Kat said, “Dad has a list of suspects he compiled about the missing girls from fifteen years ago. His top three left about the same time the girls stopped disappearing, but all three of them are now back in Prairie Creek.”
Ricki squinted at her. “Rafe Dillinger fits that category. He on the list?”
Kat nodded.
“Rafe drinks too much, and he’s a mean drunk, but I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like him. Ira tried to straighten him out when he was in high school, and it didn’t take.” She dusted her hands on her jeans. “Who are the other two?”
“Cal Haney and Skip Chandler.”
“Chandler’s name just keeps coming up. I’m not sure either one of them has ever worked at the Rocking D, but they could have been around.”
“There are more names on his list. I know them by heart. It’s been Dad’s obsession. I can write ’em down for you.”
“All right. Sam should be back by now. Let’s go talk to him.”
Ricki gave a curt good-bye to Ira as she and Kat traversed the lodge, in through the back and out the front. Delilah and Sabrina were still upstairs, and Kat heard the baby fussing and Delilah’s soft cooing as she shut the front door behind them and climbed into Ricki’s Jeep.
On the way back to the station, Kat’s brain was cluttered with thoughts of the wedding, Blair, and the baby, and she forced them aside with an effort. She was deeply involved in this investigation, and her personal life needed to be put on hold. “Ruth has a list of suspects too,” she said. “Mostly the same names as my dad’s, but a few extras.”
Ricki wheeled into the back lot. “We’ll put them together, toss around ideas, and see what shakes out. Sam went to interview Debra and Jeremy Donovan again, and Addie’s boyfriend, Dean Croft. Volunteers are still walking the fields, but there’s been no sign of Addie. She might have been transported by vehicle, and her abductor could have gone back on the road and be miles from Prairie Creek by now.”
Kat didn’t feel like he was that far away. But then she had the information Ricki didn’t know about yet. “I want you and the sheriff to hear a tape I recorded this morning from Ruth. It’s about a crime that took place fifteen years ago. A man attacked Ruth and raped her.”
Ricki’s head swung around. “That’s what she was coming in about?”
“I was there too, and so was Shiloh. He snapped a Polaroid of us skinny-dipping, and we all ran. But he caught Ruth.”
“What?”
“I know. We fought him off her, but he chased us. He wore a mask. We never saw his face. We were kids, and we swore to Ruth that we wouldn’t tell,” Kat said grimly. “We kept that promise, but Ruth has finally come forward. Listen to the tape. It’s all there.”
“Okay.”
“Ruth thinks her rapist is still around, and that there’s a strong possibility he’s related to Addie’s disappearance and Courtney’s kidnapping. I don’t think she’s wrong.”
Ricki gave Kat a long look but apparently decided to let the matter lie for the moment. Kat didn’t elaborate. Soon enough the whole world would know anyway. As soon as the PLAY button was pushed on the recorder.
Chapter 23
Sheriff Sam Featherstone punched the OFF button of the recorder and then sat back in his chair. Ricki and Kat were in chairs across from him. He had already slid the black-and-white photo of the three girls from its gold envelope, which had made Kat clench her teeth in embarrassment, then slipped it back inside once he’d taken the measure of it. He’d also looked at the one Shiloh had given Kat, its matching envelope now beneath Ruth’s. The pieces of barbed wire Ricki had picked up from the Dillinger outbuilding were sitting on his desk next to the recorder.
Sam said, “We’ll fingerprint the envelopes, but it sounds like they’ve been well handled, and it’s unlikely our doer would be careless enough to leave prints.”
It wasn’t really a question, but Kat nodded. Sam then reiterated what she had told him when she and Ricki had first walked into his office, his eyes on Kat. “You and Ruth both think her attacker from fifteen years ago is involved in Addie Donovan’s current disappearance and Courtney Pearson’s death.”
“Shiloh and Ruth got those pictures recently, so he knows where they are and dropped those envelopes in their mailboxes. Courtney was reported missing about a month before the attack on Ruth. Erin Higgins and Rachel Byrd disappeared earlier. Everyone concluded they were runaways.”
“Your theory is they all were kidnapped,” Sam said.
“Yes. Now. Shiloh wasn’t kidnapped, she just left town, so it seemed like maybe those other girls left on their own too . . . but Erin and Rachel had no history of running away. Courtney was wilder, but even she hadn’t left home, according to her mother. Ruth was attacked about that same time, and now we discover Courtney’s body just after Addie Donovan disappears. . . Yes, I think there’s someone out there kidnapping women and holding them hostage.”
“As their own personal sex slaves,” Ricki said softly.
Sam’s face was grim as he picked up a strand of barbed wire. “Courtney could have been held somewhere on forest land behind where she was found. There are lean-tos and sheds all over hundreds of miles of acreage. Not supposed to be built, but they are, and hunters use them.”
Ricki said, “We’re already checking into the backgrounds of anyone who worked for or was somehow connected to the Rocking D.”
“Your father always believed those girls weren’t runaways,” Sam said to Kat.
“He compiled a list of suspects, and Ruth made her own list.” Kat pulled Ruth’s small notebook out of her purse and handed it across the desk to Sam.
He glanced at the list of names in the notebook. “Ruth thinks one of these is her stalker, and the man who attacked her fifteen years ago?”
“She believes it’s a strong possibility. My dad is the one who really knows this case.”
He handed the notebook back to Kat. “Go ahead and talk to Patrick.”
Kat was relieved to get the okay from the sheriff himself. They discussed the case a bit more, then Ricki and Kat returned to Kat’s desk, and they went over Ruth’s list, comparing it to the names Kat knew on Patrick’s.
“Dad doesn’t have Jimmy Woodcock on his list,” Kat said.
“Find out why Ruth added him,” Ricki said.
“Ruth hinted that one of her clients should be on the list, but she wouldn’t name names.”
“Well, we’ll start with these and see how far we get.”
Ricki was called away by the arrival of the ME’s report on Courtney Pearson. Alone, Kat picked up her desk phone to call Ruth, who answered right away. When Kat posed the question about Woodcock, Ruth explained about his obsession with porn and how it was often seen with sexual predators.
“You mentioned a client that you thought should be on your list,” Kat nudged.
“You know I can’t reveal his name. I’ll think about how I want to handle him.”
“Well, don’t do anything rash.”
“Don’t worry.”