Page 119 of Finding Amanda

How could she get away? She tried again to pull her hand from the cuff until the metal scraped away skin and blood dripped onto her palm.

Maybe if she put the pen back together, she could use it as a weapon. She fumbled with it, dropped the outer case.

Gabriel approached the passenger door. He tried the handle, found it locked, and withdrew her keys from his pocket. He unlocked the door and opened it. "Where are your gloves?"

"You killed him." Her voice shrilled in the car.

"I had to. He was beginning to doubt me." He sifted through the contents of her purse scattered on the passenger seat. "I didn't think he had it in him to carry off this ruse. I never wanted him to befriend you, but when you flagged him down in the hotel lobby, he decided he wanted to help. I think he really liked you."

One item at a time, he put her things back into her purse. "He comes off as so normal, doesn't he? You'd never know about his psychotic tendencies. That's the medication. And superior counseling." Gabriel returned everything to the purse except her gloves, then tossed the purse into the backseat. "Here we go." He stepped out of the car, bent to look in. "Be right back."

She watched as he smeared her gloves in the bloody wound on Alan's head, then tossed them beside the discarded rock. He looked around the scene before returning to the car.

He opened the back door, grabbed her computer bag, then settled himself in the passenger seat, the bag on his lap. "It was his own fault," he said. "I never wanted him to get hurt. I liked Alan. Nice guy. Definitely one of my success stories. Not a lot of schizophrenics can have a career like he had."

"But you . . . you killed him."

"Actually, it looks like you killed him. Your gloves, your DNA. When they find his body, they'll think it was you."

She looked out the front, saw the gloves, the bloody rock. Gabriel was framing her for Alan's murder.

"That's why I hit him so many times. Obviously, I could've killed him with one blow. I had to hold back, hit like a girl." He smiled at his joke. "They'll believe someone of inferior strengthkilled him. No defensive wounds—it would've been a friend for sure. Which you were."

Gabriel pulled her computer out of the bag, set the bag near his feet, and turned the computer over. From his pocket, he retrieved a shiny metal object. "Magnet. Should erase the hard drive, but we'll test it, just to be sure." He passed the magnet over the laptop, not missing a spot.

"Alan abducted that girl for me. I heard you tell him about her. Maryanne. Sweet little thing. Anyway, he delivered her to me. And when she didn't make it home, he bought my story. But I don't think he would've believed me if I told him you ran away, too. And once you started asking him to call your husband . . . well, we couldn't have that, now could we?"

"What kind of a man?—?"

"You have no idea how many people I've helped over the years. People like him. Like you, Amanda. Do you remember how you were when you first came into my office? A scared, guilty girl. You could barely function. I gave you the tools to live, gave you the confidence to do all you've done. And how do you repay me?" He smashed his fist down on her laptop. "With this!" He squeezed his eyes shut and forced his fists to relax. When he faced her again, his lips shifted into a sad smile. "I never wanted it to end this way. You've given me no choice."

Gabriel turned the computer over and powered it on. It displayed nothing but a black screen. "Success," he said.

He tossed the computer onto the back seat and dug in her bag until he found her flash drive. "I'll keep this," he said, pocketing it. "It'll be fun to see what else you have stored on here."

Gabriel stepped out of the car and made his way to the driver's side. This was it. He'd kill her now, leave her body to rot beside Alan's.Oh God, oh God . . .She didn't know how to pray, wished she'd listened to Mark's prayers more closely. If God didn't intervene, she was going to die.

Gabriel opened her door. "Come on."

"Please let me go. I promise I won't tell anyone."

Gabriel bent over, grabbed her chin, and turned her face until it was inches from his. "You've made that promise before, Amanda. I believed you once. I won't be duped again."

He unfastened the cuff attached to the door and yanked her from the car. He dragged her, stumbling down the narrow lane until they reached a silver, snow-covered sedan. He looked at her with a grin as he tossed her keys into the woods. "They'll find them eventually."

Then he pushed a button on a keyless remote, and the trunk of the sedan popped open. "I hope you don't still suffer from claustrophobia."

Panicked, she yanked against his grip, kicked him in the shin.

Gabriel threw her against the open trunk and backhanded her.

Pain exploded on her face. She crumpled, dizzy, unable to fight back when he lifted her and shoved her into the trunk.

He slammed the door on top of her, leaving her in cold blackness.

Cold seepedthrough Mark’s jacket, but he barely noticed, staring at his smartphone as if it might have the answer, but knowing as the pit in his stomach grew that Amanda would die tonight. She would die, and there was nothing he could do to protect her.

He couldn't leave, couldn't move. This is where she'd been seen last. Where could he go now? Back to his mother's house to wait for a call?We've found your wife's body . . .

---