AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"NO!" Derek yelled. "NO! That's not what happened! I just said that! I didn't mean to kill Sarah! She made me do it! She made me, okay? She made me! Fucking bitch--and now she's dead. I can't believe I did that. It's all her fault! I hate her! I hate her! I wish she was still around, so I could kill her all over again!"
"Jesus, Derek," Nicky said.
Ken couldn't believe what he was seeing. This guy was a monster. He was a psychopath.
And now, he was going to jail for it.
Ken took a deep breath. He had nothing to complain about—this was a job well done. He just hoped he could figure out what happened to Meghan Salinger before she met the same fate as Sarah.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Another dead end.
Nicky walked into the motel room and heaved out a sigh. Ken was close behind her, but they'd been quiet since they left the Frankstown precinct, where Derek Mills was being detained. Nicky didn't trust the cops there to do their job right, so she'd called in a favor from the FBI--a Hollywood, Florida, detective would be coming to take Derek into his custody, where he'd get the proper treatment that he deserved: a trial and definitely jail time. The recorded confession was more than enough to prove Derek had killed Sarah.
But then there was the question of Meghan.
As far as Nicky could see, there was no connection between Derek and Meghan, and no reason for him to have had anything to do with Meghan's disappearance at all. Nicky was more than happy to get another dirtbag off the streets, but as for her case... it was another dead end.
Nicky slapped a stack of folders on the table in the motel room and sat down, with Ken sitting next to her. She figured their best bet was to go over other recent cases and see if they could find any connection. The folders were neatly organized and had been stacked in order. There was a photograph of a woman and a child inside the first folder. The woman had long, red hair and the child had bright blue eyes. The photograph was taken at a park, and the child was smiling. There was a note attached to the photograph. It said,"My beautiful daughter. I miss her so much."
Another victim. This one, a young mother. Nicky sighed. She'd already reviewed these files. But maybe they'd missed something the first time. Maybe they'd overlooked a potential suspect. Maybe they'd overlooked something that connected Meghan to someone else.
All they had to do was look at the files, and they'd know. The answer was in there. Nicky just needed to find it.
The files were all missing girls’ cases from the last three years. All of them unsolved. Some of them were still being investigated, but so far, nothing had been found.
The first one was a sixteen-year-old who'd gone missing outside of Hollywood, Florida. The second one was a high school student who'd gone missing in the countryside. The third one was an eighteen-year-old who'd disappeared from soccer practice.
Nicky sighed. This was a dead end. Just like everything else. The stuff she'd found out about Derek was irrelevant--it had nothing to do with Meghan.
But that was just it, wasn't it? The cops had screwed up the other case by assuming Meghan Salinger's case was connected to Sarah Mills's, and then they stopped looking into Sarah at all--not realizing that the very person who'd killed her was her own husband. And he wasn't exactly subtle.
It was all dirty police work, and it made Nicky sick. This was part of why she'd joined the FBI. She’d always felt like if she wanted to do something right, she had to do it herself. Rosie’s case had gone cold before Nicky graduated from the FBI academy, but she’d always hoped to reopen it officially herself and get the job done. However, it wasn’t that simple; she had obvious personal investments in the case, which had made it so her superiors always said no. Nicky was needed on other cases, open cases, and the case of Rosie Lyons was long declared dead.
She glanced over the file in front of her. But she couldn't stop herself from going back in time. Driving through the woods today had brought her back to all those years ago. The terrain was very different--a Florida forest looks a lot different from a West Virginia one. But still.
Nicky could see Rosie again, running through the forest, her long hair flying around her. The leaves, the sky, the trees, the dirt... the colors were different, but the scene was the same.
She closed her eyes and went back to that night, all those years ago. Sometimes, reliving it was almost an addiction.
After the man who'd abducted them had thrown them in the lake, Nicky was certain her life--and Rosie's--was about to end. She'd never forget the feeling of her lungs growing tighter as her body begged her to breathe, but if she took in a breath, she'd fill her lungs with lake water.
But then--something cut her hands free. She kicked as hard as she could and swam to the surface. She rose above the water and gasped for air, greeted by the starry night sky. And moments later, Rosie came up, gasping, too.
There was a moment of relief before the fear set back in.
The man came up too, holding a knife.
He had freed them.
Soaking wet, with his clothes stuck to his skinny, bony frame, the man wandered back to the shore as Nicky and Rosie stayed there, petrified. The gun was in his belt, and he sheathed the knife. He turned to them with a smile as they floated in the lake, confused.
"That's how easy it can all go away," he said, smiling.
They could see his face in the moonlight now. It was crooked, his nose long and oblong. And his eyes--they had no soul.
"Let this be a lesson," he said, amused. "I own your lives now. I can take them away whenever I please. If you do as I say, this will go easier for you. Now, get out of the water."
