“I think you should tape this. It may come in handy in the future, although it may also implicate all of you in a crime.” I took a seat on the couch and glanced at Max then Gabriel. “Remember I told you I woke up and Emma was gone?”
Max nodded.
“Last night, I realized why Salyer led us to Charleston. I was here before. The same cabin I stayed in last night. There’s a body buried behind that cabin. I don’t know who she was, but he made me paint her, telling me if I didn’t, he would hurt Emma. I wasn’t doing it the way he wanted, and he kept getting angry. When I finished painting her, he handed me a knife and told me to kill her.”
I stopped to take a deep breath. “I couldn’t. She was already dead, but I couldn’t do what he wanted me to. It’s one of the things I’ve been terrified of since I woke up. I couldn’t remember what I’d done. I didn’t kill her, but he made me watch as he butchered her. He must have put some drug in my drink, because when I woke the next day, he told me Emma had died and he buried her.”
“You just remembered this?” Karen was taking notes. “But you didn’t call it in?”
“I considered it, but with the picture of Emma and the tape, I knew they’d lock me up, and I have to find my daughter first.” I’d memorized the cabin in case I needed an escape route. I didn’t think Max would try to stop me, but I wasn’t as sure about Gabriel, and I didn’t know Karen at all.
Karen glanced up from her notepad. “No one mentioned a tape. What’s on it?”
“I’ve got it,” Max said. “You can listen to it later.”
“Go on, Dakota. I think there’s more, right?” Karen smiled at me. “If you need a break, just ask.”
“I’m okay.” I glanced at Max. “When did we realize Salyer wasn’t killing the women we were finding?”
“Not until the eighth victim. We started to suspect it was a woman.”
Gabriel cursed under his breath.
Karen gasped. “Are you telling me Christian Salyer didn’t kill those women?”
“I’m not sure about Donna. She was the first one, but after that, I suspect the woman he was torturing killed the next one, and on and on until he came to me.”
“Max, would you get Dakota a glass of water or a cup of coffee? Let’s take a two-minute break.” Karen stood, stretched, and sat back down.
“I’ll get it.” Gabriel rose, walked to the kitchen, and poured a shot of whiskey and a cup of coffee. He brought both back and set them on the coffee table. “I figured you could use that.”
“Thanks.” I downed the whiskey, closed my eyes, picked up the coffee, and took a small sip. “I’m ready if you are.”
“Let me recap. Christian Salyer kidnapped nine women that we know of, possibly killed the first one, then tortured the next one until she was willing to kill for him. Do you know why he obsessed over you or women who looked like you?”
“I was getting there. It was me he wanted all along. The others were, I think, practice runs of a sort. A tortured mind will accept things as truth, even though they may not be true. Once he’d broken them and they would kill for him, he moved on to the next one. There were small inconsistencies, so he was trying different things and seeing how long it took to break different personalities and women from different lifestyles.” I bowed my head. “Because I was a cop, he probably knew it would take longer with me. After he kidnapped me, the killing stopped. He never intended to kill me. He wanted me to join him and be like him. He wanted a family.”
“Crazy son of a bitch.” Max shoved his wheelchair around, wheeled to the kitchen, and poured a glass of whiskey.
“You’re doing great, Dakota. Is there more?”
The next bit would be the hardest part. “After the tape, I remembered the day he painted me. He told me he didn’t need me anymore. He had Emma. That was when he told me she was alive.” I downed half the coffee, wishing for another glass of whiskey. “I’m sort of jumping around. I’m sorry.”
“You take all the time you need and tell it however you want.” Karen’s voice was soft, encouraging.
“Earlier when he was making me paint the woman, as I said, he got angry and he said, ‘Didn’t Mother teach you anything?’”
Karen frowned. “I don’t get it.”
I could tell from Max’s dropped jaw and Gabriel’s knitted eyebrows that they’d both caught the significance. “My father told me my mother died when I was five. I never saw her again, and no one ever talked about her. Christian didn’t say, ‘Didn’t your mother teach you anything?’ He said, ‘Didn’t Mother teach you anything?’ I think Christian Salyer is my brother, and I think my mother was his accomplice.”
“Shit.” Karen dropped the notepad and sat back. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
“So what now?” Max asked, staring at the closed bedroom door. He could hear the water running full force and knew she had it as hot as she could stand it. “She’s right about the body. If we call it in, they’ll arrest her. They won’t believe she just now remembered this.”
“Gabriel?” Karen asked.
“It makes all of us guilty of something, but I agree with Max. Our priority has to be finding Christian Salyer and Dakota’s daughter. I could pass the information along to Don, and he could call it in as an anonymous tip. It would help if we knew who the girl was.”
“I’ll do some research for missing persons around that time. Maybe we’ll get lucky.” Max wheeled to the table. “What about you, Karen? Does your oath cover this?”
“No, but until we find her daughter and the other women, we need Dakota with us, not behind bars. I’ll deal with the fallout if I have to.”
Max shot her a look of appreciation. “I understand why he stopped killing while he had her, and maybe even after that because he had Emma, but why start up again now? He could have stayed hidden, and we would never have found him.”
The bedroom door opened, and Dakota stepped out. “Because he’s moving toward his endgame. He knew I was remembering, and he knew if he brought me here, I’d remember the body buried behind the cabin.”
Gabriel nodded. “And he knew your moral code. He figured you’d call it in and go to jail.”
“I almost did. If he hadn’t left the tape and I hadn’t heard Emma’s voice, he might have won.”
Max slammed his hand on the table. “Which is why that grave and those bones were suddenly discovered. He set it up that way, and I’d bet that before it’s over, they’ll discover enough DNA to say it’s his body.”
Karen stared at them. “You lost me. What grave and what bones?”
“They discovered a grave near Broad River where Dakota shot Salyer. Someone burned the bones and poured different types of blood over them to degrade any DNA that might be left. They think it’s Salyer.”
“If Wagner has that report and they do find Salyer’s DNA, he’ll arrest Dakota the second she sets foot back in Beaufort.” Max shook his head and clenched his hands. “I don’t know what got into him, but from the moment Dakota disappeared, he messed everything up. He wouldn’t even try to find her. Said she called in and said she was quitting and getting married.”
“He should have known that wasn’t true when Tristan’s body was found.” Dakota stared at Max, questions in her eyes. “Unless there’s something you didn’t tell me.”
“Tristan was shot with your gun. If your father wasn’t influential, he would have arrested you for his murder.” Max lowered his head. “I never told you that because it never seemed the right time.”