Page 18 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed
She stopped and drank some coffee to soothe her suddenly parched throat. “I believe their first victim was a distant cousin. My mom was a nursing assistant, and when the cousin fell sick, she went to him under the guise of taking care of him. We later learned, thanks to an exhumation and autopsy after their arrest, that he had been poisoned. Before they killed them though, they made sure they had taken every penny there was to take.”
“How old were you?” he asked.
“About six. I didn’t go with them to stay with the cousin so I had no idea what was going on. They left me with one of the grandparents.” Hallie paused again. “About a year later, my parents moved on to another victim. Corman’s mother. They used the nursing assistant ruse there too and did the same thing to her as they’d done to the cousin.”
He didn’t prompt her with a question. Reed just sat there, calm as a lake. Well, calm-ish. After all, she was talking about serial killers.
“After I turned eight or so, my parents would tell me they were going away on a trip and that if I told anyone that I would be arrested and put in foster care where I would be abused. So I stayed quiet and took care of myself. Once, I nearly starved because they hadn’t left me enough food,” she added in a mutter.
Now, he reacted. He cursed and reached out to slide his hand over hers. It no doubt violated some rules, but she didn’t move it away.
“Whenever they would return from one of theirtrips, they always had money,” she continued. “Mom would always be sporting some extra jewelry that she said I was to keep secret. There’d be lavish spending, maybe even a real vacation for them, and the cycle would start all over again.”
His grip tightened on her hand, grounding her. She squeezed back, her thumb brushing over his knuckles in a silent thank you for his steady presence. The warmth of his skin against hers was a reminder that she wasn’t alone in facing these memories, even if they still had the power to cut her to pieces.
“By the time I was twelve, I was no longer afraid of being alone or starving when they left. I was afraid of them returning. By then, the slaps, kicks, and the punches had started. All that anger and bitterness, all directed at me. They decided that everything that happened bad in their lives was my fault, and I got punished for it.”
She had to push back some horrific flashbacks and forced herself to continue.
“Once, I saw my mother reading the obituaries, circling names of elderly men who’d lost their wives. I know now that Tami was selecting their next targets, but I swear I didn’t know that at the time. I swear I had no idea what they were doing.”
Reed muttered some profanity. “I know that.” He got to his feet, went around to her side of the island and pulled her to her feet.
Then, he drew her into his arms.
Body to body and breath to breath.
“This is wrong,” she managed to say.
“In twenty-four hours or so, you won’t be my boss. Let’s mentally do a little time travel so you’ll be okay with this. Besides, it’s just a hug,” he assured her.
True, but it felt like a whole lot more. The man was magic. How could he ease this pressure in her chest, take away some of her burdens, just by hugging her? It didn’t seem right, but it was helping.
Well, it helped for a couple of seconds anyway, and then her phone rang. She stepped back, saw Deputy Jesse McCain’s name on the screen and answered it right away on speaker.
“Morning, boss,” Jesse said. “Thought you’d want to know we located some footage of Elenore’s possible abduction. Possible,” he repeated. “It’s really grainy footage, but we’ll try to clean it up.”
“I’m on my way into the station. I’ll be there in five minutes,” she assured him. She wanted to see this footage for herself, and clearly Reed did, too, because he moved away from her, turning toward the front door.
“Good, because that reporter’s here,” Jesse added, stopping Reed in his tracks. “Luther Crowe. He says he has something to show you.”
He was probably there to beg for more support for her mother. That wasn’t going to happen. “Put him in an interview room,” she instructed, and this time Reed and she did head for the door.
Reed sped off in his SUV, and she was right behind him in her cruiser. Hallie realized in that moment that this was what she’d needed. Not Luther’s visit but the footage of Elenore. This could give her something to sink her teeth into and stop her from wallowing in misery.
Maybe stop her from thinking so much about Reed, too.
With those possibilities bolstering her up, Hallie drove to the police station, and Reed and she went in together. She spotted Jesse at his desk, and Shaw and he were focused on his laptop. When Hallie got closer, she saw the feed.
And, yes, it was grainy.
The figures didn’t look like much more than blobs.
“Hey, boss. Reed,” Jesse greeted, glancing back at them. He stepped to the side to give them a better view of the screen. “This is what we got from a traffic camera about a half mile from the victim’s house.”
She noted the time stamp. The night before they’d found Elenore’s and Walt’s bodies. Hours before the murder. Had the killer really kept Elenore for that long? If so, why?
“This is the best shot we got,” Jesse continued, freezing one of the frames. It was still blurry, but at least Hallie could make out some of the features of the woman in the passenger’s seat. “Facial recognition is a seventy-two percent match for this being Elenore.”
