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“Like what?” I pressed, my eyes going hard.
“A bucket of excrement in the corner. A blanket stained with semen. Long hair all over the floor. Some appeared to have fallen out naturally, others clumped like it was yanked out.”
I shuddered, my hands gripping my thighs. “I don’t want to hear any more.” The more he talked, the more furious I became on behalf of the woman who’d been held against her will.
“The pictures are awful.” Patrick actually paled when he reflected on what he’d seen.
“Can’t they trace the DNA?”
“They’re working on it, but it takes time to extract. Some of the samples are so muddled that even the most high-tech lab probably can’t differentiate them.”
“Even if they do, some of those people won’t be in the database.”
Patrick shook his index finger at me. “Another excellent point.”
I groaned. “You should have already thought of that.”
He dug his finger into his temple. “Not thinking properly on this case.”
I pushed my plate away, no longer able to eat. “And you’re sure you can’t figure out a way to get off this case?”
“His sister is breathing down my neck like no one I’ve ever dealt with. And that’s saying something.”
I looked at my watch and signaled the waitress for the check. “I wouldn’t want to be you right now.”
He slumped down in the booth and grabbed the bill the waitress dropped off before I could. “That makes two of us.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Trish
“Take two?”Andrew stored a bin of napkins and straws beneath the counter as I closed up the window.
“Take two.”
It had been a week and a half. Andrew had been patient. He’d come by the truck every day, not to pressure me, but because he truly seemed not to be able to stay away. Those days had given Ella time to heal and allowed me to get more comfortable with the idea of a date.
I texted Baker, who had agreed to keep Ella, to tell her we were headed back to park the truck and to call me if she needed anything.
“One day, you’re letting me drive this thing.”
I put my phone in my purse and buckled my seat belt, and Andrew did the same. “Thisthinghas a name.”
He clapped the dashboard. “Sorry, Delores. Didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“We’ll see if she forgives you. I haven’t figured out yet if she’s the kind to hold a grudge.”
“All these months together and you haven’t pissed her off yet?” he asked, bewildered.
“Not that I know of.”
I concentrated on the traffic ahead. Delores was like driving a tank on a one lane road, but it didn’t scare me.
“How’s Ella? She feeling better?”
Tell him. Now’s the perfect opening.
“She’s practically back to normal. Screaming her little head off.” The thought of my daughter made me smile.
