“Nikki,” Trent said gently. “Did he say where he was going?”
“He didn’t tell me anything. Just what he was going to do to Risa, like I told you on the phone.” She closed her eyes, fighting back another wave of sobs. “The people downstairs, they weren’t the only ones.”
“We found the man in your car.”
Nikki looked away. “There was a woman, too. He hunted her and killed her.”
“Farrentina Hamilton?”
Nikki nodded. “And the hotel. Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Trent hugged her to his shoulder and rubbed his hand over her back, letting her cry. Over her head, he peered out of the farmhouse window. Even with the leaves sprouting on the trees, he could make out the roof of a barn down the hill. He’d been able to hear the cows when they’d first arrived.
Dryden couldn’t have staged his hunt of Farrentina Hamilton here. And he wouldn’t have gagged her. Not Dryden. He would want to hear her screams, her fear. Gagging her would have stolen the whole purpose behind his hunt.
The psychopath had staged his hunt someplace else. And if Trent found Dryden’s hunting grounds, he might find Dryden.
“Nikki? I need to ask you a few questions, okay? Questions that might help us find Dryden.”
Nikki pulled back from his arms. Trying to stand, she swayed on her feet.
“Here, sit down.” Trent guided her into the chair and snugged the blanket around her. He knelt down and wrapped her hands in his. “Do you think you can answer some questions?”
Nikki nodded.
“Were you there, Nikki? When Dryden hunted Farrentina?”
Nikki nodded again.
“Do you remember anything about the place? Anything could help.”
“I’m not sure. It was a cabin. Real small. Linoleum floors, like something from my grandmother’s house.”
“Okay. Okay. Good. So you were inside the cabin?”
“I should have left. I was alone. I could have just run into the woods, but...” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, as if trying to dislodge the memory.
“It’s okay, Nikki. You did fine. You survived, and you’re helping us now. Okay?”
Nikki opened her eyes, nodded.
“What do you remember about the outside of the cabin?”
“It was white? And it was higher. Propped up. Like on blocks.”
“Good, good. Were you near a river? Or a lake?”
“River.”
“Were other cabins around?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see any, but there was a road.”
A cabin. In a sparsely populated area. Probably on a flood plain of some kind. “Were there photos in the cabin or anything that might have had the owner’s name on it?”
“I don’t remember. But Eddie talked about the owner.”
A fresh shot of adrenaline pumped into Trent’s bloodstream. “By name?”
“No. He just said the owner would bust a gut if he knew we were there.”
“Bust a gut? Did he say why?”
“Because the guy hated Ed. And Ed had used him. I don’t know.”
Young?
The fishing and hunting equipment and photographs he’d seen at the guard’s house flashed into Trent’s mind. The image of the fishing cabin. A cabin Dryden had found out about somehow. And after Dryden had foiled the guard’s vigilante plan, he couldn’t resist rubbing Young’s nose in the victory by using the guard’s secluded retreat as his private hunting grounds.
Two paramedics with the county EMS filed into the room. As they examined Nikki, Trent told Subera what Nikki had remembered and tried out his theory about the cabin belonging to Gordy Young.
Subera nodded. “We’ll get someone on it.”
“Something on a flood plain. He would need someplace isolated.”
Subera nodded and was gone.
The paramedics coaxed Nikki onto a stretcher. Before they took her to the hospital, Trent asked for a word with her alone.
“It’s going to be okay, Nikki. We’ll find him.”
She nodded, her face still almost as white as the sheet and blanket pulled up to her neck.
“I just have a couple more questions, okay? Then I’ll call Risa and have an officer drive her to the hospital to meet you.”
Nikki’s eyes welled with a fresh surge of tears. “I want to help.”
“When did Dryden leave? Do you know?”
She had only to consider the question for a split second. “I thought I heard him right after I talked to you on the phone.”
“After you talked to me? You’re sure?”
“I was afraid he’d come in, see the phone on the bed.”
“Could he have heard what we said?”
Nikki’s eyes moved back and forth, scanning Trent’s face. “No. He couldn’t have. He would have been angry. He would have killed me.”
Trent wasn’t so sure. The ache assaulting his neck spread into his shoulders and radiated down his back.
Dryden didn’t make mistakes, at least not one this careless. He was far too clever to leave Nikki with access to a phone unless he intended for her to call for help. And Dryden would have a pretty good idea of who Nikki would call if she got the chance.
“He couldn’t have…” Nikki’s eyes grew wide. She held a bloody hand to her mouth. “You don’t think he was…”
“It’ll be all right, Nikki. I’ll make sure of it.” Trent forced the words through a throat already closing with panic. Flagging down the paramedics to take care of Nikki, he started for the door.
Because Trent did think Dryden was listening. He was almost sure of it. And if Dryden heard the phone call, then he knew exactly where Risa was.
Exactly where Trent had left her.
For her own safety.
Risa
Risa measured scoop after scoop of dried coffee into the drip basket of the Lake Loyal Police Department’s coffee maker. The last time she’d been in the station, the place had been filled to bursting. Now that the task force had moved into the nearby church basement, the place was back to what was probably its usual state.
Empty.
Silence echoed through the tiny building, broken by nothing but the tap of an ancient typewriter in the conference room. The friendly dispatcher had been leaving when Risa had arrived, her shift long since over, and apparently at this time of day, there was no need for a replacement. Not that Risa was dying for someone to talk to, but Oneida Perkins seemed on top of everything. Without her at her post, Risa had no way of finding out what was going on.
Risa set the coffee maker to brew, then with nothing else to occupy her, she concentrated on controlling the tension coiling in her muscles like a spring ready to snap. She hated not knowing what was happening. Hated the endless questions spiraling through her mind with no answers in sight.
Had they reached Nikki in time? Was she safe? Had they captured Dryden?
Perching on the edge of a break room chair, Risa dug her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and checked it for the hundredth time in the past hour. Surely Trent would call her soon and let her know what was going on. Surely his need to exclude her didn’t extend to not keeping her informed.
When he had insisted on leaving her at the police station, she’d had to face it. Trent would never see that he could have a better life. He would never give them a chance. Their relationship was really over.
Risa probably should have seen it all along. She had seen it, but she hadn’t wanted to give up. She hadn’t wanted to accept that she and Trent would never be together—could never be together. Now she had no choice. He had made the choice for her. And there was nothing she could do to change it.