Page 50 of Threat of Danger
Jess had a flashback to another time, after her ordeal, when the deputy had been a frequent visitor for a while. She hated those memories with a passion. In an instant, she was wound so tightly, her knuckles were turning white on the doorknob.
“I’d like to talk to you, Miss Taylor, if you have a couple of minutes,” Gordon Muller said, just as spiffy in his tan uniform as Jess remembered.
Jess shot a look at Derek behind the deputy, but Derek’s expression was closed, his gaze unfathomable. The tight set of his jaw, however, hinted at trouble.
She opened the door wider and stepped back. “Come on in.”
Muller was around forty-five years old. He’d come to town the year Jess had been kidnapped, an outsider from Maine. Exactly because he’d been an outsider, he’d been put on her case. Fresh eyes, without bias, had been the idea. But Muller had been plenty biased—against the victims.
He’d actually suggested that Jess and Derek had faked their disappearance. Muller’s theory had been that the two college kids had run away, gotten into some kinky BDSM play, then made up the abduction and torture to avoid embarrassment.
He’d mercilessly pushed Jess at the hospital for answers, tried to get her to admit that she and Derek were playing a game. Jess knew from her father that Derek had tried to take the police back to the camper while Jess was still under observation, but they couldn’t find the right spot.
The masked man had taken Jess and Derek to the camper in the dark, at gunpoint. Not only hadn’t they been able to see much, but their panicked attention had been centered on the deadly weapon. And while they were trapped inside the camper, they couldn’t see out. The windows had been blackened.
On the day of their escape, Jess had been delirious when Derek had carried her to safety. Derek had been focused only on her, on getting away. Neither of them had been memorizing distance or direction.
As far as the police were concerned: no camper. And no kidnapper either. His body had never been found. The river had swallowed him. There had never been a shred of evidence to support the two college kids’ wild story, except their injuries. But who was to say they were caused by a crazed kidnapper? Deputy Muller had made that point over and over.
At the time, Jess hadn’t understood why the police wouldn’t help her. She’d figured it out in hindsight. With the lack of evidence, Muller had always known that he wasn’t going to solve the case.Butif there hadn’t really been a kidnapping, then he hadn’t failed.
He’d wanted a stellar track record. He’d probably thought he’d be sheriff in no time. The joke was on him. Here he was, still a deputy a decade later.
Jess had hated his guts back then, and found now that her feelings hadn’t changed. She showed him into the living room anyway. The sooner he said his piece, the sooner he would leave.
He plopped into the nearest armchair as if he owned the place. Jess sat on the couch. Derek came to stand by her side. She was grateful for the implied support, even if she didn’t find Muller as intimidating as she had ten years ago.
He had a comb-over now, his teeth yellowing either from too much coffee or smoking. He was still in shape. He must keep up with exercise so he could keep up with the criminals.
“What is this about?” Jess asked, taking control of the conversation from the start. She wanted to make sure that he understood that she wasn’t the frightened, traumatized little Jess he’d bullied the last time.
“Human remains were found in the woods yesterday,” the man told her with theatrical gravity, watching her with close, cold attention, like a snake watches a mouse.
“I found some bone shards when I was walking,” Derek said next to her.
The deputy shot him a censoring look.
Bones in the woods.
A chill enveloped Jess. “What does this have to do with me?”
“We have the CSI team out from Burlington to go over Hannah Wilson’s car and the body we found with it. So I had them look at the bones.” Muller paused for effect. “They say those bones have been sent through some kind of a grinder. Most likely a wood chipper.”
The temperature in the room dropped as fast as if someone had thrown the doors and windows open, letting a snow squall blow in. Jess rubbed the sudden goose bumps on her arms.
When I’m done with you, you’re going through the wood chipper. There won’t be enough left of you to identify. You’ll never be found.The kidnapper’s voice had been muffled, coming through the black mask he hadn’t taken off for a second, but Jess hadn’t forgotten a word.
Even now, ten years later, sitting on the couch, safe, she couldn’t suppress a shudder. “Do they have DNA results?” Her voice was embarrassingly thready. “Do they know whose bones Derek found?”
“Not yet.” A speculative gleam lit up the deputy’s eyes. “But the wood-chipper angle made me think about you. Why don’t you tell me again what happened back then? Refresh my memory.”
Derek rolled his shoulders back, then put a hand on the back of the couch as if to emphasize that she was under his protection. He was massively solid, as if a hand grenade couldn’t budge him.
“Is this necessary?” Derek’s cold tone was as hard as everything else about him. “I went through it all with you already. Jess and I were together every second while we were held. She doesn’t know anything I don’t.”
Muller shot him a cold look of authority, pushing back. “I could question Miss Taylor alone.”
She shifted closer to Derek.
