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He gave me a hooded look. “Let’s sort this out inside. Gives me a chance to go through her things while we talk.”
I followed him determinedly into the cave. No way was I letting him get away without telling me everything. He
Bones and I picked our way through the narrow entrance and back to where he’d made his living quarters in the high-domed part of the cave. He emptied the garbage bag’s contents and I sat on the couch in front of him, watching as he opened Stephanie’s laptop first.
“Have you ever heard of the Be
I frowned. “No. I’ve heard of the Bermuda one.”
His fingers flew over the keyboard. My, but they were limber. After a second, he let out a disgusted snort.
“Bloody girl didn’t even bother to password her files. Just pure sodding arrogance, but that’s in our favor. Look, there you are, Kitten. Under ‘Potentials.’ You should be flattered. You were first on her list.”
I gaped over his shoulder and saw ‘Cathy-redhead-twenty-two’ with other names and similar short descriptions under it.
“Are you kidding me? Who are those other girls? Potential what?”
More blurring movement over the keys, and then he leaned back with a smile.
“Well, what have we here? Charlie, and Club Flame on Forty-second Street. Sounds like a contact. Here’s hoping the twit was thick enough to write the actual name of the place and not just a code for it.”
“Bones!”
The sharpness in my voice made him set aside the laptop and meet my eyes.
“The Be
“What do you mean?”
Bones leaned back. “Hundreds of women were murdered or went missing in Mexican border towns around that time. Today, there’s still not a speck of any real idea who did it. Then, several years ago, a number of young girls started to go missing in and around the Great Lakes area. More recently, it became centered in Ohio. Most of them were presumed to be runaways, prostitutes, addicts, or just average, little-known girls who had vanished with no signs of foul play. Since most of them were in high-risk categories, there wasn’t much of a media fuss. I think He
“You think He
“Oh, I think he might be a ringleader, no doubt about that, but he’s not a traditional serial killer,” Bones said crisply. “Serial killers are more possessive in their motives. From the bits and pieces I’ve gathered over the years, I don’t think he’s keeping these people to himself-I think he’s made an industry out of them.”
I almost asked what kind of an industry, but then I remembered what Bones had said to Sergio last weekend. Knew you couldn’t pass up a pretty girl…You’re his best client, from what I hear… Did you grow short on funds so you had to go out for di
“You think he’s ru
“He
Now that I knew what was going on in my own state, what Stephanie had been doing made perfect sense, if you had the ethics of a crocodile. A huge, crowded college campus had been her all-you-can-eat buffet; she just hadn’t been the one eating. No, she was someone hired to stock He
“How long have you suspected this? You told me before you’d been chasing He
“No. It’s only been the past two years that I’ve gotten specific information. Mind you, I didn’t know who or what I was chasing at first. Took me a few dozen blokes to get a whisper of what was going on. A few more dozen to get a name of who might be ru
I digested that for a minute. “So, even if you take He
“I’ve come very close a few times to finding out, but-well. Things happened.”
“Like what?”
“Like you, actually. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were one of He
“I didn’t mean to kill her!” I cried, lashing myself over that for a different reason this time. What information had Stephanie died with? We’d never know.
Bones got up, speaking to me as he disappeared behind one of the cave’s natural walls.