Ben’s fingers locked around her shoulders. Ben. He’d always been a good friend. But one tough, demanding boss. “It’s on him,” Ben gritted out. “Not you. It’s on that sick prick who gets off on torturing women.”
“It’s not about torture.” She saw that. Torture was a means to an end. “It’s control. He controls everything. He makes them into what he wants them to be.”
If they didn’t live up to his expectations…
He eliminated them.
Ben’s hold on her tightened. “Cadence, did you see his face?”
She shook her head. “It was too dark.” That consuming darkness had been all around her. Then…his light. The blinding light had come from his helmet. The echo of fear beat through her, but she pushed it back. Cadence remembered that light. Remembered him. “I know he’s approximately six foot three, maybe four. Broad shoulders. Strong.”
“If you didn’t see his face, you can’t say he’s one of the men here.” He leaned toward her. “We can’t accuse the local cops. Do you know what kind of media nightmare that would be? You didn’t see him. You were concussed. Trapped in the dark. Hell, take the win, okay?”
The win? Where was the win? Was the win the woman in the body bag?
“We can give those eight families closure now. They can finally bury their daughters.”
They’d rather be hugging them. Welcoming them home. She swallowed, trying to ease the tightness in her throat. Cadence tore her eyes off Ben and looked over his shoulder. Kyle stalked from the cavern. When he saw them, his eyes narrowed.
“I’m not sure.” Her voice was soft, weak, because there was no proof to back up what she had to say next.
She only had the push in her gut. Instincts.
The hope that had been born when she realized Fiona Slater had survived for so long.
Hope that hadn’t died with Fiona. Hope that was too stubborn to die now. They’d had two live victims.
“I’m not sure they are all dead.” A whispered confession just to Ben. She’d whispered her words to Ben because she was afraid to give those words to Kyle.
There had been thirteen tally marks on that wall. Lily was one mark. The remains they’d found in the Statue of Liberty chamber were another.
Judith made three.
The fourth tally mark? That would have been poor Fiona.
And they’d found six skulls tonight.
That leaves two more victims. One tally mark could belong to Lily.
But what about the last mark? Where is she?
“He kept them separated,” she said softly. “Isolated. Three containment areas we know of…” What if there were more?
The number of spots spoke of his confidence. His absolute control.
At first, he’d probably kept his prey in one location.
Here.
This was where he’d kept the skeletons. The presence of the bones indicated this spot was special to him.
But he’d branched out as his confidence grew, as the years passed and no one stopped him. No one but Kyle had even realized he was hunting.
No one but Kyle.
And the killer had called Kyle. Directly taunted him.
She frowned as she gazed at her partner. He was stalking toward her.
“We found a recording device in one of the chambers.” Kyle’s voice was cold. Distant. But his eyes were blazing with fire.
Ben released her and turned to face him.
“I think he watched the women. Used infrared filming. He wanted to see them in the dark.”
Why was the dark so important to him?
The dark… “He controlled the light,” Cadence said. She’d been trapped in the darkness. Not able to make a sound. He hadn’t wanted her to scream.
Why?
There was silence in the caves.
Silence in the isolated cabin.
Darkness. Silence.
That he controlled.
“We missed it,” Cadence said as a burst of adrenaline pumped through her.
Dani had just left the caverns. She hurried toward them, her eyes wide and haunted.
Dani had gone back into the field…for me.
When she reached their group, Dani wrapped her arms around Cadence and held her tightly. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she gritted.
Dani had scared her once, years before. When she’d been stabbed fifteen times in the chest and left for dead by a perp. Dani had survived the attack, barely.
Her blood had coated Cadence’s fingers as surely as Fiona’s had.
But Dani had survived.
Only she’d never quite been the same. All the psych evaluations had said she wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure of fieldwork.
She should have left the FBI.
She hadn’t.
Ben had just made a new job for her. One that kept her safe.
Until now.
Dani had lain in the hospital bed for weeks. Her eyes shut. Trapped in her own body. Unable to speak or move without help.
A prisoner.
Every muscle in Cadence’s body locked. “He’s doing to them what was done to him.”
Dani pulled back, frowning at her. “What do you mean?”
“We need to do a search, pull medical records. This man may have even been blinded temporarily. He wasn’t able to communicate with others. He was hurt and now he’s doing the same thing to his victims.” Controlling them, as he’d been controlled.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed.
“We need to go back.” Cadence tried to figure out the time line. “It would have been before Maria’s disappearance. Probably several years before.” Her heart was pounding because now, she saw.
The victims had been the key for her. She’d seen what they’d seen. Heard what they heard.
What the killer had heard.
“We’re looking for a car accident. On an old highway.” The victims had vehicles abandoned on old highways. The SOB had come after her car with such intensity. There was a pattern, a reason, behind everything he did. “He was probably hurt in the wreck. He would have stayed in the hospital for a long time. Weeks, maybe months.”
He kept his victims for a long time.
Years?
“You can find him, can’t you, Dani?” she pushed.
Dani nodded. “I can search through accident reports. Check the databases for hospitals in the area.”
“All four states,” Cadence pressed as Kyle and Ben watched her in silence. “All from his kill zones. Don’t overlook any of them.”
Dani nodded.
“The guy was smart. He deliberately crossed state lines, deliberately spread out the abductions into different jurisdictions so that it would be harder for law enforcement to connect his crimes. But we know what he did, and we can find him now.” This was it. This was how they would figure out the perp’s identity. Then there would be no hiding for him. No pretending.