I clenched my fists at her words and the rage that was never too far reared its head again. I didn’t give anything away though since she was sitting so close I was sure she could feel my every move.
“You take your time ma’am and just tell me any little thing you remember when it comes to you no matter how small.” He turned his attention to the notes he’d jotted down on his pad while she sat in contemplation.
“Just one last thing. Do you think you were a long way from where you started when the Collins picked you up?” She shook her head and looked back and forth between us.
“I remember running until I got a stitch in my side and I didn’t really look around that much. I only stopped when I heard the rush of wheels up ahead but I was too afraid that my captors would be close behind, so I hid for a while before coming out.”
“I do know that I didn’t run for more than twenty minutes, maybe half an hour though, before I got too tired to go any farther. I didn’t even know where I was at first. Then Mr. Collins said he was only going as far as the next town over.”
“When he said the name of the town, that’s when I realized that I hadn’t been held far from home all this time. That I’d been so close…” I hope she wasn’t back to thinking that I hadn’t done all I could to find her.
Sure it was fucked that she’d been held captive that close to home and once this shit was over and done with I’m gonna tear a new one in those asshole detectives for not doing their job.
But the land around there was nothing but dense forest and hard to reach places. Even I, and the man I’d hired had done no better. How must she feel knowing that she was right there and yet not saved?
“What did you do after he dropped you off? Why didn’t he try to contact the police when you got into his car? From our conversation I kinda got the idea that he didn’t really know what was going on, but he must’ve surmised something from the way you were dressed and your condition.”
“I didn’t tell him the truth. I just said I’d been hiking and got lost. I’m not sure he believed me, but he didn’t press me for more information. As to what I did once he dropped me off…”
She trembled next to me and I drew her in closer. “I hid in the woods behind the old gas station in Casper until it grew dark, then I walked the rest of the way taking the back roads and staying low.”
That was about a three-hour walk. In her condition it couldn’t have been easy. The P.I. took more notes as she spoke, once again letting her go at her own pace.
As she recalled little bits and pieces of her escape he’d ask her leading questions and in that way she was able to add more as her memory unlocked under his gentle guidance.
It was at least a couple hours later before he was satisfied. The smile on his face helped ease some of the knots in my guts. For the first time since she fell into my arms I felt like we were getting somewhere.
“Okay, this is good, this is very good. The cops already said they’d get the search started today in the general location after I told them what Collins had to say.”
“It’s a good bet your captors are already long gone by now unless they’re stupid, but maybe they left something around the place that would give us some clues.” He turned his attention to me now.
“Has anything strange happened since her return? Any strange phone calls, anyone hanging around?” I shook my head in frustration. I hadn’t been idle while she was asleep in the hospital.
Between Mike and I, we’d come up with some ideas that he was even now working on. I already had security cameras set up around the property since she was taken, but now am in the process of hiring some guys to keep watch around the clock.
The cops had a trace on the phone and had promised to have their own team watching the house around the clock. They were looking into everyone we knew, even though I couldn’t imagine anyone close to me doing such a thing.
It had been on the tip of my tongue to tell them they were wasting their time, that they should look elsewhere. But in the end I held my peace. Let them find that shit out on their own.
In the meantime I had Mac the P.I. and the team I had my brother putting together to handle the real work. This time around I was even more anxious than when she disappeared.