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"You were very brave," May said softly. "And you helped us a lot. You got caught on a camera trap in the woods the first time. That gave us a big break. Can you tell me what happened?"
Chloe sighed. "I don't remember much about being taken. He bashed me over the head, I think. My head was so sore, I had a headache for days. But I ended up in this . . . this weird underground bunker in the woods. There were other women there."
Other women? May's eyes widened.
"How many?"
"Five of us. I was the fourth one he took. Then another one arrived."
She was breathing fast now. A machine started beeping.
“I think that’s enough,” the nurse said, stepping forward.
“Please, can I just ask one more question?” May said. And to her relief, Chloe echoed her thoughts.
“I need to tell her. It might mean the others can be saved,” she said.
So, as of now, these women were still alive? It sounded as if he was keeping them for a reason, and that they had a chance to be saved, if May could get there in time.
The nurse gave a reluctant nod and stepped back again.
"What were the others' names?" May asked. It would be vital to tie them up with missing person cases.
"Giselle, Courtney, Delia and Mary-Jane." She counted off on her fingers. "A couple of them were from far away. From other areas of Minnesota. All of us lived on farms or homesteads. None of us knew him."
May guessed she had escaped before the most recent victim, Melissa Haven, had arrived.
"I tried to jam the lock on the door. The first time I succeeded. Then he put me in solitary, to punish me, but I escaped again and got away. But I was so scared." Now her breath was coming fast, and she was looking traumatized all over again. "He threatened to kill me the first time I escaped, and I believed him. I was terrified."
"You were extremely brave," May said. "What does he look like? Can you describe him to me?"
"He was tall and very strong, a big guy. He had a rough face, with dark hair and a beard. I can’t tell you more than that,because he always used to shine a light at us when he came in. So, it was blinding and difficult to see him well."
"His age?"
"I think maybe in his thirties, perhaps? I'm not so good with ages," Chloe confessed.
"Did he say why you were taken?"
"Not really. He kept ranting that there was going to be a catastrophe, that he was going to save humanity, and that we should thank him because we would be the only survivors, and he was going to seal the bunker, so it was invisible. But he never said what the catastrophe would be. He was very deranged. He didn't seem like a normal person at all. And he was very scary. I thought . . . that he might hurt any of us at any time. I felt so bad escaping. Like the others might be in worse danger because of me. But I had to try!"
May grasped her hand, feeling her fingers cold and trembling.
“Enough now, Deputy!” the nurse warned. “She’s getting upset.”
“I’m okay,” Chloe said in a shaking voice.
May hung on tight to the young woman’s hand. She’d gotten most of what she needed, and now wanted to help to calm Chloe down so she could get the remaining vital snippets of information.
"You did the right thing. Escaping was the only way you could help," she said reassuringly.
“Giselle and I had a plan. I took locks of our hair with me the first time I escaped. I tied them to a tree. I hoped that if you found them—if I didn’t make it—it would help you work out what had happened.”
“I found them,” May said. “They helped a lot.”
"How are you going to help the others?" Chloe asked her, her voice now hoarse. “We were doing what we can. We were makingnoise. But I know it made him angry. He’s going to get mad with the others, and I’m worried he might do something really bad.”
"It's okay," May soothed. "We’ll try as hard as we can to save them. What will help us is if you can figure out where you were kept."
