Mallory nodded, looking so damn weary. Looking years older than eighteen. She hung her head, more out of exhaustion than shame, Adam thought.
‘I told you once that I asked a stranger to use her phone,’ she whispered. ‘While he kept me.’ For six years her captor had held her, abusing her on the Internet for millions of pedophiles to see. ‘I called the police and told them what he was doing to me. The police came. And one of them recognized me from online. Told him, that he wouldn’t tell if he could . . . you know.’
‘Rape you too,’ Meredith said quietly.
Adam hated this story. Hated that it was true, that it had happened. That it had happened to Mallory. Hated that they’d found no trace of her call to the police. Hated that they’d found no evidence that any cop had ever investigated her call for help. He hated that she’d been raped by anyone, much less by a cop who should have protected her.
Oh my God. His stomach lurched as his brain put the pieces together. She’d known her attacker tonight. It was the same guy. This is a cop doing this. A cop killing to protect his secrets. His gaze collided with Meredith’s and saw that she’d come to the same conclusion.
He left Meredith’s side to crouch next to Mallory so that he could hear every nuance of her answers. ‘This was the guy tonight? The cop?’
‘No. His friend.’
He kept his voice calm, grateful Mallory trusted him enough to tell him this. He couldn’t even imagine how hard it was for her to say. ‘The cop brought a friend?’
‘Yes. Several.’
He swallowed hard. ‘Mallory, I don’t know all the details from what happened before, because I wasn’t on your case. So can you tell me now about his friends that came with him. Were they cops?’
‘I don’t know. Some of them? Maybe?’
‘Was the guy who grabbed you tonight?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said again, desperately. ‘But I knew his voice.’ She was shaking. ‘He hurt me.’ Mallory gripped her hands together so hard her knuckles were white.
‘Okay,’ he soothed. ‘Can you describe any of them?’
‘They wore masks. But the cop had a birthmark. Or maybe a scar. It was on his chest. By his heart. His friend . . . I don’t know. I only knew his voice.’
‘Thank you,’ he said softly. ‘I hate to ask you all these questions.’
‘I understand,’ Mallory whispered hoarsely.
‘Can you describe the birthmark?’
‘It was red. Looked like a burn? It might have been a burn.’
‘Dark red? Pink?’
‘Medium red.’
‘Okay. And the shape?’
‘Square, but slanted. Like a diamond, almost.’ Her voice had thinned and her body swayed and he worried that she’d collapse where she sat. She had a spine of steel, but at the same time was so very fragile. Brittle. He feared he’d snap her if he pushed too hard.
‘All right.’ He’d stop for now, resume later if he needed to. ‘Thank you.’
Meredith drew a deep breath. Let it out in a weary gust of air. ‘What now?’
‘We regroup, have another look at the evidence. Come up with a new plan. Because this changes everything.’ Especially if they were looking for a goddamn cop.
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Sunday 20 December, 10.20 P.M.
Adam met Deacon as his cousin came through the ER’s double doors. ‘You needed to see me?’ Deacon asked.
Adam motioned to an empty exam room. ‘In here.’ He met Deacon’s worried eyes when he closed the door behind them.
‘Hey, you okay?’ Deacon asked.
‘Yeah. Just . . . I think we might be looking for a cop.’
Deacon’s unique eyes, each half brown, half blue, popped wide open. ‘Well. Not what I was expecting. Why?’
Adam told him what Mallory had revealed about her attacker today and Deacon slowly sat in a chair.
‘Holy God,’ he murmured, running his hand through his spiky white hair. ‘Do Meredith and Kate know?’
‘Meredith does. She was with me when Mallory told us. I haven’t seen Kate yet. I thought we could talk to her together. Dani says she’s blaming herself.’
‘Because that’s Kate,’ Deacon said with a sigh. ‘Any of us would do the same.’
‘True enough. What’s going on outside? Any sightings of the shooter?’ The first responders had put out a BOLO on the shooter who’d escaped on foot from the hospital parking lot. Adam was so relieved that he hadn’t confronted Kate in his terror-driven anger. She’d really done an amazing job under the circumstances. ‘What about the car he stole?’
The car’s owner had run into a convenience store ‘for just a second,’ leaving the car parked with the motor running. ‘He ditched it already. We haven’t had any reports of more thefts, so he’s either on foot or he hotwired or jacked another car. As for the scene outside, CSU is doing their thing. There’s a lot of blood, which you already saw. Quincy got there a few minutes after you came inside. He’s like a field marshal out there. ‘Do this, do that, get out of our way.’ I like him and he’s good at his job. He can be brusque, though. Anyway, he’s sent the rifle Kate found in the SUV to the lab. The serial number’s been filed away, but he thinks they can raise it.’
‘Excellent. What about the SUV?’
‘He’s having it transported to the garage so he can go over it with a fine-toothed comb.’ Deacon raked a hand through his hair again, clearly agitated. It had been his habit from the time they’d been small boys. ‘A fucking cop?’ He sucked in a breath. ‘As in maybe the cop that raped her years ago? The one we thought was just posing as a cop?’
‘She said he was the cop’s friend. It makes sense that they’d want her gone if they think she can identify one or both of them. She was targeted the very first day she left Mariposa House. Up until then she was safe in the mansion.’
‘With either Parrish Colby or Kendra Cullen there most of the time.’
Adam nodded. ‘A Fed and a cop as bodyguards would be a deterrent. Plus all of us volunteering. And Diesel installed a kickass security system. Nobody’s getting in there.’
‘So he waited until she was out of Mariposa House.’
Adam nodded again. ‘So I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure how they found out that Mallory was going to be out that day and how they knew she’d be at that restaurant. Trip’s talked to all of the girls at the house and they all swear they didn’t even know where Meredith was taking Mallory, much less tell anyone outside. Wendi gave Trip access to the house’s landline call logs. Nothing out of the ordinary there. A few of the girls have cell phones. We can look at those.’
‘I hate to do that,’ Deacon admitted. ‘Each of the girls at Mariposa has had her privacy stolen by her abuser. I hate to violate their privacy too, but we will if we have to. Did Meredith tell anyone where she was taking Mallory?’
‘Her friends. Wendi knew. I overheard her talking about it to Kendra when I was doing a repair at Mariposa last week. Someone could have overheard her making the reservation or have access to her calendar. She may remember something today that she was too rattled to tell us yesterday.’
Deacon’s laugh was mirthless. ‘And she’s not rattled today?’
Adam thought about that moment between them, right before Mallory had dropped her bombshell. They’d been cocooned together, gazes locked, her holding their joined hands to her cheek. She’d been . . . at peace.
‘I think she’ll be able to think more clearly about it now that she knows that she isn’t the target,’ he murmured.
Deacon gave him a look that was smugly satisfied. ‘Took you fucking long enough.’
Adam raised his brows. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You two have been dancing around each other for a year. More than a year. God. I’ve been wanting to smack you upside the head and say just get the fuck on with it! Faith kept saying it was none of my business, which is ridiculous.’
Adam stared at him. I guess I wasn’t so discreet after all. ‘Um . . . I’m sorry?’