Have You Seen Her?

Steven forced a grin. "Yes, ma'am." Then his cell phone jangled and Sandra stopped, two steps from the door. Her face went white and he could see she was thinking the same thing he was. His hands shaking, he answered, "Thatcher."

"Steven." It was Nancy and her voice was frantic.

Steven sagged against a wall of the darkroom. "Not Nicky. Please."

"No, no, not Nicky. It's Je

Chapter Thirty-four

Friday, October 14, 1:45 P.M.

Wolves. Coming. She tried to run, but they chased her, drooling, fangs shimmering. She stumbled and fell and they were on her. No, no. The screams tore from her throat as sharp teeth sank into the back of her thigh. She pulled herself into a ball, but it did nothing to save her. Teeth ripped, tore. The pain, white-hot and excruciating… She tried to crawl away, but they descended…

"No!" she screamed, and woke up, huddled in a ball, drenched in sweat, her eyes clenched shut.

Clap, clap, clap. Applause.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. Sammie was better, but she was also in the drama club."

Je

He knelt and briskly tied her hands. "Next time I'll just have to think of something better. What are you afraid of, Miss Marshall? Samantha was afraid of snakes. Slithering silently. Coming closer. With fangs. Sssss." His hands dropped to her legs. "So what are you afraid of?"

"Not you," Je

"Feisty. I'd hoped you would be." He pulled another rope from his back pocket and Je

how to hold her feet to create the most give in the knot Josh was about to tie. Prayed she could pull it off.

He tied her ankles and she pretended to struggle, but in the end her ankles were placed exactly as she'd pla

"She's still alive," Josh said. "But not for much longer."

Kelly was alive. So am I. But Kelly was nude and Je

Je

Friday, October 14, 9:00 P.M.

"What the hell is this all about?" Victor Lutz barreled into Interview One, where a tight-lipped Nora Lutz and her lawyer sat at the table with Liz. Lutz recognized Davies who sat in the corner, arms crossed, face hard, and Lutz's expression blanched as he and Davies played the staring game.

Finally Lutz turned and Steven was gratified to see a flicker of fear in the man's eyes. "We settled this," Lutz said, considerably shaken. "My son had nothing to do with the vandalism."

Steven wanted to strangle the man here and now. Instead, he calmed his knocking heart and smoothed his voice. "We're not talking about vandalism. We're talking about murder."

"The English teacher is fine," Lutz insisted. "She was released from the hospital this morning."

Steven raised a brow. "Worried about Miss Ryan, were you? I suppose you had cause to be considering it was your prompting that incited your son's friends to cut Dr. Marshall's brakes." Steven held up his hand when Lutz would have denied it. "Save it for your indictment, Mr. Lutz. Detective Pullman has two young men who've sworn out affidavits implicating you. I'm not talking about attempted murder. I'm talking about serial murder. Four young girls four years ago in Seattle. Four young girls in the last month here in Raleigh. Ring a bell?"

Lutz's gaze flicked to Davies sitting in the corner, then back at Steven. "He is insane, so determined to ruin my family that he comes all this way to spread his lies. Rudy was exonerated."

Steven pursed his lips. "I'm not talking about Rudy. I'm talking about Josh."

Lutz's face blanked. Then he laughed. "Josh? You're crazier than he is. Josh is a half-wit."

"Shut up, Victor," Nora snapped and jerked her arm away when her lawyer tried to silence her. "For years you've told my son he's stupid and unworthy. And for years you've been wrong."

Lutz frowned at her outburst. "Nora, you know as well as I do that Josh is retarded."

"I don't think so, Mr. Lutz, and I'm not prepared to give you all the wherefores and therefores right now," Steven said, abandoning his patient routine. "Your son's kidnapped four girls, killed three of them, and three hours ago Dr. Marshall was abducted." He drew on the scattered remnants of his calm, doing his best not to think about Je

He clenched his fist, feeling the edges of Adam Llewellyn's ring cut into his palm. Like he could be looking any harder. He'd turned the Parker house upside down, but found nothing.

There was absolutely no clue to where Josh had taken his victims and if Nora Lutz knew, she wasn't saying. She just sat next to her lawyer, unconcerned about Je

Lutz was staring at his wife as if she were a complete stranger. "Josh is just not capable."

Steven gritted his teeth. "I'm not interested in your denials. I just want to know where he is."

Lutz turned his disbelieving eyes from his wife to Steven, then shook his head. "I don't know."

"Where would he go? Where would he hide? Where could he take, kill, and dismember four young teenaged girls?" Steven smacked the table and Mrs. Lutz flinched, then straightened, making Steven think of a very dowdy queen.

"My Joshua is i

"Are my clients being held?" the Lutzes' lawyer asked mildly. "Or are they free to go?"

Steven looked at Liz who shook her head. "We can't hold them, Agent Thatcher."

"Then they're free to go," Steven said bitterly and watched them leave. Free as birds while their son held Je