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“I wouldn’t think so.”
Trent pulled another picture from the folder. This one was of Leah Bernard in the aftermath.
Lowell looked at it and didn’t give any visual reaction.
“This your work?” Trent asked him.
Lowell didn’t answer.
“Did you shoot this teenager in cold blood and proceed to abduct Katherine Graves?” Trent’s voice took on a firmer tone with every syllable.
“Quite the shiner you’ve got there.” Lowell pointed at Trent’s injured eye and snickered.
Trent pushed against the table and shot to his feet.
Lowell’s grin faltered, just a crack.
Trent stood, heaving for breath, but eventually dropped back into his chair. “Where is Katherine Graves?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“This isn’t a game, Mr.Mooney,” Amanda said. “You have a history with Graves and are on record as wanting revenge. Now you’re here in Woodbridge where she lives, armed with the same gun used in a murder this morning.” Amanda stabbed a fingertip to Leah Bernard’s face, refusing to be sidetracked by looking too closely herself.
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Here’s where I can’t suspend disbelief. The evidence is stacked against you. My partner asked this already, and this time you’re going to tell us. Where. Is. Katherine. Graves?”
THIRTY-TWO
Katherine woke with her chin hanging forward. Her eyes were unfocused, and pricks of light danced across her vision. She must have a concussion. The last things she remembered were being pushed into a room and hit on the head.
She tried to move her arms, wanting to touch the injury and assess, but she had no range of motion. She concentrated and tried to summon her eyes to focus. It took opening and shutting them several times to clear her vision, but it still did little good.
Is the sack still over my head?
But she didn’t feel fabric against her face. Looking to her left, she saw the moon outside a window. Its cool light seeped into the room and netted a soft glow.
The last time she’d been conscious it had been daylight. Hours had passed. Days too? She had no way of knowing. But the faint light still allowed her to see she was in a classroom, likely in an abandoned school. A heavy coating of dust lay atop empty shelves that ran along the wall, and there were no desks.
She looked down at herself.
Her wrists were bound to the arms of a chair by zip ties. These were impossible to break without having a way to compromise the plastic.
She tried to move her legs, but she couldn’t get them to go far. Leaning forward, she couldn’t see her ankles, but something hard was cutting into her flesh. They must have them secured with zip ties too. Unless her captor released her or she was rescued, she wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Her head was groggy, and she was disoriented. Like her mind was floating above her, unattached, unfettered.
There was no one around though. Why? Was the plan to leave her here to die of starvation?
Katherine screamed, her voice striking her ears at a far quieter volume than she’d have expected. She called out again, mustering all the strength she could. Even then, her shouts did little.
She considered herself resilient, able to face difficult times with strength and grace, but she couldn’t handle the thought of starving to death. Just withering away, enduring the searing pain and agony. That was just the physical. The passing hours of suffering would inflict emotional and mental torture, the living over and over again of things she wished she’d done differently in life. The list was short but simple. She should have listened to the advice of her aunt and her neighbor and put herself out there, found someone special to spend her life with. But at this sad reflection, where would that leave that person now? It would just be someone else dragged into this drama and made to suffer.
Tears fell for the young gas station clerk. If only there was a way to bring her back to life. The inability to do so, or prevent her death in the first place, haunted Katherine. The girl’s blood was on her hands. It was a regret that would play on Katherine’s conscience until her final breath. Whenever that would be.
She’d rather face a bullet to the head. Get it over with quickly.
Suddenly, she flashed with rage as thoughts of that poor teenager drowned her. Her entire body pulsated as adrenaline raced through her veins.
