His fork hovered in midair, and he got a funny look on his face as his brows knitted together and he scrunched. “Dan?”
“He was one of the guys…” Justus cut into her pancakes and shoved a mouthful so she didn’t have to finish the sentence. Even though she didn’t categorize Dan with Kurtis or the others, she didn’t want to discuss it.
Rafferty got up from the table and went to a desk in the corner of the living room. He came back with a manila folder and was flipping through some pages. “Dan. He was supposed to have been Kurtis’ friend. He was with him the day you and Chaney disappeared.”
Justus nodded, chewing and shoving more pancakes in her mouth.
“My report says he wasn’t among the men captured during the raid. He isn’t standing trial. Do you know what happened to him?” He looked up at her.
She reached for her glass of milk and took a big gulp, shaking her head. “Nope. But I hope he got away. He was nice to me. I don’t think he belonged there. He didn’t fit in with them. He snuck me my cellphone so I could send text messages and make videos of myself to send to Liberty. And when he saw I was having a hard time, he brought me a puppy to cheer me up.”
Rafferty studied her for a moment. “Are you sure he wasn’t sweet on you? You are a pretty girl, and if you were wearing a bikini all the time, it wouldn’t be hard for a guy to let his imagination run wild, and if he was nice to you, you might run off with him.”
“No. Dan wasn’t like that; he wasn’t the brightest if you know what I mean. He was a screw-up. He made mistakes all the time and got yelled at. Yet he stuck his neck out to do things for me when he didn’t have to.”
“Hm-m-m.” Raffety closed the folder and pushed it down the table away from the food. “I still think there had to be a motive for him to do all those things for you. Tell me about Kurtis. He was supposed to have been your boyfriend when you went away. How did he treat you afteryou were taken?”
“Like I was nothing—a total stranger. But not Dan. In fact, Kurtis and Dan didn’t even act like they were friends after that, either. Which I thought was odd since Kurtis led me and Chaney to believe they were best buddies before we went with them that weekend.”
“I’m sure that was a ruse to make you both feel at ease with them,” Rafferty said.
“You’re probably right. The more I think back on what Kurtis said to me, the more I realize it didn’t add up. I was so stupid to believe him.”
“Hey, a guy like that will say anything to get a girl to do what he needs her to do. Don’t feel that way. He’s a con artist, and even your sister would have fallen for his act if he was trying to get her to leave town with him.”
Justus stared at him for a moment. “Really?”
“Really.”
She sighed and finished the last of her bacon.
“Have you had any contact with any of the other girls that were in captivity at that house with you and Chaney since the bust that ended the auction?”
“No. We were all taken to be checked out at the medical center in Fool’s Gold before they sent us to Colorado Springs the following day for the procedure to remove the birth control devices that hadbeen implanted.”
He reached for the folder again and flipped through the pages to see if there was anything in his report about that. “I wasn’t briefed on this procedure. Did Hank know about this?”
Justus shrugged. “I don’t know what the medical team told Hank or what he put in that report. Maybe he didn’t think you needed to know wewere givena hormonal implant to keep us from getting pregnant by stopping our cycles.”
“But those were removed?”
“Yeah. The doctor said mine and Chaney’s hadn’t been in long enough to mess us up emotionally. But you might think otherwise the way I’ve been acting.” She glanced at him and laughed. “I’m sure I’ve been like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster.”
“I referred to you like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He reached for his coffee cup and took a sip.
“Fair enough.”
ForAll came running toward the table and started jumping at her seat.
“No, we’re eating. You’ll have to wait,” she told him.
The dog lay down, whimpering.
“Let’s get back to Dan for a moment. What do you think happened to him?” Rafferty asked.
“Ireallydon’t know.Hewas at the auction whenChaney and I were bid on.Then Dr. Palmer bought us both, and when a commotion happened that was orchestrated by Silas so Dr. Palmer could get us out of there and away to safety, that was the last I saw of him,” Justus said.“I know that when the Brotherhood Protectors stormed in, Asher got shot in the arm and then Liberty shot someone during the commotion, but who or what else happened? I don’t know. Except that the Fool’s Gold Police Department showed up, and someone named Sparrow chewed Jake out. Idorecall Asher and Liberty talking about that as we drove to the Medical Center.”
“Okay, I’ll check with Asher and see if he can tell me anything more. Maybe he knows what happened to Dan,” Rafferty said.
