“Lucky me,” Megan said.
There was a short pause. “I came here tonight worried that I’d hate you,” Livia said. “Because I only know you from the book and your interviews. But I have a very different opinion of you right now.”
Megan shrugged again. “You said you wanted to talk about the case. The funny thing is, besides Dr. Mattingly, no one has talked to me about what happened. Not for a long time. I mean, the police initially, and that was mostly my dad. Later, detectives. But after that initial surge? Nothing. I’ve tried to get updates, but there’s not much to talk about. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. I suspect it’s partially true. They don’t have much. But I also know it’s this group of do-gooders around me, led by my parents, who want to protect me and help me move on. What no one understands is that I’m not capable of simply burying those two weeks as if they never happened.”
“I’m sorry for what happened to you, Megan. And I do want to ask you some questions about that night, if you’re comfortable talking with me.”
“Yes,” Megan said. “I mean, I’m comfortable telling you anything I know. You said on the phone you came across something?”
“I did. The night you were found wandering Highway Fifty-Seven. The night you escaped. At the hospital, a large amount of a chemical called ketamine was found in your bloodstream.”
“Yeah. Dr. Mattingly tells me I was likely sedated to some degree for most of my time in captivity, based on my memory lapses and what he’s discovered during therapy sessions. Through those sessions, with the help of hypnosis, I’ve been piecing things together about those two weeks. Which is another reason the book is such a joke. I know so much more now than I did when that book was written. But, you know, gotta strike when the iron is hot. So what about the ketamine is peculiar?”
“Do you know much about ketamine?”
“No.”
“It’s a unique sedative. It’s fast-acting and, besides sedation and anesthesia—it’s two main uses—it can cause of number of side effects, including confusion, disorientation, memory loss, and impaired motor skills. When dosed correctly, ketamine causes conscious sedation, where the patient is awake but detached from their body and their surroundings. But if dosed incorrectly, if ingested in too great a quantity and combined with other drugs, ketamine causes respiratory failure and death.”
Megan took her gaze from the evening sky and looked at Livia. “Dr. Mattingly told me some of this. That’s why he thinks my suppression of certain aspects of my captivity has been so hard to overcome.”
“Ketamine is also unique because we don’t see it a lot in mainstream medicine. It’s used mostly by veterinarians, not too often by medical doctors. So when we see it, it stands out. At least to me it does.”
“Stands out how?”
“There was a girl who went missing a couple of years ago, more than a year before you and Nicole were taken. Her name was Nancy Dee. She was from a small town in Virginia and she disappeared one day after volleyball practice. This was back in March of 2015. Her body was found six months later and told a story of captivity—chronic bruising to her ankles and wrists commonly found when someone is restrained for long periods. Sexual abuse, as well. A jogger found her body in a shallow grave along a wooded running path. I had a look at the autopsy and toxicology report. Nancy died of respiratory distress from an overdose of ketamine.”
Livia let the implication settle in.
“Ketamine?”
Livia nodded.
“You think my case is connected to this other girl?”
“I think it’s a possibility,” Livia said.
“Like, the same person who took me, took this other girl?”
“Yes. The same person who took you and Nicole.”
An uneasy look came over Megan’s face and Livia recognized it immediately.
“Look, Megan, I know I’m springing this on you, and I know I don’t have much to back up my theory. But my sister is gone, and I need some answers to what happened to her. Some closure. At least some attention. I feel like this town has forgotten her. This town, the county, the whole goddamn state and country have forgotten Nicole Cutty ever existed. Maybe all these months later, I’m starting to forget, too.
“I want to look into this ketamine connection. See if there are any other similarities between your case and Nancy Dee’s. I’m going to need help. My contacts include the detectives I work with at the medical examiner’s office, but I know they won’t give my theory much time. Especially since Nancy was from Virginia, which is out of their jurisdiction and beyond their interest. So, if you’re on board here, I was hoping you might ask your dad for help on this.”
Megan looked briefly at Livia and then diverted her eyes, nodding her head. “I can ask him. And I will, if we have to.” She paused. “It’s just that my dad’s had a harder time with this than anyone. I know he blames himself for what happened to me. Right afterward, before my mother became the zombie she is today—so focused on the book and the money and paying for the college I don’t attend—I heard her mention to Dr. Mattingly how helpless my dad felt during my captivity. Impotent was the word she used. My dad is in charge of the county’s police force and I know he still carries guilt for what happened to me. He’s torn up that I was taken, as any father would be. But what killed him was not finding me. He used to tell me, right after I made it home, that he didn’t sleep for the entire two weeks I was gone because his mind was working every second on ways to find me. I know he wants my forgiveness, but I’ve never blamed him for what happened to me so I don’t know how to give it to him.”
Megan shook her head and wiped her eyes before they had a chance to shed tears.
“He’s not the same since this happened. None of us are. So, I’ll ask him for help. I will,” Megan said. “I promise. But if we want to look into my case, I’d rather start elsewhere first.”
Livia nodded. “Okay. Where is that?”
“I work at the courthouse.” Megan pointed at the building behind them. “If you want to look for a connection between my case—and Nicole’s—and the girl in Virginia, I can get us access to my case file. I know right where to look for it. I’ve looked through it myself out of curiosity. I didn’t find anything, but you’ll be looking with fresh eyes. We’ll take that route first and see what we find. If we come across anything relevant that connects the case to Nancy Dee, then I’ll ask my dad for help.”