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Shannon leads Maggie to the mattress, where they both take a seat and begin leafing through the photos that Shannon had been looking at when we arrived. Maggie laughs several times, and I can only imagine which pictures he chose.
While they’re preoccupied, I decide to catch up with Anderson to see how he’s feeling about Shannon’s progress as well as that of the other new bites.
“How is she really doing?” I ask Anderson.
“She’s a fighter. I really think she’ll be able to leave this cell within a couple days. My goal with all of the new bites is to have three full days with no incidents, and she’s already at five.”
“Why’s she still in there then?” I ask, but I already suspect I know the answer.
“Her choice.” He lifts his shoulder like he can’t even begin to understand it. “She wants to be sure. Says she couldn’t live with herself if she hurt someone.”
I smile, because that’s my Shannon. Always the protector.
“How are the plans coming for the new system?”
“Slow,” he confesses. “It worked well for Shannon because we already knew who she was. It won’t be as easy with the rest.” He sighs. “Thank God the new arrivals have slowed considerably. Otherwise, we’d be out of room.”
“They’ve slowed? When did that start and by how much?” I ask, curious as to the timeline.
“Since you were here last, there haven’t been any new arrivals.”
“Do you think they’re hiding better? Or Marcellus has stopped for the time being?”
“I couldn’t say for sure, but I have a hard time believing he’d be able to hide them that well. You’ve seen new bites. They’re uncontrollable.”
I chew on my bottom lip, trying to think of anything that could make sense of this development or help with the process. Marcellus has been MIA and the Council has been notified of Julian’s plans. Maybe he has swayed whoever’s working with Marcellus to stop. We can only hope that’s the case.
“Is there anything I can do to help while I’m here?”
His tongue swipes a line across his top gums, flashing his elongated canine, and my breath hitches, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Help us come up with a way to help the others. We have cell blocks full of new bites that have made no progress.”
“Do you know where they originated from?” I massage my temple, trying to stop the headache that’s building.
“Here,” Anderson says, tossing a bottle of Advil to me. I catch it and smile my thanks. “One batch came from Texas and the other New Mexico.”
“What about missing persons ads?”
“Go on,” he drawls.
“You know where the new bites came from, so look at the missing person ads in those areas to identify their faces. Once you determine who they are, it should be easy to find their social media profiles. Everyone has a digital footprint. You just have to have a team that knows where to look.”
“Brilliant,” he praises. “That could work. I think we have the perfect person to lead that task force.” He looks back toward Shannon.
“You think she’ll stay here?”
I don’t mean for my words to sound doubtful, but I know how close Shannon is to her family. I can’t imagine she won’t want to go home.
“You should talk to her about that,” he suggests. “Not my place to speak for her.”
I nod. “Thank for taking such good care of her, Anderson.”
“My pleasure.”
I turn, getting two steps before a thought hits me. “Anderson?” His brow lifts in question. “Before the Texas and New Mexico new bites, where did the others come from?”
He blows out a breath, apparently thinking back. “They were from the same states, just different cities. Why?”
