Page 52 of Nothing Hiding

“I’m not coming!” he shouted defiantly.

Well, she’d warned him. Juliette tugged on the rope again. More bark showered down, and with a cry, Doone slipped and slithered a couple of yards down, grabbing at the tree with all his might.

Juliette got hold of one of his flailing feet and hauled on it. Then, as he lost his grip with a yell and fell to the ground, she and Wyatt were ready. She grabbed an arm, he grabbed a leg, and together, they broke his fall and picked him up, holding him firmly.

"You're coming in," she said briefly as she cuffed him. “We’ll call a police van to pick you up outside your house, and the Scotland Yard team will search your house and this cabin. Our FBI expert will check your phone and see who you’ve been speaking to, and about what.”

Quickly, she made the calls before they set off in that direction.

Marching him back through the forest, Juliette felt a huge relief that they had this man in custody. Now, they could start to wrap up this case, and the deadly pressure they'd been under would begin to ease.

But there was a final hurdle still to go. He needed to answer the questions. She didn't want this to be a long, drawn-out process or for him to lie and evade. None of them could afford it.

***

The interrogation room in the Basingstoke police station—the closest one to the small village of Winthrop—was cramped, with a table and three chairs crowded into the space. Doone sat handcuffed to one of the chairs, his face expressionless as Juliette and Wyatt took their seats across from him.

He smelled of sweat, dirt, and desperation. He was staring from one of them to the other, his eyes with that wild look again.

But while he was being processed, Juliette had seen moments of clarity, where he'd appeared coldly focused and extremely coherent. She knew that he was hiding something, and that his camouflage was the confused, aggressive man he portrayed.

What was the real man? Now, as she stared into his eyes, Juliette felt determined to get to the truth.

At that moment, her phone buzzed.

It was Harris, who was on scene at the cabin now with a forensic team.

"Starting the search,"he messaged."No registered vehicle in suspect’s name. Searching for information in how he tracked and took these victims. Going to look for any signs of Daisy and the others in that photo wall. Any gray eyeshadow, any evidence he hired or borrowed a vehicle. Sierra’s busy with his phone, trying to access messages."

Juliette glanced up.

She met Doone's eyes, briefly, but for an intense moment. His pale eyes seemed to glow, once again, as their gazes locked.

"What were you doing?" Juliette asked. It wasn't the question she'd meant to start with. But suddenly, it seemed important. "What were you doing in the cabin? Researching all those women?"

Doone's face remained blank, but Juliette could see a flicker of something in his eyes. Was it fear? Guilt? Or something else entirely? She had the uneasy feeling that he was thinking a few steps ahead.

"I was just ... studying," he said finally, his voice low and hoarse.

"Studying what?" Wyatt asked.

Doone shrugged. "Human behavior. The way people act and think. That sort of thing."

Juliette leaned forward, her brow furrowed. "And what did you find out about human behavior that made you want to paste cutout pictures of young women all over the wall of that cabin, with notes about which stones you wanted them to be sacrificed for?"

Doone's expression shifted, and Juliette could see a glimmer of anger in his eyes. "I didn't set out to kill them for my own sake. All I wanted was to feed the stones what they needed. Life force. They've been starved of it for centuries. I understand that. I can feel what they say."

Juliette leaned back in her chair, studying Doone's face. "The stones?" she repeated. "What stones?"

Doone shifted in his seat. "Stonehenge, of course."

"And what have you done for the stones so far?"

He shrugged. "The stones are waiting." His voice was toneless.

Juliette narrowed her eyes at him. "Waiting for what?"

"For the life energy sacrifice," Doone said calmly. "It is the only way to revive them fully."

---