt as if time stood still while Susan stared at me lost in thought. Each breath I took was forced to seem normal as I tried to make it appear as if I only needed this one simple thing.
“Can I have your purse after he brings you back to Durango?”
Holy shit. This lady is just as crazy as he is.
I smiled sweetly. “Of course you can.”
Susan clapped and walked over to the side table and pulled it open. I was stunned to see her pull out my purse.
The room felt like it was going to spin as I watched her toss it onto the bed. “Bob already looked through it and said to keep it in here with you.”
Fighting to keep myself from running over and grabbing it, I gave her another weak smile as I watched her turn and leave the room. The moment I heard her lock the door, I counted to sixty and then rushed over to get my purse. Dumping everything out, I frantically looked for the tube of lipstick. When I saw it, I cried out in relief.
“Please work,” I whispered as I turned the tube until I heard it click. I thought Grayson was insane when he told me the lipstick tube was a tracker. Now I was praying to God it would be the one thing that saved me from this nightmare.
Throwing the lipstick back into my purse, I took out my ChapStick and ran it over my lips, sighing at the instant relief.
My eyes caught a glimpse of the bottled water, the two pieces of bread and the small container of peanut butter.
I hated peanut butter, but I needed my energy. Opening the water bottle, I drank half of it and then ate the two pieces of bread with the peanut butter. Once I was done with that, I finished the water. A light shined from outside as I jumped up and saw a truck driving up.
My body trembled as I prayed Bob didn’t make his way to see me.
Grayson
AS I STOOD before the grid map, I blew out a frustrated sigh. I stared at the pin that marked where they had found Meagan’s cell phone. After it had been printed for fingers prints, it pulled up what just what we had all thought.
The prints of Bob Freeman.
After searching in this guy’s file for a few hours last night, I finally found his mother and father’s name. I sent it off to be cross-referenced with any property north of Durango that might be in their names.
My phone had been blowing up with messages and calls from my mother, Grace, Noah, Brad and Amanda, and even Melissa, trying to find out what was going on.
I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours and the only thing I ate was a taco that Derrick insisted I eat.