Page 86 of Glimmer in the Darkness

“Why would he go back there?” Cassidy shifted to get a better look at James’s face. “He knows we’ve found it. The cops searched it.”

“Exactly for that reason. What place would be safer now than the mountain?”

“A hotel. A house.”

“Too easy to be spotted in places like that. Especially with a little girl.”

Cassidy hated to suggest it, but… “Safest thing right now would be to kill Ella and dump her body.”

“But he hasn’t done that. For whatever reason…” Those words hung in the air. She considered what he might be thinking.

“The kidnapper wasn’t cruel.” Not to Hallie anyway.

At her words, James turned her way, a grim expression on his face.

“I never got the impression…” She tried to think how to express this. “He never hurt your sister. He treated her like… like a little sister, I guess. He wanted her to be happy. He was kind to her.”

James turned back to the window.

“And Addison wasn’t molested.”

“I know.”

“I think it’s logical to assume Ella isn’t being mistreated, at least not in that sense. I know it’s not everything—”

“It’s something, though.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Did he hurt you?”

Now it was Cassidy’s turn to look away. “I wasn’t molested, either.”

He must’ve seen the truth in her expression, because he said, “Tell me what happened.”

She shrugged, tried to swallow the memories. The kidnapper had hurt her. When Hallie had slept that first night, he’d crawled on top of her, pinned her down.

She could almost feel the heat of his breath against her cheek, the pain of his grip on her arm, the weight of his body on top of hers. His hand… He’d touched her, pinched her. When it hurt so badly she wanted to cry out, he covered her mouth with his hand. All he said was, You wake her, you die. You don’t want pretty Hallie to watch you die, do you?

The message had been clear. He could do whatever he wanted to Cassidy. If she wanted to survive, if she wanted to protect Hallie, she had to take it.

Both the night on the mountain and the night in the cave, when Hallie slept, he’d climbed on top of her. Never going farther than the threat, but the threat was enough to keep her quiet.

He’d hit her once when they were climbing. He’d grabbed her and squeezed hard multiple times to get her to do what he said. But it wasn’t the pain that had plagued her through the years. It was the fear.

She tried to explain it to James without causing him further distress. She must’ve succeeded because, when she finished, he said, “I’m glad he didn’t hurt you too badly.” As if physical pain were the worst thing that could happen to a person. Her bruises had healed. The memories visited her almost every night. Someday, when this was over, if he forgave her, if they were still together, she’d try to explain the rest.

“We need to return to the cave,” James said. “I think this guy’s arrogant enough to go back there.”

“But, now that we have the hair tie, we could call the police, get them up there looking for her. The hair tie is evidence, and… and we could use the help. This guy’s a killer.”

“You’re kidding, right?” His eyebrows hiked up. “Yesterday, you were terrified to call the cops.”

“You could call them, and I could”—she shrugged—“you know, make myself scarce. You could tell them you were searching alone. It just seems safer than us going up there by ourselves.”

James stared past her. A long moment passed before he shook his head. “I don’t think that’s the best plan right now.”

“Why not?”

He squeezed her hand. “They won’t believe me. There’s not enough time for me to have hiked up there again today, found it, and returned to report it. They know I was with you yesterday. If I suddenly turn up with evidence, they’ll believe I got it from you. It’ll be about finding you, not about finding Ella. I just… I don’t know that it’ll work. And right now, the most important thing is finding Ella. I think… I think I should return to the cave and see what I can find out.”

“Okay, to the cave. Where do we park?”