Ellen and No-Name are not here. I’m certain they’ve been taken to the other room to battle. Since No-Name beat the hell out of me, today is her day to show she is stronger than both Ellen and me.
Ellen was quiet after we were dumped back in this place. She still favors her right arm. But she seemed as strong as the rest of us. I wondered if maybe she got food while we were in the other place. She needed it. I was really worried about her. I hope she’s strong enough to endure whatever happens today.
I haven’t gotten any food. But then losers don’t get fed.
I wonder what my mother and father are doing. They must be so worried. I wish I could spare them this nightmare. But I cannot. There’s nothing I can do but try to survive.
And then what? I can’t foolishly pretend I’ll be set free no matter how strong I am.
My family will likely never see me again. I wonder if the police will figure out what was done to us. I suppose that depends on whether they find our bodies. My poor parents will be devastated. My brother, Ray, will be hurt, too.
No-Name never mentions her family. Ellen and I talk about ours often. Maybe No-Name has no family.
I think of the stupid mistake I made that caused me to end up here. How could I have been so blind and foolish?
If I make it out of here I wonder if I will ever see those people again. I’m sure it was that red-haired woman and the man I thought was so sexy.
My body shudders at the idea that he raped me. I want to ask Ellen and No-Name if he raped them but it’s not exactly the kind of question you just pop up and say, “Oh, by the way did that handsome guy who helped land us here rape you while you were unconscious?”
What difference does it make?
God only knows if we are getting out of here. Don’t be stupid, Jo.
Most likely we are dead even if we survive.
I force myself to stand and walk around the dark room. I need to keep my strength up by whatever means possible. I hate it when I’m in here alone. When Ellen is with me I can focus on helping her. Even No-Name gives me something else to focus on besides what’s probably going to happen.
They’ve done terrible things to us already.
I can’t even imagine what is coming next.
41
Montgomery Street
1:00 p.m.
Chiefs Buckley and Phelps took seats at the table, along with Agents Richards and Johnson and Special Agent George Wagner from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Jo got the impression Tony had met everyone except the GBI guy.
She’d started to itch as soon as they entered the campus security building. She’d been here before—seventeen years, eleven months and eighteen or nineteen days ago. She honestly couldn’t remember the exact day. Right before she walked away from her life and never looked back.
How was it that nearly eighteen years later she was no better off? It felt as though nothing had changed. No one had been made to pay for what she and the others had lost, for the murders of those who didn’t make it out alive. Instead, other girls were missing, other lives were in danger. And no one knew where to look or what to do.
She refused to count Madelyn and Miles as the only villains in this. There was someone else, she felt certain.
The GBI man spoke first, “Mr. LeDoux has explained how you came to him for help, Ms. Guthrie.”
Her mouth felt so dry she didn’t dare speak. She nodded, then reached for the bottle of water next to her. When they’d first arrived another uniformed member of campus security had placed bottles of water at each of their places at the table. Images of all those days in captivity and hoping for just one bottle of water flickered through her brain. He’d known exactly how far to go with the withholding of food and water. Take them to the brink, and then bring them back.
“At this time our full attention must be on finding Miss Durand and Miss Parton.” Chief Buckley spoke next. He looked to Jo and said, “When we’ve brought them safely home, I hope you’ll sit down with us and help us to understand where we went wrong protecting you and what we could have done differently.”
Big breath. She found her voice. “I’m not sure there was or is anything you could do differently. The mistake was mine,” she confessed. “The others would tell you the same if they could. We didn’t protect ourselves and we paid a heavy price.”
The men around the table glanced at each other.
“You have no idea where you were kept,” Agent Richards asked.
She had known it would be like this. She’d lived through the questions and the sometimes sympathetic, sometimes suspicious looks several times the weeks and months after she and Ellen were found alive. She couldn’t give them what they wanted and for that she would always be guilty on some level in their eyes.
Just answer the question, Jo. “I believe it was somewhere on the old Central State Hospital property.”
Phelps and Buckley exchanged another look. “It’s true you and Ellen Carson were found near the area. But, according to your statements after you escaped, neither of you could be certain of where you were held. Is that correct?”
“You asked me where I believed we were held and I answered. But, you’re correct in that I can’t be certain.” She cleared her throat and struggled to keep her voice steady. “Wherever we were, it wasn’t just some thrown-together prison, not just a simple room. There were several rooms. All connected. The walls weren’t drywall or paneling or block. They were like television screens, massive monitors. They could be completely black or blindingly white and they could display images...videos. It could be freezing cold or burning up hot.”
“I believe,” Tony spoke up, “they were held in specialized lab environments made for a particular set of testing procedures. Someone at the state level must have an accounting of any and all activities taking place on the old Central State Hospital property. It still belongs to the state—there has to be a paper trail.” He looked from one man to the next. “Have there been, in the past or at present, researchers conducting activities that might require similar environments to what Ms. Guthrie experienced?”
“Based on Chief Phelps’s previous conversations with you and what he has relayed to me—” Agent Wagner spoke first “—I’ve been doing some digging. There are twenty-three contractors who utilize space at the facility. The research activities of each, as you can imagine, are highly classified. We’re going through one by one and requesting authorization to have a look around. Those who refuse will complicate matters, but we’ll do our best.”
“Which takes time,” Tony argued. To the room at large, he said, “I understand what you’re doing is necessary, but I would ask that you divide your assets into two teams. One working with the known contractors, and the other picking through the numerous supposedly vacant areas of the property. The unsub or unsubs we’re looking for may not be operating legitimately. This may be a completely dark operation by someone who knows the place better than any of us. There’s always the chance they are completely off the books.”
“You’re thinking this Professor Blume is somehow connected to the abductions,” Chief Phelps said.
“The sister of one of his former patients/prisoners at the forensic hospital filed a lawsuit for treatment trials conducted on him and Professor—Dr. Blume looked into it. Then suddenly he and his wife go out of the country for an extended vacation. The electricity to their home has been disconnected. Would you turn off the power while you were away? What about security? Homeowner’s insurance? We need to know if they left the country. What flights they took. We need to speak with Professor Orson Blume. The fact that there is a connection between Hailey Martin—Madelyn Houser—and him from two decades ago only solidifies my concern that there’s more to his part in this than we can see.”