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Leigh willed her senses to catch up. The harder she focused on where the voice had originated, the more shapes took form. Until she could make out an entire person wedged against the wall. “Chandler. What… What are you doing here? Where have you been?”
“Here.” That throaty voice didn’t hold the same confidence as Leigh remembered. “I’m not sure how long. Not sure how long I have left.” That last word shook more than it should have.
Her eyes finally adjusted enough to see Chandler Reed hadn’t moved from his position on the floor. Crouching at the federal investigator’s side, Leigh reached out, connecting with the man’s shoulder. Some kind of crust flaked against her hand, but worse, the shape of a blade protruding from the wound materialized. Understanding clicked into place, and a rush of dread filled her stomach.
Chandler had become a victim.
“You’ve been stabbed. How many times?” Her voice shook on the last word, but she had to stay logical if she was going to get them out of here.
A shallow laugh filled the space between them. “I lost count. He’s good. I’ll give you that. Knows exactly how to strike without letting his victims bleed to death by avoiding all the major organs until the time is right. I’m thinking of starting a knife collection. What do you think? Should I keep these ones?”
Leigh was careful in moving her hand down the investigator’s side. A second blade. Then a third. Her touch shifted the handle of another, drawing a hiss from the unsub’s latest victim. How many others were there? “I’m calling an ambulance.” She went for her phone. “I’m getting you out of here.”
“Don’t bother, Leigh. There’s no service.” A solid thunk sounded from the wall. Chandler Reed set his head back. “Besides, you’ll never be able to drag me out of here yourself without dislodging the blades. You hear that? The place is about to collapse. You need to get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you here to die.” Her broken screen lit up the investigator’s face. No service. Leigh ignited the flashlight feature on her phone. White light blinded both of them for an instant, and the reality of the situation took hold. “Chandler.”
Horror clawed deep through muscle and bone. Chandler’s vintage T-shirt had stained crimson, his slacks torn in strategic areas. His once undefeatable styled hair clung to layers of black mold climbing the wall behind him. It wasn’t just three or four blades as she’d estimated. This… This was nothing she’d ever seen. A dozen. More.
Leigh wanted to draw them out, but doing so would only end up killing the investigator faster. She hadn’t meant for this. She hadn’t meant for any of this.
“Impressive, right? I told you I’d lost count.” Chandler rolled his head back and forth. “I tried, Leigh. I tried to see this through—for your sake—but I think I’m going to have to take a few days of personal time off. Take a step back from the case.”
“I’m going to get you out of here. Backup is already on the way.” Leigh latched on to the man’s shoulder, to give some semblance of comfort, but Chandler didn’t react. “Hang on a little bit longer. Okay?”
“I thought I was going to be a hero,” Chandler said. “I thought I could fix this.”
A violent cough robbed Chandler’s next words and shifted the blades sticking out of his body. His resulting cry stripped the investigator raw. They were talking on borrowed time. The human body could only take so much, and Chandler had already lost a good amount of blood.
“Chandler, you sent me that report from Dr. Jennings. About the mold. About this place. It was dated the day before her body turned up in Colburn Park.” Leigh framed his face with both hands. “Dr. Jennings’s home and workspace were searched. There were no signs of her reports concerning this case. Where did you get it?” She’d keep him talking about the case. She would not give in to panic or emotion.
“I found it… on the federal servers.” His eyelids sagged. “He couldn’t access it…”
Leigh grabbed for his shoulders and dug her fingernails into Chandler’s skin, trying to keep him conscious. “Who? Who did this to you? Who killed those other victims?”
The investigator’s eyes slipped closed. Blood leaked from the corner of Chandler Reed’s mouth. No. He wasn’t dead. Not yet. Not like this.
Leigh buried the urge to shake him awake. Tears burned in her eyes as helplessness washed over her. Backup was on the way. He just had to hang on for a little while longer, and this would all be over. “Chandler, tell me. Who’s behind this?”
“The boy who escaped,” Chandler said.
Leigh released her hold and sat back. Escaped? There were no reports of other boys in the area missing during the time her brother and Derek Garrison were killed. No calls to police about an abduction or an attempted abduction from anywhere in Lebanon or the surrounding cities. She’d checked. Hundreds of times. Unless… Her stomach hardened as though she’d swallowed a rock. Unless Michael Agutter wasn’t the only victim Chris Ellingson had kept alive for an extended period of time.
Leigh recounted everything that’d happened. “Baby teeth.”
Michelle Cross had stolen Derek Garrison’s baby teeth and presumably taken the ones her own mother had kept of Troy’s in her jewelry box in the closet. To prove the DNA matched the bodies buried in the cemetery. She’d known. She’d known there was another potential boy out there. That one of Chris Ellingson’s victims had escaped his kidnapper. That was why Michelle had become a target. Why Gresham Schmidt was murdered. Why Roxanne Jennings’s body turned up in Colburn Park. They’d all gotten one step closer to a truth never meant to be uncovered. “The unsub doesn’t want anyone to know he’s alive.”
The floor shook beneath her. Then snapped on the opposite end of the room. A gust of wind chased through the crack splintering down one wall. The building was falling apart at the seams. Sounds of rushing river water grew louder.
They had to get out of here.
“Come on, Chandler. Wake up.” She set her feet beneath her and fisted the investigator’s T-shirt in both hands, but Chandler’s head only slumped forward. She didn’t have any other choice. “I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.”
She maneuvered Chandler onto his back and dragged from the investigator’s shoulders. The blades were localized to his front. As long as she didn’t jar him too much, there was still time. She had to believe that. There had to be a chance she’d gotten here in time.
The floor jolted down, and Leigh lost her balance. She severed her hold on Chandler, falling backward. Old machinery screeched as it slid a few inches away from the wall where it’d sat for more than two decades.
And the investigator was right in its path.
