Page 29 of Special Agent Anastacia

No one answered.

The truck was empty.

Chapter Twenty-one

Frantic, Ana questioned Nash yet again. “The devil. She said those exact words? The devil.”

“Yes. I told you that the last three times you asked. Why does that seem so important?” Nash drove like a bat out of hell, heading back to the hospital, to the last place where the girls had been seen.

Frustration reeling through her fear, she yelled the words without realizing she’d done so. “Because… it’s how she’s always referred to the man who killed her parents.”

“What?”

Calming her voice, she added, “When Hanna first arrived and was still processing her hideous past, we heard her say it over and over. Those exact words. The devil had killed her mamo and tato. It’s how she referred to the man in her nightmares and always in a voice filled with dread. Having seen the worst deadly sin happen in front of her, she could only equate it as that son of a bitch’s work.”

Ana remembered how every time Hanna had shared her past, she’d spoken those words as if they were sacrosanct… as if she’d witnessed pure evil. At the time, it had made her skin crawl, and considering what she’d seen in her career, that didn’t happen often. Yet Hanna’s cryptic words had managed to strike at a buried fear she’d always kept under control. That same sense of loss she’d had when they’d called her to come to the bank where her father had tried to stop a killer… and failed.

“Ana?” Nash broke into her memories and brought her back from the dreadful place her mind had wandered. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just worried. Look, when Hanna told us what happened in Mariupol, she said the devil who had murdered her parents had himself been killed.”

“Excuse me?”

Uncaring if she broke a confidence, she decided Nash needed to understand the full story. How could he follow her thoughts otherwise? And she felt like a crazy person just thinking them. Therefore, she explained the facts as told to her and her mother by young Hanna. When she came to the end of her recital, it sounded farfetched to her too.

Nash glanced her way, his face reflecting his lack of understanding. “Hold it. You say she told you that the devil was shot to death. She said that.”

“Yes by the other Russian. To save her from getting burned or worse, being found, tortured, maybe raped… and then killed. It was a brutal situation, and she survived.”

“Jesus. Poor kid.”

“She’s managed to move on but now you’re telling me that she said she saw the devil. This is gonna sound crazy. But could it be the same freak who shot her family?”

“Christ, I don’t know. All I can tell you is she described the man in the car using that word.” Nash whipped the truck aroundthe last bend and headed to the same spot where he’d parked before, thankful to see it was still empty.

Both got out of the vehicle, with Nash leading them to where he heard Hanna. “Over here. That’s where her voice came from.” They pushed past the bushes to where Nash surmised the girls had been hiding. Ana called out forcefully. “Hanna. Answer me. Are you still here? It’s safe to come out now. We’ll take care of you both.”

Nothing but an eery silence.

Nash and Ana searched throughout the area, and it was Ana who spied the bracelet that Hanna never took off. It had been made by one of the child refugees in the Polish hospital where they had first taken Hanna for a physical. She’d proudly shown it to them, saying that the girl had been only ten but had started making the bracelets to earn money for the war effort. The one Hanna wore had been a special gift and was treasured as such.

Now it lay on the ground, dirty and left behind in the mud. A sign? Proof that the girl had been here. Proof that she was in terrible trouble. Unknowingly, Ana pushed at her chest, at the pain radiating throughout. The same pain she’d experienced once before.

It was Nash who brought her back from the black hole of misery.

Made her listen.

Helped her brain to function like a cop again.

“There’s got to be video of the parking lot, right? Hanna said the car was following them. We need to figure out what car and see if we can get a license plate number. She saidhenotthemso I’m thinking there would only be one man in the vehicle.”

Back in her cop mode, she grabbed at his calm, clinging tightly. “Yes, you’re right. That’s good. Let’s go talk to hospital security.”

An hour later, they’d reviewed the full day of tape and had a dozen cars that might fit the description of the one they were looking for.

Armed with the evidence, Ana called her friends at the Bureau with the information, praying they could come up with names and addresses to follow up on.

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